 for youth and career the first discussion of the day and today we are talking about nurturing the reading culture but before we get into that remember you can interrupt with us on our social handles that is at Y254 across all social media handles and the hashtag to use is Y in the morning so for this particular topic nurturing the reading culture we have David Giroux who's an author but identifies himself as MD and Giroux or but he will confirm to me on that he's an author thank you Steph okay so how do you I what's your title my my official name is David Giroux but when I'm publishing or doing any speaking engagement I go by the name MD and Giroux the artist MD Giroux the artist yeah why do you feel the need to to have a title is it for branding yeah for branding purposes and also it explains what I do because I cover stories both in written and in spoken form so that's why I identify myself as an artist as an okay all right so we want to know about the reading culture as you I some people some of us but at least I am trying with a reading prior with the you know developing a reading culture but for most people once you are done with high school or university or college depending on the level of education you have reached that's where your reading actually stops because you're not studying for an exam anymore most people just eat because there's an exam coming up what do you think about that and the reading culture in Kenya yeah so it's because of the approach that we have towards reading and when you are developing the reading culture okay I'm from Maktaba Digitari so Maktaba Digitari it's all about finding the reading culture so at Maktaba Digitari we do say that you should approach reading as working out and when it comes to working out there's this misconception that people have one misconception that people have is that we work out to manage our weight which is not the case so you find that someone if maybe they have achieved the target weight they don't work out anymore but we should work out to for a healthy lifestyle the same appraise to reading we don't read to get information because you information you can get from different sources you can watch a video you can listen to an audio book and get the information we read to exercise the mind reading is to the mind what exercise is to the body so that's why we read getting information is added bonus yeah I love that they're quite interesting reading is to the mind what exercise is to the body and we don't exercise not to to just build a body or get fit it should be something that goes on for the benefit for for good health and the same to reading we don't just read for information because this was the main reason I think I thought was behind us reading to get information because we've been told knowledge is power and everything but you've brought again the aspect of people can listen to audio books so why should I read and you've given that reading is an exercise to the mind sure how so so is it proven scientifically yeah yeah it's proven scientifically although I want to go into the scientific part of it it's proven scientifically and also there are articles out there that have scientifically proved that and like let me go back to exercise and nutrition when you take blended juice you know there's certain nutrients that arose like the fiber the fiber part like it's more healthy to eat a fruit than to drink the juice the same appraisal to reading you can't say to to listen to an audio book which is good because maybe you don't have time maybe you're driving and you need to to keep your mind engaged but that can substitute reading so reading itself there is that there's that part of reading that how do I put it there's that part of reading that is like eating a fruit yeah okay so reading is eating the actual fruit not taking the juice yeah that's the point yeah this is interesting I love how you bring out there you um what do you call it you bring in a new concept to familiarize that analogy yeah analogy the analogy is the word so what are some of the things that we benefit apart from now exercising our brain why how would you tell some how would you convince someone to to read because they need to apart from they need to exercise their brain or what's benefits comes with exercising your brain so first I would start with the why what's the why you know someone once said that when the why is strong enough the how falls into place so once you identify the why for reading the how which is how do you approach reading how do you plan for it it will fall into place so what's the why so the first why is that I've said that reading is is an exercise there's something else about reading reading is in depth for example if you watch a movie mm-hmm if there is a story version and there is if if there is a movie version of a story and a book version of the of the same the book there is more depth to it so you get more depth you get then another reason for reading is because you know something back during our our father's time people used to to run through apprenticeship but that culture it's normal so nowadays you run through mentorship and such kind of of stuff so but you find that if you want someone maybe to mentor you they're not there always for you but if you can pick books written by people who are doing what you are planning to do you get that in depth mentorship so that's another reason for for reading yeah to read and that's what really had many people say but this is on novels most of the time which will bring another question saying that this you know the imagination created when you read is different from watching a movie it misses out on some of the things that you feel or you you know the picture that you paint when you actually read so this is actually true yeah it's very true all right and let me add something that's a bit of topic I was watching a certain podcast and someone was saying that some years back if you had a song you didn't the song had to to be really good for it to sell but nowadays if but nowadays if if you have a song but nowadays if you have a if you have a song but it's not really good you can bring in weak sense who can make the song to sell the same appraise to two books if a book is not well eaten it will not sell but for a movie a movie can sell even if the story is not well executed yeah there are other aspects to the to the story that can make the movie sell but for for reading the the story has to be the story has to be well eaten so that's why reading is more captivating it engages the mind more you have to imagine okay and now this has brought me to the to the question on the content because people read diverse things so when you say you should have a good reading culture some read comic books some read novels some read you know different things educational material inspirational books so what is the right material to invest yourself in reading thank you so there's no right material so the first step starts with developing that culture then from there now you you you you chant a path you know so you read based on there's what you call intentional reading you read based on you read based on what you you are looking for for example right now I will not read in a book about how to how to become rich okay or how to become wealthy right now I'll read a book explaining the science bend it how to become wealthy the science on how to become wealthy but the science behind the sense bend it so it depends on what level you are in your reading in your reading journey also something else about reading there's something that is called the writer's broke people know about the writer's broke whereby you can't write anymore if you are another writer yeah yeah but also we have a reader's broke you know whereby you can't progress in your reading your attitude the same way with working out there's a place that reaches and you your body doesn't change regardless of how much you work out so you have to read different Jonas for you to space up your reading so you can read today comic then after three months of reading comic you can say to switch to inspirational then you switch to memos and you know yeah okay what would you attribute to the poor reading culture that is there so the poor reading culture will be attributed to the notion that we have reading we need to get information that's why after school be it high school be it college be it the university people are like I don't need this I don't need to read anymore like I already have the information maybe you know in school you are reading to pass the exams and that's what has been instilled in us so once you pass the exams and you're out of school you feel like you don't need to read anymore but isn't reading to get information also a good reason to to read because we that we are we already said that you know there's no end to getting knowledge it's not a good reason to read because that information can be can be received from different sources okay yeah so the primary reason for reading should be exercising the mind so that one will keep you reading yeah and what about those who read to just because some people say they have a problem with the fluency while speaking especially maybe English so they read to get a good grounding in that area so is that a good reason to read yeah that's also a good reason to read yeah but the reason should be deeper because after you start getting the fluency you may tend to to be like now I've already gotten the fluency you tend to relax okay so I'm getting the point that any reason is okay is or it's fine but the main reason should actually just be exercising your brain and that will keep you grounded in the culture yeah and you and you get a deeper a deeper reason a deeper reason that will make you continue reading even after you have achieved those short term goals so is the deeper reason now exercising your brain or is there another deeper reason okay I think a universal reason it will be to exercise the mind but now you can customize your own deeper reason you can come up with your custom made so examples of such because I've mentioned you know improving your language and you've said that's a good reason but not strong enough I've said getting information you've said it's not a good reason so what other reason you know are there that can be deeper you know for an individual okay like for example for for me currently I've decided to to make it a way of life so as long as I'm living I will read okay yeah that's quite a different a different reason to have so as long as you're reading you as long as you're alive you're reading the same way as long as you're alive you're eating and you're drinking and so it's a it's part of of your life so tell us now how do we develop that culture for someone who has who doesn't love reading who doesn't have that culture and they want to start for one reason or another so how do you develop that culture okay thank you so number one you we have said you find the reason then after the reason having a reason you decide you know Alexander Potter once stated that it's not getting what you want that's the hardest part it is deciding so that means to paraphrase that it means that you can get whatever you want if you decide so most of the people don't who don't read it's because they have not decided it's not that someone is too busy or anything it's not that they have not decided so the first step is deciding once you decide then things will fall into place once you decide the how will fall into place then from there you you approach reading like working out so with workout one usually allocate time usually schedule so you schedule yeah you can say to read in the morning you can say to read in the evening is that time most suitable than another okay it goes with your it's go it goes with an individual you know like let me give an example with myself I usually read from my bed and for example if I decide to read in the morning I will fall asleep like yeah because I was I'm thinking in the bed you know sleep will just come automatically yeah so usually read at night so that when they fall asleep oh it's okay it's up to morning so you you just look at what works for you then also like working out you you start small you start small like Brucey once stated that long-term consistency trumps short term intensity so just start small and build up you can say to read 10 minutes a day every day or days a week but long term for life you know it's a lifestyle so start small then build up then another thing also is that you should set goals you should have reading goals like you can say maybe I'll read a book a week a book a month you know but they should be because that they are manageable that you not be you not burn out also something else just like workout you should make reading interesting you know how do you make it interesting okay you see when people go for workout maybe running maybe to the gym they usually add music to it and all that so if music works for you you can say well you are reading you can play some smooth background music to make it more interesting okay yeah then something else that you'll add to avoid what you call leaders broke you know the same with the exercise when you do the same exercise routine daily daily you pray too so to avoid that you also change your general after a period of time so if for example you're reading memos for a period of time you change and you start reading maybe fictional books you know yeah okay and when you're reading should you like take down notes of something is it something that you can do while reading yeah you should you should you should also it also depends from which platform are you reading reading from for example if you're reading a pdf from your phone you can just screenshot there you can highlight the something and screenshot it like I have a collection of screenshots that I review once I'm done reading so you can write you can screenshot you know okay and we'll talk about the review bits in in a in a little while what about the location you've said you're reading your bed and that's fine with you but what about you know I've had a lot of people reading in a calm environment somewhere where there's you know the nature is green you know some where you have some zeal is it a contributing factor the location the place you're reading does it enhance or boost your reading culture yeah the location is very important yeah it should be some place that is conducive for reading and also still on the location you we should focus also on the reading posture or position yeah so what should be the right posture there's no right posture for example let's say someone who spends most of their day seated like maybe working in an office like in this kind of setup maybe sit like this it should be unfair to spend the whole day seated then in the evening you go to read seated you know like usually spend most of my day seated so that's why I read where I lie down so find something that works out for you find a posture that works out for you okay interesting and now about reviews you do reviews apart from being an author do they boost some do they attract the interest of people to read a certain book yeah they usually they usually yeah they usually attract the the interest so most of the time when most of the time when we when we pick a book sometimes we pick a book because we had it been mentioned by someone else yeah so like I once had Les Brown who is a motivation speaker mentioned about a book called University of Success by Og Mandino so once I had him mentioned that book and I usually take Les Brown in high regard I went and picked that book so I also do that with with my blog and my channel I usually tend review books so that someone can go and pick that book so the purpose of reviewing a book is to intrigue someone to go and pick that book okay so if someone is looking for a book to read they should probably look for good reviews of a book and then that will help in the reading because it'll be something they're interested too yeah sorry yeah they they should they should look at reviews and also they should ask themselves this question where are you where are you at at this particular moment in your life you know we as humans are dealing with different things at different period of time you know so and there is a book about almost everything even there's a book about how to read slowly not just reading but how to read slowly how to read slowly they create now I'm leading a book called the war of art I think that that that state was born from the art of force they interchange the the word is so the book is called the war of art so at this point I felt that my my creativity is taking a nose dive and I needed I needed to live with it a bit so I picked that book based on where I am at that moment so so apart from reviews you also look at where are you at that particular moment yeah sure and what is it about the high and mighty or the wealthy with you know reading books because you you get them in the book clubs and you know giving reviews about books like you do so what is it about about that maybe that will be captivating for someone who doesn't love reading books yeah so we we all have that aspiration to be wealthy and mighty as you have put it and one of the things that most of the wealthy people do is that they usually exercise you know they meditate and also they read you know so it's because they know reading is an exercise to the mind you know so that's why they read yeah that's why they know the secret the secret to reading something else that I would explain about reading once your mind is fit what once your mind is you're in the right state of mind you can handle almost anything like nason mandela spent 27 years in prison right one of the things when you read nason mandela's autobiography realized that he was doing used to exercise were at prison and also used to read a lot so I think those two things kept him going exercise of the body and exercise of the mind makes a lot of sense okay what about being in a book club does that help yeah and how should you identify a book club that you you know to go to yeah it definitely helps because you have people to cheer you up you know you are usually told that if you want to to go faster walk around if you want to go for work with people so when you're in a book club you know when you have people to cheer you up you know the attempts like it's like let me also go back to working out if you are you if you have a workout body that is that you feel like you don't want to work out but the workout body will cheer you up you hold you accountable so the same app is the book club okay and it makes reading a little bit of fun yeah it also makes reading fun so how do you identify a right book club to go to so first you you you you identify by people you have the same interest with you know yeah same interest with because you've mentioned about fun so if you have the same interest it would be much easier and finally before we go into the books that you have written and the current one whose responsibility is it to ensure that you have a reading culture is it the parents that are supposed to nurture it when the child grows is it to you as a person when you realize the importance of having a good reading culture or is it maybe the government or the society you know many people yeah so it's at a parents have a role to play parents have a role to play like in some countries like Finland there's that culture of parents reading for for the children you know and once the parents go for clinics they take students to clinics and all that they are given even books you know to encourage them to read their kids and all that so parents have a role to play yeah also the government have a role to play and it has played a good role because we have the Kenyan national library some I will mention something about the Kenyan national library like with 20 shillings you can access the Kenyan national library and spend the whole day there reading and you have access to free internet you know okay then the biggest responsibility raises with you as a person especially for an adult it's your responsibility all right yeah okay now let's talk about the book that you have written and I would like to just read sorry let me read the dedication and also the conclusion of it before you talk about it the book is called Akachumbari of Kenyan quite an interesting title for a book you also tell us about this and the declaration sorry the dedication that he has given that is to all Kenyans not all books books have a dedication to every Kenyan there um having some trouble getting it's just a little bit maybe you can tell us about the title as I look for the dedication what what's what's inspired you or what's you know brought you to come to the conclusion that the title should be Akachumbari of Kenyan okay thank you so when I was reading this book when I was writing this book I was working on a different project and I happened to listen to a podcast that podcast is called Ikonini by Moaf and Zuck those this guest is an artist is called DNA Mr. Dreams she was talking about that the problem that we have in Kenya is that our stars politicians not rappers not business personalities not sports personalities but politicians and it hit me like wait a minute we're not set a book and celebrate sports everybody now and also include even the politicians so I started writing the the book so when I started when I started writing the book I have mixed all those people there okay so and it don't to me like you know with Akachumbari and everything so then something else that hit me was that most Kenyans love small kids hmm and we'll have it projected in this on the screen Brenda you can have the uh the cover page projected there so we can see the smokies we are s represent slogans m represent motors taglines and o stands for original quotes made in k which is Kenya or by a Kenyan I in each and every s space I hope you've gotten to understand it but you once you see it you will get the concept behind it so tell us about the smoky yeah so basically it's a book celebrating Kenyans and I wrote the book during the election period and you're still you we are still in the election period because today the Supreme Court will be giving the verdict so I wrote it at a time when effect that and it's a bit old Kenyans and also rarely the Kenyan spirit you know there's more to Kenya than politics so you you you first the need to make sure you you pass it the pass the message on that the Kenyan spirit is strong and the piece should be there just to remind us of who we are yeah and that's a that's amazing so I'm getting that the book is you know a collection of slogans made by Kenyans a collection of motors and taglines and quotes so why why why did you decide to use to use this okay so I can see the inspiration came from from that interview that I watched when do you see that our stars are usually politicians not sports personalities not business people so that's where the inspiration came from yeah okay so we'll have it on the screen the producer has said it is ready there we have it we have the slogans motors and taglines all for original quotes made in Kenya or by a Kenyan in each and every space so what's message for someone who has not read this what's message is that what is the underlying message in this whole book so the underlying message in this whole book is to rally the Kenyan spirit you can see the cover page has that Kenyan flag that Kenyan touch yeah the Kenyan flag and the Kenyan map all right ah the Kenyan map yes yeah background image yeah so yeah so it's it's basically to rally the Kenyan spirit okay and I'll read the dedication because it's to all Kenyans which is us of course our fellow Kenyans this book is dedicated to all Kenyans the Kenyans who lived before us everyone who lives in Kenya the Kenyans outside Kenya the Kenyans who will come after us anyone with a trace of Kenyan in them wherever they are any person who has ever visited Kenya any person who will visit Kenya in the future and any person wherever they are who has the spirit of resilience because that is the Kenyan DNA I love it I love it and just to get the conclusion because it's also quite nice it says fellow Kenyans our enemies are poverty ignorance and diseases we have we already have resilience and have always been resilient we are unbowed politics are part of us but we shouldn't let politics breed hatred discord discord and negative ethnicity remember what call you uh before he once said yeah so come on uh so come on go it is time we rise nakama scouts to a tiari to take this nation to greater levels like st lucy school uh for the blind let us all strive for excellence this will require us to be eagles like otayo boys high school and not hands remember pastama gogo who are said kuzali what to kenya niform six our dreams are valid lupita are tested and we are not limited keep chug approved like nys let us be true to self true to country amazing and i've said you've you i've seen you've used quotes from uh lupita from leaders there just to to give a conclusion to everything that you have written up there okay this is amazing so what what are you telling canyons today as we wait for the supreme court verdict being in line with you know the book that you have written today yeah so maybe i'll mention something about the conclusion first so like i've mentioned st lucy school for the brand i've mentioned to their boys i've mentioned the scout there lupita keep chug i've mentioned about mandago okay when you read the book you'll be able to appreciate the the conclusion so once you read the book you'll be able to appreciate the conclusion the book is informative educative hilarious and all that so the message that i have for kenyas as we wait for the supreme court verdict is that no matter the outcome is that we should embrace the kenyan spirit you know and we should just be peaceful you know our forefathers the forefathers of this nation they stated that our enemies are poverty ignorance and diseases yeah those three things do i do yet i do yet to see or i'm to manyako the other side just because somebody supported kenya kwanza i'm a munginari support as a meal yes you are do you are calling poverty ignorance and disease okay yeah so you should embrace peace just one thing before we come to a close there's something that you mentioned in one of your vlogs and you uh quoted robot kiosaki and he said the focus is not on best written books but on best selling books yeah elaborate on this so you can have a well written book but if the book is not out there you know nobody will know about the book so the focus is on the selling part you can have great products but if the products are not sold you know even the company will collapse so the focus is usually on sales yeah okay so for someone when you're buying a book should you look for the best selling books or should you just look for a book that looks captivating enough for your interest so you know a book is captivating because it's out there oh yeah you know that it's been sold out yeah okay thank you for this what is your final word as we come to a close and work and people get you on your social hand well then for those who want to purchase your book this is your camera okay so thank you very much Steph and thank you to our viewers so my social hand was uh maktaba digitari across all social media platforms and this book is on amazon you can buy it from amazon also you can reach me on whatsapp yeah i can give me a number sure it's your number feel free okay so you can reach me on whatsapp that is 07 that 2 274 116 and i can direct you on how you get the book Steph maybe i can add something sure okay so once i was reading writing this book this book gave birth to twin books yeah you see in in each and every space so that part of every space i sampled messages from kenyan's form across all spaces and at one point i had to go to langata cemetery you know to correct the epitaphs you did yeah okay but that was an after though it was like should i really do this but i was like okay there are also kenyan's yeah those people that there are also kenyan's or they are buried in kenya so let me go and correct the epitaphs so i corrected the epitaphs so the first time i i corrected they went with the with four full scabs and the kandika is of itu then creativity took a life of its own and they realized that it's not only a segment in the book it can be a book on its own so nika by even an a4 book 200 pages in kandika is of epitaphs now he corrected two two more books so from this book we have two more books okay which ones the book we have feeding from the cemetery and you have feeding from the cemetery bible based because those epitaphs in kandika they fall under two categories some are scripture based others are just ordinary epitaphs you know so nika divide into two then something else maybe the tato sounds a bit spooky feeding from feeding from the cemetery sounds you know of its spooky hands you have said yeah yeah so even when you go online utapata articles written about like you know people should not be buried in the west of public land people should just be cremated and drove at and i was like why not prove the nisay as long you know the cemetery i actually can feed us how through the messages that are written on the epitaph like one cemetery that i visited like one grave that i visited at that time when i was visiting that place you know we are still living now sometimes we have worries why worry about the hills when you have mountains to climb you know and it's talk to me you know so i was like okay this is a powerful message so that feeding from the cemetery the the first book the proceeds from that book will go to to a feeding program i'm not getting i'm not even pick a scent from the book nika ma pei you know with pei it's deducted from the source yeah sundio so the proceeds go to a feeding program yeah because it's feeding from the cemetery or feeding from aha okay so you are doing it in your it's actually you are manifesting it or you you are literally yeah doing that which you've written feeding from the cemetery yeah yeah and only only the viewer can give the power to to that idea you know if someone doesn't buy that book you'll not be able to feed from the cemetery but if someone buys that book entire pen editor so now they can they can send money to the feeding program directly so you'll feed the message you'll feed from the message and also you'll feed the from you'll feed a kid from the cemetery also this the scripture based bible the scripture based book the message the sorry the proceeds 100 percent of the proceeds will go to btl that is bible translation and literacy but btl is doing an amazing work to translate the bible into our native local languages so once you purchase that book the proceeds they go directly after when you're not too much btl when i verify the payment i send the book to you so once you pay to btl none of us are btl were were translated they were they continue translating the the bible into the local languages none are to me feel from the cemetery yeah i'm seeing it okay this is quite the concept that you have come up with all right so you want to tell people uh or maybe they can get that when they get to your social yeah so once you whatsapp me on 07 32 274 116 yeah i'll give you the payment details amazing thank you very much for coming on board and sharing with us uh your uh knowledge on in this area on the reading culture thank you thank you very much uh that has been david jiru who's an author talking to us about nurturing the reading culture on uh youth and careers so we're going to take a short break after this and then sakwa brand sakwa will be back with mcm so don't go too far the hashtag is still white in the morning see you on the other side