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Random Saturday Rant: Read a Book

By CocoaDiva on Oct 11, 2008 with Comments

Reading is Fundamental
Reading is Fundamental

I love to read and have since I was a child sneaking a flashlight under the covers.  I know you remember that crazy Lil John cartoon/video entitled Read a Book right.  Well that’s what I feel like screaming about right now.  The most ignant joke, which I feel has some truth, is if you want to hide information from black people….put it in a book.  I am so tired of Black folks not expanding their minds. 

If another female tells me her favorite author is Zane I think I will go blow up the Black section in Borders.  Zane is just porn in word form.  Sorry,  nothing in those books expands your vocabulary, your education, knowledge or enhances your mind. There is nothing wrong with leisure reading.  However, if you only read Eric Jerome Dickey or Omar Tyree, what are you really learning.   If another guy randomly mentions some random Sports Magazine or Hip Hop joint….I am going to tear out my hair.  Pick up some non-fiction why don’t you.   Black folks encourage your children to read as well.   An early love for reading or influence in literature expands young minds and enhances education.  But remember, you can’t expect your child to read the classics if you are reading Sisters of the YPF.

And another thing…..why are all the books in the African-American section of the bookstore all florescent colors or with big crazy photos on the cover.  Do publishers know something I don’t?  Have they found that we won’t buy books by Black authors unless the cover is lime green, stoplight red, or neon orange with gigantic pictures?  It felt like a Crayola box exploded in Borders on aisle 10.  What gives?

Thoughts?

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Filed Under: Random

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  • Dani
    OMG! I thought I was the only one! Some guy once asked me why I didn't read "hood" novels, as if because I'm black I have to read the garbage. Those books only perpetuate the ignorance of not only our youth, but also the adults, whom we all wish had the common sense not to read that trash. Black people PLEASE... let's do better for ourselves and the images of our people.

    Here are a few books with black authors from my book list:

    Beloved Toni Morrison
    Black Boy Richard Wright
    Breath,Eyes,Memory Edwidge Danticat
    Dreams From My Father Barack Obama
    Naked Akiba Solomon
    No Disrespect Sister Souljah
    Sula Toni Morrison
    The Color Purple Alice Walker

    .... to name a few

    Broaden your horizons... do not limit yourselves to "hood" novels, or even only black authors. There is so much knowledge out there.
  • Tiffany
    To Tiffani...

    "I am waiting for one of us to write something akin to Sophie Kinsella’s Shopaholic series or Laurell K Hamilton Anita Blake (although she is getting bad with the gratuitous sex)).."

    Check out L.A. Banks and the Vampire Huntress Legend series...If you're looking for something akin to Anita Blake (but better). I enjoyed LKH but lately the Anita Blake series has gone sooooo downhill! I'm always on the lookout for African Americans who write within that genre and L.A. Banks is one of them...check her out!
  • I teach high school English and my biggest gripe is about the young girls reading these trash novels. Now, if you want some real erotica, try William Shakespeare. That Romeo and Juliet is hard core porn. The reason people don't know it is because it is written in Old English (think King James Version Bible). Shakespeare put all these urban novels to shame.

    I am currently reading "Gang Leader for a Day" and it is quite interesting. It explores how the gangs operate. It has opened my eyes up to a whole new world. I thought I knew about gangs, but this guys tells the ins and outs of the gang life.
  • CJM
    I agree. If I have another man tell me that reading is so antiquated, I'm going to scream. The best excuse is that books are expensive and you can only read them once. Dude, get a library card. Actually, if I get in a guy's car and see a library book or a book on tape, his sexy quotient rises. At least I won't have him looking at me as if I have two heads when I say I need to drop something off at the library. Okay, and let's not talk about the newspaper (even the online version). How do you live somewhere and not know the name of the major paper? Makes me angry.
  • Poorly written ANYTHING offends my literary sensibilities! I am a bibliophile who can claim a favorite author in almost every major genre and I have to admit the street lit craze passed me by. If not for the gratuitous sex, the reading level is probably closer to my preteen daughter than my own. I love black authors who REALLY write...Octavia Butler & Tananarive Due are just two of my latest favorites. I am waiting for one of us to write something akin to Sophie Kinsella's Shopaholic series or Laurell K Hamilton Anita Blake (although she is getting bad with the gratuitous sex))..anyway this has turned into a epic...I would just like to see more variety..more subtlety..mo betta reads!
  • I completely agree with what everyone has said so far. I understand wanting to support our community. I went through a period where I would only read Black authors. But, I refused to read books like "Cheating in the last pew" or other random books lol. We do have some wonderful authors buuuut we do have some bad ones just like every other race. The problem is we don't take the time to read great literature and we darn sure don't read non-fiction.
  • Ok, now I will readily admit, that I do read Zane. But I would say that I read it for the same reason that some watch porn. Porn on film doesn't do it for me. But written porn where my imagination can take hold? That, I can rock with.

    Personally, I read a vast array of books, from black fiction to white chick lit to black nonfiction, biographies, memoirs (my favorite), etc.

    What bothers me is the horrible representation of black literature in book stores. If it's not poorly written erotica, it's poorly written "urban fiction" (also known as hood tales), or poorly written "Christian fiction" (which, I'm sorry but is the same strategy employed by bad singers on the Apollo. Make it about Jesus and it's above criticism? Not so much. Still sucks to me.)
  • Anita
    "If another female tells me her favorite author is Zane I think I will go blow up the Black section in Borders"
    Seconded
    It's not even that it's porn as much as it's that it's just *bad* How come it's the black erotica that's got to be crass and poorly written? It's like black people want to support black writers so they'll read it even if it sucks. Boo to that. We should demand better quality I guess

    I got some books from the library the other day I haven't started, you just inspired me to go crack one open
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