I'm a voracious reader, and when I read, I read. Yeah man, the same level of reading attention that I give to a celebrated literary work or major academic publication, is the same level of reading attention I give to the label on my favourite tin mackerel. Even the bar code and batch numbers that I don't understand I still read them. It's like a compulsion. Once something is written, this reader is smitten.

I'm also a weird sort of fanatic for facts and information, even seemingly useless information. Yeah, I am a reservoir of trivia. And I have an affinity for stories. Whether the story comes via the irreverent ideas of a clever editorial cartoonist, or from the iridescent imagination of a gifted best-selling novelist, I enjoy a good story. Factual, fictional, farce or fantasy; truth, theory or suss; press story or stress story; whether it wrong or right, is like a rite and a right, I don't have to need it, I'll still read it even when it nuh done write.

Some people avoid news with the claim that it's usually too depressing but I consume a lot of news, and like many other Jamaicans who have to live or work abroad, I'm a serious 'yard news junkie'. No matter where I am in the world, a day doesn't go by without me devouring every last morsel of available news about or from Jamaica. It's a daily fix that helps one to keep connected, and entertained.

social media

And these days I get whole heap of news backed up by a variety of views. Yes peeps, thanks to the increasingly interactive nature of modern mainstream media, I not only get to read up on the latest nowadays news, I also get to see some of the responses other people have to the news. Thanks to social media. Everybody who's a reader can now be a published writer and regular commentator. Every newspaper these days is available online, and almost all of them provide for, and actively invite readers to comment on the articles, or share it with friends via Facebook or Twitter.

Twitter sweet! I'm a recent recruit and one of the things I find fascinating about this rapidly growing form of social media is that everybody gets to deliver news and dash out views. Some of the tweets are provocative and powerful, some inspiring and uplifting, some awful, some alright and some just awfully trite.

Today, my timeline was lighting up with contrasting vibes, views and voices. I saw a plethora of outcry, outrage and objection to another disturbing case of civilian deaths at the hands of police - in Denham Town again! And many folks offered commentary on the controversy over what the PM said or didn't say to Bloomberg, and what the minister of iinformation said or shouldn't have said about it. There was also an abundance of opinionated offerings on the hoopla over the four-day visit to Jamaica of Prince Harry of Wales.

Much of the comments were from people who objected to our bruck pocket country spending $3 million on a royal visit. And many commented on the spectacle of the mock race between the prince and Usain Bolt. I actually chimed in then and tweeted that I'd be more impressed if the GOODLY prince risked a real royal whopping and competed in karate with my son who's a black belt. I also had edifying engagements with the people like the erudite Drs Sonjah Stanley Niaah and Marcia Forbes. And I had a raucously risqué exchange with the affable and gifted Tanya Stephens. And much more!

You want to find out? You can read everything, and also turn writer and commentator. Just go to @BlakkaEllis and follow me on Twitter.

box-mi-back@hotmail.com.

Thanks to social media. Everybody who's a reader can now be a published writer and regular commentator.