What Makes us Human?

Note: This post has been cross-posted on The Walkabout.

Yesterday, I posted the following photo on Facebook.

It is the book I intend to read next, once I'm done with Cindy Trimm's Commanding Your Morning and Mbugua Mumbi's Becoming an 'A' Student in Life.
A comment on that Facebook post has made it necessary to explain what the book is all about. And please note this is not a book review at all, just a sneak peek.

Well, this book is inspired by talks that were presented at a symposium held in Oxford, in March 2006.

The book, put simply, is an attempt to answer the following questions:
Are we half ape or half angel? Is it our cognitive abilities, our use of tools, our story-telling, our beliefs, our curiosity, our ability to cook, our culture, that make us human?

These are the book chapters:

1. Imitation Makes us Human
2. Memory, Time and Language
3. Why are Humans not just Great Apes?
4. The Hominid that Talked
5. Half Ape, Half Angel?
6. Material facts from a non-materialist perspective
7. What Makes us Human? Our Ancestors and the Weather
8. Curiosity and Quest
9. Human Evolution and the Human Condition
10. The Place of "Deep Social Mind" in the Evolution of Human Nature
11. Causal Belief Maes us Human
12. The Cooking Enigma.

The book What Makes us Human? is available on Amazon and elsewhere across the web.

Remembering Chinua Achebe

Yesterday, Chinua Achebe was laid to rest in Nigeria, following his death in March.

Chinua Achebe is one of the most popular African writers. His 'Things Fall Apart' has been translated into dozens of languages and has sold millions of copies. Some of his other books are A Man of the People, Arrow of God, No Longer at Ease and The Trouble with Nigeria.

His writing continues to entertain and enlighten, and most important, inspire other writers across the world.

The day before last, I listened to an archive interview where Mr Achebe was speaking to the BBC's Veronique Edwards. He shared some enduring insights about his legacy, and his writing.
Listen below:


In death as in life, Chinua Achebe continues to be an enduring inspiration. His writing lives on, and as one of my favorite writers, I greatly respect and applaud his work.
Rest in Peace Chinua Achebe.

Short Story 6 - Nothing

This is the sixth short story in my Counting Down the Days book, currently a work in progress. We have so far taken a sneak peek into other short stories in this collection viz:  The Right to Remain Silent, Networking or not working, The Dilemma, Power to the People and Counting Down the Days.

Nothing

My Current Reads

I have recently renewed my love for Issuu. This is partly because I'll very soon be publishing Connect eMagazine, with monthly editions available for online viewing and free download on our Issuu page.

The bigger reason, however, is that Issuu more than makes reading online an enduring pleasure. On Issuu, you get to read very useful documents as well. I have so far shared some of them both on The Walkabout and on this site.

Today, I'll share one about how to Innovate.
Hope you like it :)

As we eagerly await the Connect eMagazine launch later this year, I invite you to join Connect eMagazine on Issuu so that we can learn and share together, even as we count down the days...

Have a great weekend.
Cheers

Creative Writing Resources - Online

Well, writing doesn't just happen when you start hitting the keyboard or the type writer.
Creative writing is an art, something you learn. They teach it is school, you can teach yourself and in this day and age, there are innumerable places online where you can up your game when it comes to writing.

Following are just five of my personal favorites. Check them out and help us discover your favorites as well, in the comments section below.

The Adventurous Writer

Guide to Grammar and Writing

Daily Grammar

GrammarBook.com

Online English Grammar Resources

What are your thoughts in regard to the insights available on the above sites?

Short Story 5 - Counting Down the Days

Counting Down the Days is both the title short story and the fifth in my upcoming collection Counting Down the Days.
We have so far highlighted The Right to Remain Silent, Networking or not working, The Dilemma and Power to the People.

Counting Down the Days

In this story, Edwin has been injured in what has been erroneously referred to as an accident. Interestingly, he had just watched Nokia's 4th Screen TV ad on YouTube minutes before this "accident". He was anticipating change, but is now forced to inevitably wait for that change for a very definite number of days.



With every passing day, Edwin gets to see a better version of the bigger picture that awaits him. He is able to better plan, and carefully review his choices.
In losing the ability to do something he really wants, he gains the latitude to ultimately attain what he actually needs.

My Current Reads

I am totally immersed in Chris Anderson's Free: The Future of a Radical Price. The book simply explains what has happened in our lives all along, where businesses make big money by offering free products and/or services.

Nothing is surprising or new in doing that, especially when you think about free-to-air radio and TV from commercial broadcasters.

Interestingly, Malcolm Gladwell [who authored The Tipping Point] doesn't agree with Chris Anderson. FYI, Chris also wrote The Long Tail. Malcolm had a lot to say about Free in The New Yorker.

As a strong advocate of online publishing and on-screen reading, I have recently started to read, and shall be actively sharing/embedding magazines in my reading list.
Most, if not all will be hosted at Issuu, which is my favorite hangout when it comes to reading online. Following is the June 2011 edition of CIO East Africa Magazine.

Please note that upon launch, Connect eMagazine will also be available for online reading and free download at Issuu.

Have a great week good people. Let's continue reading and writing together.Cheers!

:)

Reading and Writing both for Pleasure and Profit

This post on reading and writing is a guest post, kindly hosted on Wamathai's cool blog. 

"Let your imagination fly through books... "

- Anon. 

The Written Word

Reading is almost an addiction for me, one that I won't be addressing by 12-stepping or joining support groups anytime soon. You see, it is through books that I get to visit places that I'll never have the means nor the time to physically visit. It is through books that I get to learn things that attending class all my life won't let me learn. It is through books that I get to savor the beauty of the written word ... I get to think about whatever the writer wants me to imagine, learn or think.



I'll now proceed to share some insights from the wonderful world of books..........

Go right ahead and read the entire post on Wamathai's blog.

Welcome. Let's Read & Write Together

African Writing
Today is truly a great day for me, yet another important step in my writing.
Setting up this site marks the beginning of an exciting journey towards the publication of my books, books that I hope will be many and more important, profound.

It all started when at an early age, I began reading books from the Heinemann African Writers Series. This included such heavyweights as Chinua Achebe, Ngugi wa Thiong'o, Cyprian Ekwensi, Wole Soyinka, Alex la Guma and others.

Reading
Through this site, I purpose to learn and share stuff about reading and writing. I happen to love reading more than most things in life, and I bet it'll be interesting to exchange ideas with you about good reads, be it fiction or non-fiction, and touching on nearly any topic under the sun [yeah, I have no qualms about what I read, almost anything goes].
Towards that end, I shall routinely write about the books I am currently reading. Not fully fledged book reviews but simply highlights and links to where you can get your own copy. That includes download links for free eBooks. Should there be no link, then I'll simply Email you a copy of such a book.

Writing
For years, my writing has been published both online and on several local [Nairobi, Kenya] print magazines. Much of it has been freelance writing, or driven by online advertising.
Along the way, I decided to write some books, staring with fictional short stories. This has grown into a cool collection that I feel needs to become a book. This will happen later this year :)

Still on writing, it'll be my pleasure to engage with others in the craft, both newbies and veterans. To this end, we shall be having guest posts and extensively share creative writing insights from across the web.
In addition, this site will be closely tied to Connect eMagazine, another of my projects [currently in incubation].

Starting Point
As always, it is a good thing to get into any worthwhile venture fully armed. When it comes to writing, nothing beats a small book about writing, that carries so much weight. Every writer worth his salt should have a copy of Strunk and White's The Elements of Style. The book simply presents the principal requirements of plain English style, focusing on the rules of usage in literature, composition and grammar.

That said, let's link again tomorrow when I present my first collection of short stories. Thanks for dropping by.
Cheers!