100 Quotes From 'Things Fall Apart'

My first real experience of "Things Fall Apart" was as a kid and a big fan of television. The way I remember it, it was beamed into the homes of over '30 million Nigerians' by the Nigerian Television Authority broadcasting network as a weekly television series. Before then, I'd only heard about the book in snatches from my brothers. We might have had a copy or two of the volume in our home, too.

According to Wikipedia, 'Things Fall Apart' has sold well over 11 million copies worldwide and got translated into several languages. It is also considered the most read book by an African author residing in Africa. The entire plot of this great book might have been summarized in a one-liner delivered by one of the characters on the last page; the words of the District Commissioner who came to effect Okonkwo's (the MC) arrest but instead got a body dangling off the branch of a tree. Here's what he had to say:

"The story of this man who had killed a messenger and hanged himself would make interesting reading."

Bet my pen he didn't know his statement was on point. I'm thinking that one-liner could have been all the legendary author, Chinua Achebe had when he drafted his masterpiece. But that's just me and my unshakable hunch. In any case, whether you've read the bestseller or not, these personal clippings are going to lead you by the hand into the heart of literary beauty.

May I have the pleasure?

Did your world seem to stand still? Did you hear the drums beat; heard the flutes as they sang? And did you feel your breath as it caught in your throat? I know I did. Thanks for your time.

Keep your pens bleeding.

Akpan

10 Martin Luther King Quotes to Live By

Martin Luther King Jr. is without question one of the greatest men who ever trod this guilty sod, just saying. There's no one who can argue this great legend's words continue to inspire the race of man decades after his passing on.

I have picked just ten of his most powerful quotes for your reading pleasure and to especially, brighten and add the needed boost to any achiever's day.

Hope I made your day a lot brighter and I expect you found the courage to give that challenge one more push.

Keep your pens bleeding.

Akpan

A Picture is Worth a Thousand Pageviews

An image in a post paints up a scene where a neon-lit signpost baths the floors of an alley with its brilliance on a moonless night. And it's because like the neon tube, a picture transmits info on a different wavelength effectively, creating knockout first impressions which casts a spell on visitors to your site. The offshoot of it all is your audience is furnished with a picturesque cause to visit again.

Pictures can make or remake your blog. Should that statement interpret as “you can't enjoy a steady flow of traffic if you don't use images?” I could say yeah and we could argue about it all day. Thing is I'm not going to. What you can do for yourself is take a look around the WWW for a moment. Do the math and come up with your own conclusions. Surf any of the big sites, popular for its content. Did you notice the smattering of images on “every” article? Maybe, you should close your eyes and imagine the same page without the graphics. It is a fact you can’t unsee the upshot of pictures especially, if they are done well.

Images are magnets that attract attention. Sometimes, a well-timed portrait might be all it takes to pull a crowd. Take it from an angle; your title and content bring in one kind of folks and your images another. I think that kind of doubles the effect, if you catch my drift.

They are a good distraction, too (which is why you have to make a visual representation pass across some form of message). Readers will feast on these things if they are done magnificently. "An appropriate piece says a lot more about your content than the words themselves because pictures communicate on a level only pictures can." Besides, take a long look at some of those bare posts (yours or someone else's). I bet they seem a bit 'stripped.' Think of images as a covering for your write-ups. Has it ever crossed your mind how using images can land you and your blog a feature on Google Images search page and by extension, Google Search?

Some other payoff of blogging pictures is they give your blog an “official touch.” Your posts get the feel of a magazine or Ezine. But keep watch you do not fall into the trap of excess; there is such a thing as too many illustrations, you know? If you are not displaying art for the fun of it or pictures with quotes embedded or portraits of persons and/or books relevant to the topic under discussion, and unless your blog is especially, dedicated to photography, I'm not a stickler for rules but it would do you a world of good if you stick to two per post tops. If your readers can't see the post for the pics, that's a cue you're doing it wrong. Images are like wild flowers, they are good, but carefully picked ones are better.

One more as a parting gift and we're done here,

“If you have to paint a picture, use the brightest colors.”

Keep your pens bleeding.

Akpan

XIV: Dare to Dream

“Anything that works against you can also work for you once you understand the Principle of Reverse.”

—Maya Angelou

The radio announcer did lend a certain degree of weight to the phrase, “Come with your babe or don’t come at all.” I didn’t have a girl and I figured I couldn’t just pick one and play boyfriend and girlfriend, (the act would have fallen through with a shearing sound) I’d gone on and attended the event alone. Well, my decision did ruffle a handful feathers. The guy-at-the-gate’s for one. I gained access into the venue after a short and terse tug of words—in which I spoonfed him lessons on my peculiar situation.

It was October 1st; the studio was packed with radio DJs and upcoming acts. My teeny-weeny voice carried on the airwaves to fill ears of God knows, how many million Nigerians as I performed a solo number in acapella to honor my country’s Independence Day.

Way back in the early 90s, (I was in senior high school then) I started taking tours to TV and radio broadcasting stations and that’s besides the frequent visits to major recording studios of the time. You see, I had “waxed” this demo (that's demonstrational tape, for the uninitiated) a couple of months into senior high and you know what they say about youth and zeal; I couldn’t wait to get it published. In that when, you could still cut a music deal with a demo. If only I’d heard about singles earlier, eh?

Soon enough, I got burned out. It took a modest length of time but it did occur to me talent wasn’t the chief prerequisite when you set your sights on the showbiz industry. Cash, on the other hand, wasn’t everything but its claws dug deep into a good deal of everything. See, I didn’t have a lot of that to throw around and it pretty much drew a line between me and a spot in what was once considered the key arm of mass media. Good thing for me, I didn’t quit writing altogether, even when I had no idea how I was supposed to pass on those write-ups to an audience. I drew pleasure from my craft and my passion for it fueled the courage to keep at keeping on.

Enter the World Wide Web and Google.

Browsing became my fetish the very first instant I delved online and ensuing days had me investing infinite hours surfing the web and harvesting reams on reams of info via printouts. Months later, during one of such escapades, I googled the word, “writing” and from the top of the first page of the search results, like a love waiting there with outstretched arms, the link to what is possibly the greatest website for writers leaped out at me. I posted a poem or two in my portfolio (that’s what you call your personal page on writing.com) then I left off for a little bit. Sometime later in 2009, I revisited the website only to find that my account had been deleted. Some dude probably hacked into it and broke the site’s ground rules. I signed up for a new one and this time, I went deep. Somewhere down the line, I got involved in a writing academy on the site. This blog crawled out from beneath the loins of that little elbow grease. You know how the rest of that ball of yarn unwinds itself.

Life sometimes gives you a second chance and when it does, by God, you take it and run with it. I know the weight of freedom the web has thrust into my laps. I’ve had the privilege of taking my talent and turning it this way and that trying for new ways to put it to use effectively. I’ve also learned the heart sees further than the head—mine had been awaiting the coming of the internet and thus kept my back to the grind scribbling sometimes in a fever at other times, totally wracked out of my mind. What was supposed to work against me did cut me loose. From late January 2014, my blog had visitors from over 106 countries in less than 365 days. Do you think any of those media houses (or record companies) I stalked way back could have afforded me such a rich and diverse audience?

But hey! It’s a new year to break new grounds and new records. I’ll see you on the other side of 2015 and we’ll exchange notes. But until then, have a happy record-breaking new year.

Keep your pens bleeding.

Eneh Akpan

January 2nd, 2015

Related articles

• Robots make up half of web traffic
• Social Media as a Small Business Tool: Podcast from SMT
• Could Twitter Cannibalize the Web's Link Graph
• 96 Hours Later, What Does Heartbleed Mean for Your Business?
• 1.8 Billion Internet Users Have Little or No Right to Online Privacy: Web Index
• Is The Right To Be Forgotten Dangerous? | WebProNews