Friday’s editorial note
Time is probably one of the most precious things we have as human beings. Not only is it gorgeous, but apparently it’s also expensive. Look at the expressions we use regarding time…
“Time is money.”
“Your time is valuable.”
“A waste of my time.”
If you think about it, we wait for more time, we wish that time would move faster, or we yearn to suspend time. We use expressions like “at the last moment” and “time for a change” because we are aware that, of all the things that life has given us, time is the most valuable. Not our possessions, looks, or compliments, but that one thing that, ironically, we can and can’t measure.
Running out of time, whether it’s to catch a plane for that vacation you’ve saved up for or realizing you’ve only checked off one thing on your New Year’s resolution list, is one of the hardest things you face.
It could be a mental construct (unless you’re in a morgue, you still have time to achieve what you want) or a tangible lack of time, but either way, feeling like you’re short on time can be stressful and even heartbreaking.
Finding time to respond to all my messages has become a losing battle. I have messages since May that I have not responded to. Not because I don’t care, I do. But I can’t deal with the volume of things I need to tackle on a daily basis.
From voice memos to videos to workgroups to friendship circles, I’m drowning in the overwhelming stream of messages coming through my phone. And I’m only talking about WhatsApp here, I’m not even going to talk about the social media DMs, Telegram and incessant emails.
Maybe this is just my problem, but I don’t think it’s possible to have more than 20 conversations at the same time in one text message. I wish I had more time to answer, but then someone would have to pay me to do it because that’s all I’d do.
But if there’s one thing I really wish I had more time for, it’s reading. I am a writer because I love to read. There’s a blurry photo of me, taken by my father, when he was a pimply teenager hiding behind a broadsheet.
I come from a family of readers; my mom is the one who reads the fastest, my sister is the second and I think my brother and I are the ones who are left behind. As the weight of adulthood has grown heavier, my time to read for pleasure has shrunk. Look, I admit it, being an editor hasn’t helped. I read a copy every day, if this sounds like an excuse it probably is, which is why reading has become more of a calling than a pleasure. This is not something I have fully reconciled to. Reading makes me happy, it makes my imagination wake up from the coma of being in a capitalist society and it reminds me that entire worlds can exist in my mind.
On a flight to Cape Town last month, I finished Shonda Rhimes’s The Year of Yes (yes, I’m very late, I know) and laughed so hard the flight attendants unexpectedly laughed with me. That’s the beauty of reading: a single well-written sentence can break your heart or make you cry with laughter.
I decided that 2023 will be my personal Year of Yes because the book inspired me and made me excited for the future; he was funny, vulnerable and honest. That is why the December holidays are so important to me. In addition to drinking mimosas at 10 in the morning and eating like I’m not gaining weight, they give me time (see what I mean) to read to my heart’s content.
I know some of you manage to exercise every day, run a business, and read four books in a month and I say, mazel tov. But I think I represent the majority of people in South Africa, overworked and exhausted. Between the falling loads, the floods, and our incompetent leaders, I don’t have the capacity to sit and read a book by candlelight while dealing with looming deadlines.
But come December everyone shuts down, so my phone goes silent, my email says OOO (out of office), and I can kick back and read without having to give feedback on sentence construction, grammar, or angle. .
That’s why I’m super excited to bring you our literary edition. Every year Brittle Paper publishes its 50 Most Notable African Books and this year they have doubled the number. Mail & Guardian Friday is honored to publish a list of 50 such books. Whether you’re looking for fiction or nonfiction, young adult books, poetry, or memoirs, her stellar list is everything you need to choose your next holiday read.
This edition also celebrates the reissue of South African photographer Ernest Cole’s book House of Bondage, which was banned by the apartheid government in 1966.
I hope you will take the time to read this holiday season. If you haven’t found a book, remember what Tony Morrison said: “If there’s a book you want to read, but it hasn’t been written yet, then you should write it.”
