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We start with a man from South Africa whose life was saved by books. Philani Dladla first fell in love with reading when he was a child. But as he grew older his life took a turn for the worse, and he found himself addicted to hard drugs and living rough on the streets of Johannesburg. It was his passion for reading that helped him to turn his life around. He's been telling me his story.
My first ever book was a gift from a man that my mom used to work for. It was my first ever birthday gift. I was 11, turning 12 and he gave me a book about, like politics in South Africa. Obviously I didn't know about what the book was about because I couldn't read or speak English properly.
So did you set about learning English so you could read it?
Yeah. I had to spend most time indoors by myself. I used a lot of help from a dictionary to just try and understand what other words meant. You can imagine a book about politics for a 11-year-old. It was just like a very big challenge.
What did he say about you reading it? What conditions that he puts on it?
That if I was to read it and tell him what it was about, he was gonna give me more books. I used to go, visit him almost every weekend. On his will, he left me like 500 of collectible books which I still have today. | 
发表于 2016-10-27 17:19:03