Happy Readers are Happy Humans.

Joyful readers are dope!

When I was a kid, my mother would threaten to "beat the black OFF of me" when I did anything she thought was a very bad idea. That was an effective technique for parental control because I would try to imagine what I would look like without any black on me and the idea was so scary that I would quickly obey any instruction that followed the vivid threat.

Her warnings worked, I now realize, because I am a 'listening learner'. My secondary method of learning is by experience. The least effective way of learning for me is what they call 'seeing-learners'. Since, I heard her threat and had experienced her prior attempts to dis-color me - I did not actually need to see if it was possible.

How do you learn? How do the young people in your life learn? As a listening/experiential learner I came to enjoy the experience of reading early - even without the threat of being beaten out of my racial category. I liked the sound of hearing my voice uttering words and the experience of being able to decipher the marks on the page. And yet, I developed almost no appreciation for the joy and power of consuming the written word until I was about to graduate from college.

Don't misunderstand, in my desperate effort to participate in many adult conversations, I started 'voluntarily' reading in about 10th grade because I was around adults who read. Yet, I found little joy in reading as a youth and always thought of it as a poor substitute for a good sermon - with one notable exception: THE AUTOBIOGRAPHY OF MALCOLM X.

Finally, my 10th Grade mind thought, here is a book written JUST FOR ME. I had never read a book that talked so boldly about the reality of being a black boy in America. Up until that point, school had made the idea of reading - with text books that seemed to be written by no one in particular with no one in particular in mind - seem completely joyless. It was like eating flavorless food - grits without salt or butter.

Joyful readers are better in bed.

THE AUTOBIOGRAPHY OF MALCOLM X was like a gourmet meal prepared with my favorite Black 'story-foods'. I confess, I still did not make any connection between reading and the level of joy in a person's life until I 'heard' that President Bill Clinton was a big fan of Walter Mosley's mystery series featuring Easy Rawlins and Mouse, portrayed so magically by DENZEL WASHINGTON and DON CHEADLE in the film of the same name as the book, Devil in a Blue Dress. The ladies still love Bill Clinton - many women find Bill Clinton even more irresistible now than they did before the impeachment attempt. I'm sure he reads several books a day.

I thought Bill Clinton was cool - but the way people (women) responded to him was enough to make the young 20 something guy that I was at the time, quickly read the series and develop my own appetite for 'story-foods'. Since, I was trained to read with the Bible and later the Quran, I still hunger for mythical, heroic and biographical stories. I don't remember a time, since hearing about President Clinton's reading habit that I have not been reading a book for my own pleasure.

All the cliches that I had heard as a youth, about 'reading is fundamental' and a 'mind being a terrible thing to waste' had finally become meaningful because the right person gave me the right book at the right time. I do alright with the ladies now, as long as I am careful not to read too much because I might unwittingly be guilty of 'intern-baiting'. But I digress.

Fifteen years later, when I wrote my first book, I chose to write a book for readers like me who were very proficient but had not yet discovered that there is something in the marks on the page that can take them places that no amount of money, travel or time will ever allow. Every time I risk my reputation by exposing myself in writing it is because I know somewhere some little black boy is starving for some one to please tell him the boldfaced truth about what it means to go from being a little black boy to being a big black boy to being a man. He needs to know what it means to be a human being in the world.

I read a lot these days on a myriad of subjects depending on the project I am working on. And yet, I consider my primary job as an artist, to nurture the human soul with poetic, funny and hopeful ideas.

In today's world we can all order from a gourmet-story menu of books written by people that we aspire to become or admire or from places we want to go - we have virtually unlimited access to the most basic or the most exotic variety of mind-food, instantly.

I can always spot the malnourished readers by their repetition of seemingly insignificant complaints. Joyful readers, based on my experience, are far more enjoyable to be around.

Joyful readers are far less distracted by the 'small stuff' that we call our lives.

Joyful readers spend almost no time talking about what is wrong in their lives and lots of time talking about ideas that they are excited about and new discoveries.

Joyful readers are not typically violent. They understand the connection between words and conflict resolution.

Joyful readers are better in bed. Joyful readers are sexy. I cannot help but think of the iconic sexy librarian, taking off her glasses, unbuttoning the top button on her blouse and letting her hair down. If a woman is interested in me, all she has to say is 'read to me Daddy' and it's over. I'm all in.

Joyful readers are better cooks. Joyful readers laugh more. Joyful readers are dope!

Joyful readers often have more money. Although, the mythical connection between education and money frequently gives rise to readers backsliding - especially true among those of us who have enjoyed books by Napoleaon Hlll, Og Mandino or Paulo Coelho. There are rich, unlettered - joyless people in the world - I have met them. And I digress.

I confess, I am so protective of the joy in my life, that if I even get the hint that a person is not a joyful reader, I quickly find a reason to avoid talking with them. Not because I am better but because they ain't good in bed, the kitchen, and typically have an arrested sense of humor. And since, I decided not to be a politician - I am officially not the complaint department - and have no desire to be around unsexy complainers. But, I always depart with a question that usually begins with, "interesting...have you read..."