Ty: Sir, with exams around the corner, what advice would you give me, a second-year law student having just passed through the same level?

LLB Snr.: Write. You’ll need to read a lot and write a lot. And most importantly, you’ll need a plethora of cases.

Ty: How much is it?

LLB Snr.: How much is what?

Ty: How much is a plethora of cases?

LLB Snr.: (looks at him bewilderedly) I meant you’ll need a lot of cases.

TY: ooh

Dear Ty,

I was surprised the first time I used the word “Plethora” in a sentence. I didn’t know its meaning, but I just knew it fit. I looked it up after I sent a birthday wish to a friend. 

One of the side benefits of being a voracious reader is using words you’ve never used or don’t know the meaning but you’d know you used it in the right context.

Another bad reading habit from Sir. Banret Dashan 's book “Reading Habits” is not looking up words. 

He writes “When reading, one of the terrible things you can do to yourself is to not look up new words.”

This is something I was guilty of. I come across new words when reading or having conversations with readers, while I’m curious to know, I never go the extra step to look them up. 

And I had the guts to wonder why my vocabulary was not improving. 😒

When I realized that I had to look up words for my vocabulary to improve, I got into doing just that. 

It’s not been easy, but it’s been worth it. 

I derived joy when I used the word “Unwittingly” in a statement a few days ago. 

I came across the word “Hyperthymesia” in a series I read last year and now I can say, “If he says he has Hyperthymesia, I’ll believe him.”

(If you want to know what the word means, look it up.😁)

To becoming,

Amos Bani 

Bibliophile/Writer