"Reading" Break

Well, tomorrow is the last day of winter semeter "Reading" Break. Yes, I actually did some reading, but mostly I did unit planning. World War One unit planning, to be specific. I also did some homework. And ate a lot of Qoola. Delicious!

I'm currently reading Memoir From Antproof Case by Mark Helprin. I picked it up at the United Way book sale last semester and was super excited about starting it after reading the summary on the back. It is pretty interesting, but I'm not totally wrapped up in it. I tend to go several days between reading it without even thinking about it and I'm finding that I have to really make a point of sitting down with my book. I think part of the reason is that it has extremely long chapters. And we all know I am the type of person who hates stopping partway through a chapter. This means that when I sit down to read, I really need to have time to finish the section. Now when each chapter is 50-80 pages that means a good hour of free time required.

I'm also breaking my one-book-for-pleasure-at-a-time rule, and I started reading a graphic novel - which I admit is not eactly for pleasure. I will be doing a presentation with Kristi in a few weeks and I want to get a jump on the text. I guess I need to step up my quality time spent with books!

Stones into Schools - Greg Mortenson

Stones into Schools picks up where Three Cups of Tea leaves off. The two books recount the challenges and successes of the Central Asia Institute (CAI) in its quest to build schools to promote female education throughout Pakistan and Afghanistan.

I thoroughly enjoyed Three Cups of Tea when I read it in the summer, and Stones into Schools is more of the same. Mortenson tells his tale with humour, honesty, and optimism and something about his writing propelled me to "just keep reading."

I have always loved books that deal with "troubled" areas - The Poisonwood Bible, The Kite Runner, A Thousand Splendid Suns, Half of a Yellow Sun - all incredible reads in my opinion. I'm not sure what it is about his genre, but something about it really speaks to me.

I highly recomment Stones into Schools - especially if you read Three Cups of Tea first! A must-read for anyone who cares about education, literacy, or the human race in general.