There are these days when you are busy doing many small things here and there, and end up having this emptiness in your brain in the evening. Today is one of those days. It sucks. It just sucks.
It’s strange, coz the day started with lots of communication as early as 4 a.m., brought lots of interesting impressions, a missed movie downtown (sorry, Barbara, but thx for the invitation + pls feel free to ask me on that WordPress.com thing) and a failed repair of an old notebook (Kilonzo, we shall find a cure for that heat sink problem soon).
And then there’s christmas. I found a Kshs. 1.000 note in my pocket, went to that Catholic (!) bookshop and bought the “Agikuyu – their customs, traditions & folklore” book for me. I needed to. THERE’S NO ESCAPE FROM THIS ONE, dear KUI, you hear me? Let’s go through this one together, or I’ll spam your blog with smilies.
I also saw the “Walking in Kenyatta Struggles” memoires by Duncan Ndegwa for sale at Prestige bookshop. Kshs. 2.500 /= for old stories on Mr A-G-pinstripe? Now that’s a lot of mbeca.
The best part, though: while waiting for my friends in front of that bookshop, I talked to a newspaper vendor and asked him about the Kenya Times office. After all, these cowards still owe me a Tusker.
The man told me he sells a maximum of 2 copies of Kenya Times each day. 2 COPIES! OH PLEASE!!!!
‘Nways, it’s just damn good to spend some interesting days in my beloved Nairobi. Back to shaggz life soon.
Man en piny maber miwuoro :-)
Yes, very urgent that Kui learns the folklore before she gets bogged down with Hausa. And make sure you update us on the progress.
So, with sales like that, the Times could not afford to pay you even if they wanted, right?
You need to start hoping that you are plagiarized by a better class of paper. At least the Nation prints apologies.
– Steve
The high cost of books in Kenya constitutes a tax on knowledge which effectively keeps many in ignorance and subjugation. The so-called “working nation” cannot long endure if its workers are denied the tools and information necessary to better themselves.
Gathara – You are everywhere… ;-)
Why, oh, why does a country that can benefit from cheaper reading materials charges taxes on BOOKS…
Some items should be tax-free, duty-free… not subsidised but why make them even more expensive?
I would love to see 99/- paperbacks that many Kenyans can afford ALL the time! If the novel or book is “long” then break it up in parts…
Even a newspaper is 40/-… that just sucks!
Wait until I learn to say “this means war” in Kikuyu .
CT, true, I am always looking out for those 99 – max. 300 booklets that are sometimes still available in towns. Lemme check again kesho.
40 bob for the papers is exactly why I’ve stopped buying them and instead I do it like most other Kenyans: reading it at the office.
Kui, LOL!
My my… you could spend your money better in Embu bookshops, buying one of several excellent and very cheap books of H(enry) S(tanley) K(abeca) Mwaniki. His study on Categories and Substance of Embu Traditional Songs and Dances, replete with text and musical notation, did only cost me 72 KSh.
Osas
LOL, I think I have that one at home, Osas.
(books are something where I never hesitate buying…)
Oh – then I apologize to you for underestimating your voracious appetite for knowledge. ;-)