'The Life of Banyaz The Booktographer' by Ahmad Abdullah

She is an embodiment of awesomeness. This is one of the least praiseworthy comments you can hear from the numerous fans that admire her creativity and book savvynness. If you know Banyaz, you will wonder if there is anything she loves more than books.

It takes a lot of courage to be a book critic and reviewer but Banyaz does more than this. She gives a particular rare aesthetic to book reading in such an infective way that book lovers, pure blood and muggles alike, fall head over heels to read what she has read. The best word you can find in how she portrays what she had read is seduction.

On a particular month though, when elves are opportune to act their own fast and furious, I got firsthand what Banyaz definitely likes more than books. Her day started in probably the most pleasant way but I am not aware of this. What I became aware of   by nightfall on this particular day was a sneak peek into how wild her mind works and how what she does best counteracts her own mind. To simply put it, her mind must be so awesome that anyone who gets admitted into it will be lost into layers of imaginations that you would never imagine inhabits her small physique.

Someone sent a text message, someone who wanted to make amends. I guess she feels there are some people that want to get back at her. So some texts crossed the border into her phone early in the morning that she wasn’t aware of. She probably was too busy reading something, I wonder if she ate at all on this day. I try to imagine what she could be truly afraid off aftermath of this incident but I’ll leave you to judge the message and her reaction.

‘We will definitely parade,

In the chamber of hell meant for you’

When Banyaz read this message, I don’t know if she thought Boko Haram was after her. Worse still, I imagined she had reviewed a book about terrorism in the past where she must have staunchly and vehemently lambasted terrorist as weak minded. What could be worse than this I imagined; then it occurred to me that she may have suspected one or more of her followers were members of the notorious terrorist group ISIL and this was what made the best sense to me because by the time she read this message, she had called most people she valued in her life that she was being threatened. Wow, book critiquing must be a minefield nowadays.

I pride myself to be amongst those she values even though I don’t know what list I’m on. But she did call me. Her voice was hollow and she seemed to be gasping for breath, also as if she was praying under her breath at the same time she was talking to me.

‘Did you send me any message?’ She blurted out in an un-assuring whisper.

‘Haaa, I did, where did you abandon your phone?’

There was a partial huge sigh of relief and I noticed she wanted more words from my throat.

‘The text is a correction to the poem I sent earlier about the Chibok girls.’ I added with a slight puzzle on my wrinkled forehead.

Then it came; ‘Oh my God, ooops….blah blah blah blah…. I thought someone was trying to kill me….’ She ranted with relief while I wondered; what will terrorist really do to us who condemn them within the fine art of our abusive and impeccably chosen words?

But on this day I knew certainly, Banyaz loves her life more than books.

Ahmad Abdullah, AKA Ahmad Holderness is a medic and a writer who is about to be published. He is the director of Home Of Book foundations that seek to help Nigerian youths to read and write better. His writings can be viewed at and you can follow him on instagram at @home_of _books_foundation

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