Reading pays: Lessons from a street vendor

It’s the posture the world will forever see him in; a forlorn homeless man sitting on the pavement of a lonesome Johannesburg street — leaning slightly forward, head bent over an open book. His name is Philani Dladla, a peculiar street vendor with a trove of

books, all of which he’s read.

Known as the ‘Pavement Bookworm,’ after his story captured the imaginations of many and went viral worldwide, Dladla ‘performs’ book reviews on the streets, telling his audience what the book in his hands is about.

He started by reviewing and selling books to motorists on Empire Road in Johannesburg, arbitrarily pricing the books according to how he rated them.

Thanks to Dladla’s fame, he is now a published author. The book, The Pavement Bookworm, tells his story. Dladla writes in his memoir: “By the end of 2012, I had made enough money to go and visit my family in KwaZulu-Natal after many years. They

knew that I was still alive because the Pavement Bookworm was doing the rounds in the media… It felt good being home again. My mum was happy to see me… It was very emotional.

People were very happy to see me again — even those who used to gossip about when I got stabbed, dropped out of school and tried to kill myself and called me a loser and a bad influence and nsangwini (weed addict).

All was forgotten; it was like it never happened. It felt like I had a new body. My holiday was not very long because the City of Gold was calling me back, I had more dreams… If I wanted my dreams to come true I had to go back to the gold digger’s city.

Look at this book you’re reading; it is one of my dreams”.

What makes Dladla’s story unique is that it is a story of redemption, if not outright makeover, with books at the centre of it.

At 12 years old, while growing up in KwaZulu-Natal, he received a gift, which changed his life — his very first book. The book came from his mother’s employer, “who also left him his book collection when he died”.

Then Dladla moved with his mother to Johannesburg. It was in Johannesburg that his life began to unravel: Experimenting with drugs, losing his job and finding himself on the streets under the Nelson Mandela bridge, a place he would call home for many

years. As an addict, he looked for a way out to escape the fatal road before him. “I lived like a rat in Johannesburg,” he writes in his heartbreaking memoir. However, he turned to his childhood love for books for redemption.

There are many lessons for us from Dladla’s unique story. One lesson is that children who form the habit of reading for leisure will most likely continue with the habit later in life. Children could be introduced to reading for leisure and then drift away but

would definitely start reading for leisure again.

The second lesson is that reading books for leisure can help in rehabilitating people.  At the height of his addiction, Dladla says: “I decided I needed to save myself. I chose not to keep any money so I could avoid buying drugs… Anything I got I immediately

spent on food … and books”. He bought books he voraciously read. Therefore, by having books in his hand, he could use his time more constructively, keeping his mind off drugs.

The third lesson is that the world is full of people who still care about books. Dladla became an instant worldwide Internet sensation, not only as a book street vendor who reads all books he sells but also a kind of cultural icon. He has changed not only his

life but also of others by encouraging them to read.

Dladla is now a motivational speaker and runs a reading club for underprivileged children. What an incredible book story!