Yemisi Izuora
YouREAD Initiative, one of Corporate Social Responsibility, CSR programmes of GTBank launched in 2017 to rekindle the interest in reading, has given her support to a 40-year old Nigerian, Olubayode Treasures Olawunmi who is attempting to break the Guinness World Record for the Longest Marathon Read Aloud.
The current record holder, Deepak Sharma Bajaan attained the feat in 2008 after he read a total of 17 books in 113 hours and 15 minutes. Now, Treasure Olawunmi is taking a shot at breaking the world record by reading over 15 Nigerian published books in 120 hours over a period of 6 days at the Herbert Macaulay Library, Yaba recently refurbished by the bank.
Treasures Olawunmi started the challenge on Monday 26th February, 2018 at exactly 1:30pm Nigerian time. So far, he has read nine books including Toni Kan’s The Carnivorous City, Sarah Ladipo Manyika’s Independence, Leye Adenle’s Easy Motion Tourist, Elnathan John’s Born on a Tuesday amongst many others.
Today, 1st March, has been set aside by UNESCO as the World Book Day and it is the 3rd day of his marathon attempt, he has done over 72hours of reading. The bank celebrated the day with Treasures Olawunmi, students from various schools in the environs and with over 250 readers who filled the library to capacity.