TIPTOPSTARS

''Zimbabweans are lousy readers.'' This is the quikest describtion you would hear when talking to a Zimbabwean publisher or writer. How severe is the problem... You can see from the volunms of books we published that the country harbours enthusiastic writers, but very few of these books get read,'' an official of Weaver Press told journalists in Harare recently. Weaver Press is one of Zimbabwe's leading publishers.

Zimbabwe's low reading culture has found it hard to thrive on the zeal of its writers, amongst them Lawrence Hoba. Young Hoba who is springing at an exemplary speed gives more consideration to his childhood passion and dream than to his people's reaction towards the book industry.

Having found Weaver as his publisher, Hoba can now settle to work on his numerous pieces, unperturbed. His next book will be succeeding The Trek and Other Stories, published in 2009 as Hoba's maiden book. However, his stories have been published in several other short stories collections, including Irene Staunton's Laughing Now and Writing Now.

In his stories, Hoba dares into his society's ambiguities, including the Agrerian Reforms that plunged Zimbabwe into an economic quagmire. "I duel on several other issues of great Importance,'' said the Harare-based writer, who has several role models. " I admire writers such as Shimmer Chinodya, Charles Mungoshi, Gabriel G. Marquez, Paulo Coelho, Pablo Neruda and Chenjerai Hove.