do nigerians read?

Around this time last year, Nigerian writers were asked to select the books that provided their best reading of 2004. These were mainly works then newly published, but also included older books that were rediscovered, through repeated reading. The responses were unveiled in a trio of articles titled 'Best Books of 2004: Writer's Choices' - published in January of this year (see one, on the left).

That went well enough. When it came to 'Reader's Choices' however, it seemed we had gone too far. Despite calling for readers' choices for 2 weeks in a row in a national newspaper, only 5 people contributed. Of those, 4 met the requirements. Of the thousands that probably saw the notice, only 5! This was baffling, and raised questions about the state of reading in Nigeria, some of which I grapple with in the piece below.