While I was in Tahoe I read most of Three Cups Of Tea and then finished it up a bit after getting back. My Mom introduced me to the book and let me borrow it. The book is about Greg Mortenson who has spent about 16 years building schools in Pakistan and Afghanistan.
The book starts out talking about his attempt to climb K2 and some of his life story. I really enjoyed reading about his attempt at K2. The life story stuff is good build up to understand where he is coming from, but not the most interesting part. Then when it really gets into his work building schools in Pakistan it is very cool. It has a great message about the power of small contributions to education. Also some cultural info and a look into the life of the mountain villages. There is a bit of back and forth over if people who live in small mountain villages have a simpler better life or if living in tough conditions with minimal money isn't so great. I actually almost wonder if that's some natural back and forth or perhaps the voices of the two different authors coming through. And there's some good adventure. Just getting from place to place is a bit of an adventure, but the peak is when he gets captured and held for 8 days with minimal explanation.
This is far from the main point of the book, but often times when I hear about adventurous travel or outdoor adventures I think, oh that would be so cool to do (even if it is far beyond what I'd really do). But this book showed me someone who takes risks beyond what I have any interest in taking. So that was kind of cool to bound my interest in adventure by reading the book. (Note, just because that is an upper bound doesn't mean something far less adventurous would not also be an upper bound).
Not that I've read a lot of biographies, but I think this may be the first that was about someone who is still alive. It doesn't make a big difference, but it is a bit different. I found myself sometimes questioning how well he remembered all the details and feelings, but I think that was one of those MST3000 "It's just a show, I really should just relax" moments. And I do get the sense that the main author did a lot of interviewing and fact checking on all the important stuff.
Unlike a lot of what I read which tends to have a more focused audience, I'd really recommend this book to basically anyone.
Wednesday, August 05, 2009
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2 comments:
Interesting to hear your impression and am so glad to hear that you liked this book.
This book makes you realize that as irrational as it seems, helping people is not as easy as just putting yourself out there and saying "I'm here to help, I'll do whatever it takes". Usually, no one is listening. Or you're put on a waitlist. So many hoops he had to jump through just to build one school!
If you find yourself questioning the accuracy of his memories, then reading historical fiction would drive you crazy. I just finished reading Tariq Ali's fictional biography "The Book of Saladin", and it was driving me crazy at first not knowing what was historical fact and what was purposefully derived from his imagination.
Eventually, though, you figure out his style: when he's setting up a fictional scene to show some historically accurate fact about Saladin, when he's just going off on a philosophical tangent that clearly didn't happen in real life, etc.
Anyway, speaking of tangents...
That's cool that you read 3 cups of tea! A random customer at the bookstore I used to work at actually bought me the book, even though I was the one working there and could've gotten a discount. I think he was just doing his duty and spreading the word.
So after reading it, you have no desire to do some serious mountain climbing? Me either, but I definitely have "trekking the Himalayas" on my to do list somewhere.
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