Lorraine Sithole has always been at the forefront of cultivating a love for reading among people and making it exciting. She graciously accepted an interview at a coffee shop on a rainy day in Johannesburg. Her big smile and spirit fills the room as she enters. Toshikazu Kawaguchi’s book Before the Coffee Gets Cold is visible in her handbag next to her.

Sithole is a publisher and writer, founder of the BookWorms Book Club, and has contributed to these collections: Black Tax: Burden or Ubuntu, edited by Niq Mhlongo, and When Secrets Become Stories, edited by Sue Nyathi. She is the current chairperson of the International Book on Books for Young People South Africa, headquartered in Switzerland whose mission is to promote international understanding through children’s book. She is also a wife, mother and she runs a successful project management company with her husband.

Her love for reading comes from her grandmother. She grew up in Meadowlands, Soweto, and although they did not have a big house, she remembers it as a warm place filled with books. Her grandmother loved to read Afrikaans and English books. She was a Readers’ Digest subscriber, and Sithole remembers the joyful moments when the postman delivered a package of books every month. It was the highlight of the month to see what new books had arrived. The icing were the regular afternoon reading sessions with her grandmother.

“Seeing her read in her senior years made me think differently about reading. With her reading all the time, I realised that reading can be a pleasurable hobby. That’s where my constant reading comes from. I read beyond learning and researching. It calms me too,” says Sithole.

Sithole is a firm believer that the foundation for reading starts at home, and she is grateful for the role her grandmother played in moulding her reading habit. “If the foundation is already built at home and we have readers and books at home, we’re more guaranteed to build children who are lifelong learners, curious, and find comfort in books,” Sithole adds.

She always excelled at school and reading opened many doors for her. In grade 7, as one of the top 10 pupils in Soweto, she was selected to be part of an advanced programme through which she was introduced to life outside the township. Her bright mind later secured her a scholarship to Woodmead, now Heron Bridge School. Here, a world of opportunities opened up.

In all phases of her life, her love of reading remained consistent. She always had books.

In 2011, Bookworms Book Club was founded to foster a reader community and accountability. They invest in ploughing back into communities because one of their values is “paying it forward”.

To date, the club has had many humanitarian initiatives. It renovated a Soweto-based school’s library, provided 50 000 meals over two years in Alexandra for children, and contributed to erecting a mathematics centre in Soweto.

Her go-to genres are historical fiction and fiction. She has hundreds of books, and her collection is still growing. Sithole reads widely, which makes it difficult to single out a favourite author. She enjoys work by Angela Makholwa, Pamela Power, Dudu Busani, Maya Angelou, Toni Morrison, and Sue Nyathi. Her favourite Afrikaans book is Fiela se Kind by Dalene Matthee, and a book that has stuck with her is Yesterday I Cried by Iyanla Vanzant.

A lot of exciting things await her. One of the highlights is hosting the second annual Gauteng International Book Festival, set for later this year. Sithole is the festival director. The festival’s goal is to bring book lovers together. The inaugural festival was a major hit last year and attracted more than 350 people.