Excitement As One-Week-One-Book Event Holds In Lagos

It was explosive, inspiring, interactive and very educating as book enthusiasts, prolific writers, avid readers, accomplished authors, media, corporate players and policy makers gathered in Lagos for the 2021 Edition of the annual One-Week-One-Book event.

The annual event took place on Saturday 20th November, 2021, at Lagos Chamber of Commerce and Industry Hall, Alausa area of Ikeja, Lagos State.

The theme of this year’s event was “Imagine A World Without Books”.

The Guest Speaker, Gbenga Emiloju, did justice to the theme of the event with a well researched presentation, which was received with thunderous round of applause.

Emiloju highlighted that millions of thoughts and ideas in the minds of men are seeking expression and opportunity to be read. But unfortunately, most of such thoughts and ideas, which are meant for liberation of humanity, are allowed to perpetually remain buried in the minds of men as a result of man’s failure to put them in books. He explained that books are mediums through which our ideas, thoughts and opinions can be expressed for human development and for the advancement of human society.

The Guest Speaker also delved into the forms and types of books, characteristics of good books, ways to cultivate the culture of reading, impediments to the culture of reading, dangers associated with not reading, benefits and positive effects of reading, steps to becoming an author and benefits of being an author.

While espousing on things that would happen in a world without books, Emiloju said, “Illiteracy would be on the increase and there would be loss of historical facts, values and legacies. Poverty of ideas would be on the increase and there would be shortage of knowledge with the attendant limitation of human capacities and potentials. Life would exponentially be primitive and destruction of humanity would become unavoidable”.

He concluded by saying that a world without books is unimaginable.

The convener of the annual event, a respected Author, Minister and Coach, Morack Akin-David, also used the opportunity the programme presented to highlight the importance of sustaining the reading culture across board and why he came up with the One-Week-One-Book initiative.

At the programme, different published authors also had the opportunity to showcase their books and equally take the audience through the contents of their works.

The event became more educating during the interactive session as attendees had the opportunity to learn more and ask questions on gray areas, what to look out for and how to articulate their thoughts culminating in writing of books and cultivation of the culture of reading amongst others.

There were also presentations by the children present, break, entertainment and other side attractions to spice up the annual event.