Five books to kickstart your reading culture
If you have wanted to read more and not known where to begin, begin here. I chose these five because they are a pleasure to read, and because each one raises a question worth talking over. Read them with a friend, or with your family, and talk about them as you go.
The books
Things Fall Apart
Chinua Achebe, 1958
Okonkwo fears weakness more than anything, and in the end that fear undoes him. Achebe shows a whole society meeting a world it did not choose, and asks what a person should hold on to when everything changes.
Man's Search for Meaning
Viktor E. Frankl, 1946. Translated by Ilse Lasch
Frankl came through Auschwitz convinced, with Nietzsche, that "he who has a why to live for can bear with almost any how." It is a short book, and it asks each of us for our why.
No Longer at Ease
Chinua Achebe, 1960
Okonkwo's grandson comes home from England with a degree, high ideals and a post in the civil service, and finds the ideals harder to keep than the post. Read it after Things Fall Apart, and ask yourself what you would have done in Obi's place.
Narrative of the Life of Frederick Douglass, an American Slave
Frederick Douglass, 1845
Douglass was forbidden to learn to read, and learned anyway. "From that moment," he writes, "I understood the pathway from slavery to freedom." I know of no better case for why we read.
The No. 1 Ladies' Detective Agency
Alexander McCall Smith, 1998
Mma Ramotswe sets up as the only lady private detective in Botswana, armed with good sense, kindness and a tiny white van. After four serious books, this is the gentle one, and a reminder that a good book is also a great pleasure.