World Book Day 2026

It’s World Book Day And I just completed the compilation of a book I’ve been writing for a while.

And once again, I’m reminded that one can’t be an author without first being a reader.

While growing up, my dad bought tonnes of storybooks for me, and later, he started releasing the novels and written plays that he owned to me. So, by the time I was completing junior secondary school, I had read nearly all Shakespearean plays and other novels available to me.

In 1999, he bought the biggest Webster Dictionary for the house, but I colonized it. And at the back of that dicko, were little examples of how to write quoted sentences, just like they do in novels. I started practicing. And I got better.

And because he had an endless supply of Punch Newspapers and Tell Magazines as a senior civil servant, I read and consumed the humorous commentaries of Azubuike Ishiekwene in Punch, who is now Editor-In-Chief at Leadership Newspapers, and hardline editorials of Dare Babarinsa in Tell.

By the time I was in SS1, I was having a very strong command of English writing, and from SS2 upward, I’ve been an avid reader of tonnes of novelists – Hadly Chase, Jonathan Kellerman, Dean Koontz and Tom Clancy.

And then I started writing. And kept reading because books are like meals that feed the brain and the imagination. And without them, most of us wouldn’t have traveled beyond our environment.

I read mostly my Virology and public health textbooks and journals, and I write mostly health-based books. But I can’t forget where and how I started.

Happy world book day to all readers and writers.

Yesterday was World Book Day and to honour that day we featured this article written by Tayo Fasuan, PhD. (Public Health and Environmental Virologist)