Clearly the Nigerian book is in distress today.
Months ago, Debonair, one of the avant-garde book selling outfits in the city of Lagos was forced to shut down its upscale Sabo, Yaba offices.
Silverbird Bookstores Port Harcourt has also followed suit.
Onibonoje Publishers, Odusote Bookshops, CSS Bookshop are either out in the cold or are mainly a shadow of their former selves.
Across, Nigeria, libraries are shutting down or suffering a new titles-kwashiokor
The book is in retreat and needs to be salvaged.
Many reasons account for these developments and we have a few thoughts in this regard. But the critical point today is what is to be done to reverse the rot.
And for us it is not too complex: we think the answer lies in reaching and cultivating readers, one after the other.
To do this we have set up the Neighbourhood Book Clubs.
And this is how it works. Through organising 5 to 50 readers in a neighbourhood unit, we intend to use the principles of consensus building, shared passions and team work to stimulate even greater reading passion amongst the members, and then their own extended community.
The second plank of the work has to do with setting up book clubs in schools countrywide.
To be continued
