Philipino man creates public library in his home

      Hernando Guanloa, a retired accountant from Phillipines had set up a public library in his home for poor children. Hernando says his reason for setting up the library was to honour his parents who left him with the legacy for acquiring knowledge.

       The library users are allowed to take as many books as they like and return them whenever they please. Hernando's library has become the only way for most of the children in the community as most of them had to drop out of school to support their families.

80 young Africans from across 30 countries to write a book

 

 Across Africa, young achievers from the Global Shapers Community of the World Economic Forum are gearing up towards the launch of one of the Biggest Collaborations on the continent, dubbed Africa 80.

       During the 25th Annual World Economic Forum on Africa 2015 which took place in Cape Town, South Africa, 80 young Africans including 6 Ghanaians agreed to collaborate to co-author a book which will symbolize the transformative ability that collaboration amongst Africans can be achieved.
      A year on, the dream is now a reality leading to the Launch of the very first kind of a Book Collaboration among 80 young Africans from 30 countries.The book with a foreword from Ashish Thakkar , CEO of the Mara Group and Africa’s Youngest Billionaire, features Young Ghanaians who are blazing trails in diverse sectors including, Prince Akpah , Founder and MD of Avance Media and President, Africa Youth Awards, John Armah , CEO, Orios Group and Executive Director of GCEEI, Rosalin Kyere Nartey, CEO of Rosak Consult, Daniel Owusu ,Executive Director of CMG Empowerment Ghana, Kow Essuman , Lawyer, Bentsi-Enchill, Letsa and Ankomah and Emmanuel Agbeko , Founder, Urithi Labs and Director, Impact Hub Accra all from .According to the visionary, Alvin Nyika from Zimbabwe, the book will not onlycommand attention across the continent but most importantly, provoke the spirit of unity and of working together for the benefit of Africa’s current and future inhabitants.

       During the Launch of the book themed: Transformation through Collaboration,on 25th May at Sandton in Johannesburg, the Africa80 Foundation will also be outdoored to create a networking platform for co-authors to identify partners for future collaboration beyond the book launch.

South African Author Thabo Jijiana is our Author of the day

Thabo Jijiana wasborn in 1988, he was the recipient of the 2011 Anthony Simpson Foundation award and the also long listed for the 2015 Short Story Day Africa Prize for his short story "Native Mayonnaise"  and the 2014 winner of the Sol Plaatje European Poetry Award, he also won the 2016 Ingrid Jonker price for his collection "Failing Maths and other crimes".

      Jijiana is currently at the Rhode University where he intends to have an MA some of his works include the "Searing first-person investigation into the taxi industry, Nobodies business" published in 2014.

Shortened Versions of the Classics for Lazy Folks

            When it comes to classic literature, people can generally be divided into the
following three camps:
1. Those who have read it.
2. Those who pretend to have read it.
3. Those who keep saying they’re going to read it, but never do.
Hats off to the first camp, but we can’t really blame those from camps two and
three. After all, classic novels can often seem pretty formidable, not least
because they’re often rather long. War and Peace is over 1,400 pages, Don
Quixote is close to 1000, and James Joyce’s Ulysses, while not quite as long, is
still, well, Ulysses.
But thanks to Cartoonist John Atkinson, such literary behemoths need no longer
be intimidating because he’s kindly reduced them all to just a handful of words
in these funny illustrations below. Now you too can pretend to have read the
greats! But beware, spoilers lie ahead!
John says he’s planning on doing at least one more in the
series, but he hasn’t decided which books to include yet.

Culled from Boredpanda.com

Africa can read

       Yes! Africans can read, meetPhilani Dladla, a homeless man living on the streetsof Johannesburg, isprobably the last person you’d expect to be a bookworm. Yet, the 24-year-old is quite a voracious reader. And instead of begging like other homelesspeople, he has chosen to make a living by reviewing and selling books.
South African director and cinematographer Tebogo Malope played a
tremendous part in bringing Philani’s unique and inspiring story to the
world. Malope, 29, recorded an interview with Philani called the ‘Pavement
Bookworm’; the videos have gone viral since he put them up online last
year.

        The two-part interview features Philani speaking about the books he has
read and why he likes them – the man is so full of infectious joy as he
discusses his love of reading. His sense of passion and appreciation of
books is extremely rare, especially for someone who leads a difficult life.
Philani seems unfazed by his own living conditions, he only wants to tell
the world how great it is to read.

       On a typical day, Philani stops at various streets in Johannesburg with a
pile of books; on request, he will review the books, the authors and even
the publishers. “He has read all the books in his collection and is always
seeking for more to read,” said Tebogo. “He then sells some of his books
as a way to raise money for himself and some of his homeless friends.”
It is seriously amazing to watch him talk about books. His favorite author,
he said, is John Grisham, because he “touches on social justice and I think
that’s the one thing lacking in the world.” What I found most amusing was
his review of the Jodi Picoult novel, My Sister’s Keeper.

          “You know, when you got a car. But this car, it always gives you problems.
Now, you go maybe buy a second-hand car just to take some parts from
that and fix this one. This lady, she was suffering from leukemia. So her
parents decided to give birth to another sister, so she’s gonna be like a
donor,” he explained wisely.

         Philani began to appreciate books when he managed to rescue himself
from drug addiction by reading self-help books. “I hate drugs, because I
know what drugs can do to you,” he said. “And drugs can turn you into a
money-making machine. You can work four hours, you get four hundred,
and go spend that four hundred in four minutes. So, four hours, four
hundred, four minutes, all gone. Just imagine, all that effort.”

          He points out that reading, on the other hand, can never hurt you. “I
promise, reading is not harmful,” he said. “There’s no thing as harmful
knowledge, this thing is only going to make you a better person. Reading is
good for kids, for adults, for grannies, for people in old age homes. You can
go to old age homes and see how many people read. That shows that you
can never get enough of knowledge, because these people they are old, but
they still read every day.”

         Philani is especially concerned that kids these days do not read enough.
For kids, he says, he doesn’t mind giving his books away for free. “You
come here, you see kids, they are busy with their BBMs. All they care about
is blah, blah, blah, blah, blah. But you’re not acquiring any new knowledge,
you’re not gaining anything. It’s just to kill time.”

          According to Tebogo, Philani is a “great role model on the power of reading
and can be an amazing ambassador for our young people.” The director
also said that he’s appealing to anyone that can somehow contribute to
Philani’s life.

      Thanks to the video interview, motorists are actually stopping when they
spot the pavement bookworm – to chat with him and probably even pick
up a book or two. His finest moment was when he had a visit from Steven
Boykey Sidley, the author of Entanglement and received a copy of his
latest book.

Favourite Scribd selects on business and leadership

        Oscar Wilde said if you read books that everyone else is reading, you can only think what everyone else is thinking. The following books are not your average, they would change your outlook on business and leadership in ways you never knew where possible.

How to work a room, 25th Anniversary edition by Susan Roane
          This silver Anniversary edition is fully revised and updated to include the role of technology and social media in networking. Plus practical hints to starting conversations and strengthening  rapport with strangers. I recommended this book to all entrepreneurs, job professionals and job seekers alike.

The five lessons a millionaire taught me by Paul Evans
        Wise and compelling, this book can be read in a single sitting and will leave you with insights of what being rich is about and just how you too can build that wealth.

Abundance: the future is better than you think by Peter. H. Diamandis and Steve Kotler
       This bold, contrarian view, backed up by exhaustive research, introduces our near future, where exponentially growing technologies and three other powerful forces are conspiring to better the lives of billions. Written by tech entrepreneur turned philanthropist Peter. H. Diamandis and award winning science writer Steven Kotler. This book will change your perspective of the future in the most phenomenal way you taught possible.

The art of always being right by A.C Grayling and Arthur Schopenhauer
         This book shows you the 38 ways that will convince people that you are right based on a life time of observing opinion. The Art of always being right shows you the 38 ways that will convince people that you are right. Read this book and see yourself become a persuasion guru.

A more beautiful question by Warren Berger
          In this book, Warren Berger shows us that one of the most powerful forces for igniting change in our business and in our daily lives is simple. This author outlines a practical why/what if/ how system of inquiry that can guide you through the process of innovative questioning.

Change by design by Tim Brown
        In this book Tim Brown, CEO of the celebrated innovation IDEO introduces us to design thinking. This book serves as a blue print for creative leaders seeking to infuse design thinking in all facets of their businesses. Written with humour, imagination and vision, this vital and inspiring guide is essential reading for anyone confronting the challenges of today in order to create the opportunities for tomorrow.

In the plex by Stephen Levy
        Written with full cooperation from top management, including co-founder Sergey Brin and Larry Page, this is the inside story behind Google, the most successful and most admired technology company of our time, told by one of the best technology writers. No one has ever turned Google inside out as Levy does with this book.

Excerpts from Scribd book summaries.

Robert.T.Kiyosaki's 7 basic rules of investing

If you are looking to make some investment in 2016 here are seven rules that I did recommend you follow according to business rabbi Robert Kiyosaki as culled from his book "Rich Dads guide to investing"

1, Always decide what kind you are after it could any of the following
*Earned Income i.e your salaries and monthly wages, this is the most difficult form of income to build wealth because it is highly taxed.

*Portfolio Income; derived from tangible assets like stocks,bonds,mutual funds e.tc

*Passive Income; generated from tangible assets such as real estate, royalty arrangements.

2, Convert earned income into portfolio or passive income. The basic of successful investing is to take earned money and turn into paper assets that will generate portfolio income in the future.

3,Invest in securities that become assets; a security is something that you can invest cash in like a stock in a company or real estate. A security an asset only if it generates income for you.

4, Find securities that are liabilities and turn them into assets; good investors find securities which are currently out of favour but which other investors will want to buy once they are fixed.

5, Be prepared for whatever happens; Good investors train and educate themselves so they will recognise a good opportunity when it presents itself. The financially astute learn how to do well in either an up market or down market.

6, Recognize that good deals always find the cash needed if an investor has done the homework and developed a track record of success, finding the money will never be a problem.

7, Understand the trade off between risk and reward the investor intuitively understands speculative investments offer potential rewards but have correspondingly higher risks attached.

Investing is not a race you are not in competition with anyone else. People who compete usually have huge ups and downs in their financial life. You are not here to finish first, all you need to do to make more money is simply focus on becoming a better investor_Robert Kiyosaki and Sharon Lechster