the one about C. Garricks

The story starts on my birthday two years ago. I got the sweetest email I've ever received from Roving Heights. My angels had purchased this gift card for me, and it came with the sweetest little note:<img src="/media/inline_insight_image/1000141711.png"/>I couldn't breathe, I couldn't laugh, cry, or scream. I was frozen in joy. My body couldn't handle the emotions that were going through it. These children, these annoying children, had gotten me a gift card to purchase any book I wanted from Roving Heights? No way!I'm not a very patient person. I'm more the type of person to open their results immediately they get them, or eat half my noodles before it's ready, or post about heartbreak or love immediately I feel the emotion. The rip-off-the-band-aid person. And because of this, I started shopping immediately. I wanted my book bought, packaged and delivered. All within an hour!With that thought in mind, I enlisted Lase. Because being impatient was not enough, I had to be picky, and indecisive too. Lase, well, Lase is the same thing, to be honest, so we weren't really helping each other. Blind leading the blind. (Hence the glasses lol)<img alt="" src="/media/inline_insight_image/1000141684.jpg"/>I decided to start with one book, just one. If I could decide on one, my back would rest from hunching over my phone and scrolling through the numerous pages of books on the site. I remembered this TikTok I had seen about A Broken People's Playlist, a collection of short stories by Chimeka Garricks, and I impulsively decided to buy it.It definitely didn't take an hour, it actually took its time. There were logistics to consider, the fact that I had chosen pick-up in Lagos and I lived in Abuja, amongst other things, so I was going to have to wait till the following year to get my book. At this point, the excitement was settling in, and reality was making me catch a cold. Had I just spent a chunk of my birthday gift on this book that I know absolutely nothing about? Who even does that?The stupidity of my thought process haunted me even more after I remembered that Chimeka Garricks was the same man whose book Tomorrow Died Yesterday someone had given me, a book that couldn't get me past the first page. Something was really doing me.<img src="/media/inline_insight_image/1000141685.jpg"/>To cushion the blow of my disappointment, I put it out of mind and decided to enjoy my birthday, and the holidays. The following year, when resuming for the semester, Lase had the book in her hand, and I forced the excitement out of my heart by force, I told myself, "Oluwatoyin, you will read this book, and you must like it." And I did. They say don't judge a book by its cover, but I had judged this one by its cover, its theme, its name, and its author, and the book called me a liar. The book was beautiful, green, and the font, the finishing, everything was perfect.<img alt="" src="/media/inline_insight_image/1000141677.webp"/> The contents nko. The first story made me close the book, face my wall and weep, the grounding of the book in African culture and reality inspired me, the simple language, the voice of the author in the stories like a guiding light, the themes, the relatability. It felt like Chimeka Garricks was coming after everyone in every way. He wanted his readers to feel and we did. We had to by force.Chimeka Garricks, the writer that you are.I had terrible anxiety after buying this book not because Roving Heights is not a trusted vendor, they really are. My anxiety was due to the owner of the product, Chimeka Garricks, and it was all laid to rest after the first line.<img alt="" src="/media/inline_insight_image/1000141676.webp"/>PS: I went back to Tomorrow Died Yesterday after this, and I absolutely adored it.

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