Preferred newspapers
4.3.2 The types of books that students enjoy
Figure 4.5 Types of books that are enjoyed by students
Figure 4.5 indicates that 63% of the participants enjoyed self-help or inspirational books, 60%
enjoyed reading novels, 46% read religious books and only 44% of the participants enjoyed reading academic books. This was data from the questionnaire and the participants could choose more than one category from the categories that were given. Data from the drawings and the focus group discussions also support these findings. This was also evident when the participants were asked to give titles of books they enjoyed. The following were some of the titles of books that are inspirational to the participants: Rich Dad, Poor Dad, Act Like a Lady and Think Like a Man, Long Walk to Freedom, When Hope Whispers and The Monk Who Sold His Ferrari.
Self-help/inspirational books Entertainment/Novels Religious books Academic books Science fiction Biographies Current affairs E-books Non-fiction
52
Mbali said, “I love Maya Angelou’s I Know Why the Caged Bird Sings, it is the way she tells her stories, she inspires me.”
“I only read something that is motivational or let me say inspiring. Right now I am reading a book called The Power of Purpose. It gives inspiration in things that I will face in life,”
explained Muzi.
Adam mentioned, “I like to read stories about inspirational people like Richard Branson. I want to be rich.”
The following religious books were mentioned: The Holy Bible, Jesus Wept, How to Hear From God, Good Morning Holy Spirit and War Room. The Holy Bible was mentioned 11 times which made it the most read religious book.
The love for self-help/inspirational books and religious books seems to be a reflection of the general culture of most black Africans where Christianity plays a major role. It is possible that most of the participants have aspirations to improve their home background thus the focus on books on building wealth. There is also a steady rise of motivational speakers on national radio stations like Ukhozi FM and in churches and these may be influencing the participants’ choices in reading. This was enlightening to me as I realised that students do not need to be stimulated educationally only, they also need guidance in life skills.
Similar findings by Mlay, Sabi, Tsuma and Langmia (2015) indicate that the material that the students read the most and that they owned were spiritual building books, self-building/
motivational / inspirational books, newspapers and documentaries, politics/ economics, culture, current affairs, novels/ entertainment books and literature on social trends. The Bible was one of the top books chosen by students in Hogson and Thomson’s (2000) study.
Students were asked to list books that they had read recently which they found interesting.
Although they were asked to mention at least two titles, most of the participants mentioned only one title or had no title. This was interesting, as 60% of the participants had indicated that they enjoyed reading novels yet they could not provide at least two titles of books they had read. A possible explanation for this could be that the students had only read one book or had not read recently. Another explanation could be that even though they may enjoy reading novels, they may not have had access to novels at their homes or on campus as the library stocks mostly
53
academic books. It could also be a possibility that some of the participants had simply forgotten the titles or that they have not had time to read novels lately as they are busy with their academic work. However, an overall implication could be that they have not read much.
Of the titles given by the participants I found a few books that have been made into movies, and it could be hard to determine if they had really read the book or they had just watched the movie version of it. However, most of the participants were able to give the author of the book which could be an indication that they had read the books.
One of the participants gave the title Nothing to Lose and wrote Steve Oedekerk as the author of the “book”. When I did research on this title, I found that Nothing to Lose is a 1997 action comedy film that was directed by Steve Oedekerk. Another participant wrote Diary of a Mad Black Woman which is a movie written by Tyler Perry and is not a book. This could indicate that these students prefer watching movies to reading. It is possible that they felt they had to write something even though they had not read any books recently.
Table 4.2 Books read by participants that are also movie titles, where the participants were able to name the author
Book/ Movie title Author
Plain Truth Jodi Picoult
Act Like a Lady, Think Like a Man Steve Harvey
Pride and Prejudice Jane Austen
War Room Chris Fabry
The Gift of the Magi O. Henry
54
Figure 4.6 Books that were prescribed literature in high school
There were 43 titles of novels that were given by the participants as books that they enjoyed the most. I noticed that the following titles were mentioned repeatedly by the participants when all the other titles were mentioned only once: Nothing but the truth (16 times), Bengithi Lizokuna (8), When Rain Clouds Gather (3) and To Kill a Mocking Bird (2). I found out that these were prescribed literature books at high school. Bengithi Lizokuna, To Kill a Mocking Bird and Nothing But the Truth were prescribed in 2015 for isiZulu home language and English first additional language respectively. It is possible that the participants enjoyed these books because they had to engage with them on a regular basis as they were prescribed books during their high school time.
These findings suggest that students do read a variety of books. On the contrary, Kaberia (2012) and Nalusiba (2010) found that students in Africa only read classroom materials whenever there are assignments but do not engage in leisure reading. Similarly, a study of Sindhi and Urdu students at the University of Sindh suggested that there was a lack of leisure reading habit other than textbook reading (Ansari, 2015). Furthermore, Owusu-Acheaw (2014) found that even though the students acknowledged the importance of reading, the majority had read neither novel nor fiction during the academic year.