Inside Abuja’s latest ‘cool’ bookstore

It’s first the sight of variety, then the smell of paper, and the feel of books that makes this bookstore a place to visit. Welcome to Roving Heights. When Roving Heights, Abuja’s latest ‘cool’ bookstore held an opening party on March 1 this year, it was flooded with bookworms. Its co-owner, Adebola Eyinade would later […]

It’s first the sight of variety, then the smell of paper, and the feel of books that makes this bookstore a place to visit. Welcome to Roving Heights.

When Roving Heights, Abuja’s latest ‘cool’ bookstore held an opening party on March 1 this year, it was flooded with bookworms. Its co-owner, Adebola Eyinade would later describe the occasion as “so good that we remained open till late evening, and people kept coming and going.”

It’s worthy of note that Roving Heights is something of a social media sensation. One of those bookstores an avid reader or writer who follows writers, readers, publishers, and of course bookstores on twitter will quickly stumble on, and click, follow. Then they begin to regal you with books and books and more books that you had thought were out of print. They seem to have a knack for unearthing titles from God knows where and throwing it in your face: A hardcover here, and a paperback there, seated on magnificent ‘throne-shelves’.

I was trying to relearn how Twitter works, after a few years’ hibernation, when I came across Roving Heights. Then they began to drive me ‘crazy’ with books I didn’t know existed and a few I did but never had to endure being poked in my face. If they aren’t showing off pictures of Chimamanda Adichie’s latest cute covers since Narrative Landscape Press became her publisher, they are showcasing Elnathan John’s recently released ‘Becoming Nigerian: A Guide’, or Mario Puzo’s bestselling ‘The Last Don’ and many more.

It was on the same Twitter that I learned they were opening a new bookstore in Abuja (their very first outside Lagos) and anxiously awaited the D-day. When it came, I was not disappointed.

Located on the top floor of CVS Plaza in Wuse 2, Roving Heights, through its glass wall, gives you a beautiful view of the city. Its staff are pleasant and professional with an aura I can only liken to the charm of books, and I have some evidence: when I called their customer care line, a number I got off the internet (yes, it’s easy to locate and even call them with a Google search), the manner in which I was attended to quickly won me over. But that’s by the way. Inside this bookstore I came face-to-face with books I have longed for (I don’t know about you, but these were my obsessions). They were Paulo Coelho’s ‘The Alchemist’, ‘Eleven Minutes’, and ‘The Winner Stands Alone’. Forget the fact that I have already read a borrowed copy of ‘The Alchemist’ two years ago when my boss said, ‘you will like this book. Take, read and return it in a week,’ and just recently bought mine. Anyway, I still swooned over the palm-size copy I held in this bookstore.

You see, ‘The Alchemist’ is a rare book that reads like a folktale. It’s about a boy seeking treasure, and this is tied to his goal in life. Unlike many books, it opens a reader’s mind to possibilities and presses you to find yourself and what ultimately fulfils you. In fact, the author revealed the story was inspired by his quest to become an accomplished writer. He did. But, just like his central character’s search for treasure, it wasn’t easy. Coelho’s debut book barely sold, then something interesting happened when he got a new publisher (the old one had given up after selling just a few copies). Bill Clinton and Madonna were spotted with copies of the book. Long story short, it soon became a bestseller.

There were other books. Frank Paretti’s ‘The Prophet’, Cyprian Ekwensi’s ‘Jagua Nana’s Daughter’, Chigozie Obioma’s ‘An orchestra of Minorities’, and then Vincent Hiribarren’s ‘A History of Borno: Trans-Saharan African Empire to Failing Nigerian State’.

There’s an interesting story to tell about Hiribarren at this point. This author strolled into Roving Heights recently and ‘A History of Borno: Trans-Saharan African Empire to Failing Nigerian State’ was recommended to him.

“I wrote this book,” he said. This unique meeting between bookseller and author eventually led to ‘A Conversation’ with the author on Monday May 13 at the bookstore anchored by a literary agent, Aysha Abdullahi (who’s interestingly of Borno descent).

Hiribarren, who is French and wrote the book for his PhD thesis, said he decided to write about Borno because he had had enough of studying European history and wanted to discover something different. “I knew there was much more to know beyond the history of colonialism and oil,” he said. So, he was interested in the history of Africa before the Europeans arrived and was struck by Borno because it has a thousand-year long history and nothing was written in the last two hundred years about Borno, from the 19th to the 20th Century. For Borno, there were more books on the pre-colonial period than there were on the post-colonial period, he pointed out.

Roving Heights has plans for Abuja, its new home, and one of them is its Authors Series which will feature Olusegun Adeniyi today. Adeniyi is a journalist, current chair of the editorial board of Thisday newspapers and a former presidential spokesman to the late President Umaru Musa Yar’Adua. He will be discussing his most recent work, ‘From Frying Pan to Fire: How African Migrants Risk Everything in their Futile Search for a Better Life in Europe’ and the themes of irregular migration and global economic inequality.