Preye Tam

"hey... I see you" on bossy's wall.

"A HOME WITHOUT BOOKS IS A BODY WITHOUT SOUL by Preye TambouMost people want to improve their situation in life. When they find a good reader, they usually admire and pay attention to him. If they found that they are learning from him, they quickly develop a connection with him. People love good readers especially the kind and generous ones who are willing to share what they’ve learned with others.To become a good reader that people admire is a lifelong learning experience. In his book Everyone Communicate Few Connect, author and leadership expert John C. Maxwell wrote, “People often ask me how I learned leadership and communication: Who were my models? Where did I discover my principle? How have I been able to improve over the years? Certainly I’ve learned much from watching good leaders and communicators. I’ve read many great books.” Continual reading books can give you the knowledge, people will come demanding. It is good to be a reader: a voracious reader.Let books be your dining tableAnd you shall be full of delightsLet them be your mattressAnd you shall sleep restful nights- Author unknownSome months ago, I was invited to teach in an empowerment seminar at Apapa Lagos, inspiring the audience, they began to asked how and where I get my knowledge. They were stunned about how I quoted ideas of hand and telling stories of great men and women who read and run with giants.People often say that I always have new things to say whenever I speak to them. The fact is they always see the new things – not what I am doing to have the new things. Reading has helped me to have a great treasure chest and making things easy going for me. Reading is good. I once had a conversation with a friend and student whom seeing that I am releasing great ideas, insisted to know my motivation.MY MOTIVATION“What is your motivation?” My friend Nnamdi once asked“My motivation is my best friend.” I replied.“Who is your best friend? “He insisted to know.“My best friend?”“Yeah!”“My best friend is my book.” I asserted.He laughed, and laughed and laughed.“My greatest motivation is the needs of the society”. I concluded.One of the needs of the society is that people need to be equipped to learn to read. Many rewards I am experiencing today are as a result of my dedication to lifelong learning and reading great books. Within two years, 2009 – 2010 I read 283 autobiographies and biographies of great men and women all over the world. In the year 2010, I read 72 books of potential writers. I have made myself worthwhile and added a great value into my life just by reading books and histories of people who changed their world and positively impact generations.BOOKS CAN MAKE YOU TRAVELHow can we travel when we don’t read books? I hear you say through bus, plane, bout and train. You are right! But, the easiest way to travel is to read books. We don’t need to travel to Europe before we know we’ve been there. All we need to do is to read their books and we’ll found ourselves there in a jiffy, faster than jet and airoplane.I have been to mountain tops, hills, island, cities, and villages by reading books. I have been with great men and women all over the world by reading about their lives. I have met different kind of people, go different places and dine with kings, queens and princes by reading books. Oh that I may read and die with books and also be burry with books.The birds want to sing and soar and I will join them by reading books about them. Great minds want to have conversation with me and teach me to soar; I will sit down and read their books. I’ll clap hands with the trees when I read about them. The lion roar and I roar. The elephant trumpet I want to hear.Books said read me, and I shall give you ideas of wealth and power. Read me, book said, I will give you wings to fly. I will give you knowledge people would come demanding: Love me, book said, and you shall never lack many lovers. Seek direction from me, I will be your best mentor and you will never lack direction. Inspirations I will place in your mind. Passion you shall have. I shall open the door of excellence in your exams. And your life shall be full of success.Read me, book said, and I will teach you how to be wise through failures. My instructions will make you laugh and full of understanding. If you made me your lover and guide, failure shall turn to success I will show you the mystery of ages and teach you the ancient paths. Book said I love those who love me and bless those who bless me. I also curse those who curse me. When you read me with passion and take action, you will be successful and come back to congratulate me. Oh that you would never stop reading… so I can shower you with peace of mind.BOOK ISLANDI bet you will always travel in the realm and world every book you read. A good book can cause every dry bone to leap, dance and live. Some books like the Bible can heal sickness. Someone said, “Anyone who says they have only one life must not know how to read a book”. There are books and their books. There is a book that gives people the desire to want to live forever. Author William Styron said, “A good book should leave you… slightly exhausted at the end. You live several lives while reading it.”A Chinese proverb says, “A book is like a garden carried in the pocket.” You can connect to the world you desire just by reading books. James Russell Lowell said, “Books are the bees which the quickening pollen from one to another mind”. Books can transform your life. Books can give you the ideas to be all you could ever be. Books can be the license to elevate your body, soul, and spirit into the realm you desired. Books can be your guide and refuge. As Walter Pater said, “Books are a refuge, a sort of cloistral refuge, from the vulgarities of the actual world.” What books have done for others, books can also do for you.That place that does containMy books, the best companion, is to meA glorious court, where hourly I converseWith the old sages and philophers;And sometimes, for variety, I conferWith kings and emperors, and weigh their counselCalling their victories, if unjustly got,Unto a strict account, and, in my fancy,Deface their ill-placed status.- Francis Beaumont and John FletcherPeople who don’t read would never know books gives knowledge for personal excellence. In I Can Read With My Eyes Shut! Dr. Seuss wrote, “The more you read, the more things you will know. The more that you learn the more places you’ll go.” While Emoke B’Racz testified, “How my life has been brought to undiscovered lands, and how much richer it gets-all from words printed on a page…. How a book can have 560 pages, but in only three pages change the reader’s life.” Don’t ask me how I got my knowledge, read, think and you will discover yours.I bet books will bring you before kings and queens. Excellent readers are not common men and women. They are people with a difference. The temple of knowledge and problem solving ability can never be shut against you when you read the right books and apply what you learned. Someone said, “A story is a special thing. The ones that I have read. They do not stay inside the books. They stay inside my head.” When they stay inside your heads, you will narrate what you know and have something to share. At least you will not be a novice.OPEN A BOOKOpen a bookAnd you will findPeople and places of every kindOpen a bookAnd you can beAnything that you want to be:Open a bookAnd you can shareWondrous worlds you find in thereOpen a bookAnd I will tooYou read to meAnd I read to you- Jane BaskwillA. C Grayling, Financial Times (in a review of A History of Reading by Alberto Manguel) says, “To read is to fly: it is to soar to a point of vintage which gives a view over wide terrains of history, human variety, ideas, shared experience and the fruits of many inquires.” I have books in my library that I’ve read and others I want to read. Most times, I read and forgot eating meals. Books are well prepared meal. Book is the sweetest meal I eat daily. Other meals should wait that I may travel with books.Andre Gide said, “To read a writer is for me not merely to get an idea of what he says, but to go off with him and travel in his company.” It is good to bury your nose in a book and read. Coolio said, “I used to walk to school with my nose buried in a book.” Books can renew your spirit and make you energetic. Books can make your face shine. Christopher Morley said, “When you sell a man a book you don’t sell him just 12 ounces of paper and ink and glue you sell him a whole new life.”I will leave you with what I learn from my mentor, author and leadership expert John C. Maxwell. In his book Be A People Person, Maxwell wrote, “Lon Woodrum, a dear friend of mine who lived to his nineties, continued to be an outstanding speaker, writer, and poet late in life. He set a goal for himself to read a book a day. I questioned him about that, thinking that at his age he should be taking life a little easier. He said, “John, I have a tendency to get lazy. I want my 86 -year-old mind to keep growing and learning. I want to die with a book in my hand.” Lon lived. Remember that a home without book is a body without soul.By: Preye TambouFounder/National President of Edgewise TeamStudied Economics in the University of Lagos, Nigeria." on rncsnow's wall.