Monday, April 07, 2008

Biyi Bandele Book Reading

I attended the Biyi Bandele book reading over the weekend at the British Council. I'd have loved to do a proper post about it, but seeing as I missed most of it, I'm really not in a position to. I was running late, having had an earlier appointment, and I hoped that this would be one of those events that observed African time, but I guess even if they did, it still started early enough that I missed the actual readings.

I am not a fan of stories about war, so while I'd seen the book Burma Boy around, I'd not considered buying it. Plus, I already have too many unread books sitting on my bookshelf. However, I like attending book readings still, whether I've read the book or not; or intending to read the book or not.

Biyi Bandele, the author, appeared to be a very laid-back and chilled individual. He had an accomodating manner, as he responded to most of the questions pleasantly. There had been a fair amount of publicity for the event, as evidenced by the huge turn-out (standing room only); or perhaps this was a testament to the author's popularity. This might have been one of the most relaxed readings that I've been to in a while too; with the audience laughing easily at both intended and accidental humour; sniggering wickedly at sarcastic comments by the commentator; and sighing with impatience at questions that meandered just a bit too long.

1 comment:

Anonymous said...

I am glad that there was a good turn out at the lagos event. I went to the Abuja event and there must have been at the most 15 people. It was really badly organised and I felt sorry for Biyi. It seems that Farafina don't put in enough publicity in their non-Lagos event as they do to their Lagos ones. I also went to the Chika's reading at Salamander and again the turn out was poor.

I read the book and I couldn't get pass the first few chapters and I binned.