Three Cups of Tea

[Viola]

I got this book for Christmas, and I'm really enjoying it. Is anyone reading it or planning on reading it? There is a website for it. http://www.threecupsoftea.com/

[meemee]

viola i read it last year and enjoyed it immensely.

just so so so inspiring. that he accomplished sooo much.

the library was selling two copies for a buck and i bought them to pass around friends.

[Ms Apricot]

Read it. I was a little put off by it. I would have been much more interested in reading about the students and teachers at the schools and the villagers who put so much into creating the schools.

[Valkyrie9]

What exactly put you off by it, Ms. Apricot?

I thought it was great--I love a story that tells how we can help bring peace, instead of all the justifications for why we bring war. I've been donating to ikat.org (the foundation) since reading the book, and then send out great updates once or twice a year about how the schools are doing and how folks in these regions are faring.

[Tra1978]

I have this book sitting on my shelf. I picked it up on a whim. I like tea so the title peaked my interest (I know it's not about tea but that's what made me initially look at the book) and the back sounded interesting. A couple of my friends have read it and enjoyed it so my goal it to read it before spring.

[Theoretica]

This book is one of my all time favorites. I'm curious too Ms. Apricot, why you were put off by it? I really liked his respect for the culture and religion, how he involved the villages and kept coming back...not just dumping money on their 'cause' and letting them sort it out.

[meemee]

well i am not ms apricot but i do agree with her sentiments.

i found it a little too heavy on the 'me, me me' part where i felt he was talking about himself a lot more than i wanted to read about.

but then i realised this is his story and he is writing it so i was able to accept his approach.

THEORETICA - at the time i was reading this i was also reading a travelogue. Rory Stewart's The places in between. an amazing book. he walked thru afghanistan tracing emperor babur's journey (i think 12the century). and he found places that still remain unchanged. an amazing, amazing book. he is a historian.

what is amazing to me is he saw some destruction of precious historical sites in the interior. and now he has started an organisation that tries to preserve them. just amazing.

[Ms Apricot]

Originally Posted by Valkyrie9

What exactly put you off by it, Ms. Apricot?

I enjoyed reading about Pakistan and Afghanistan. I appreciated his efforts and I think his accomplishments are remarkable. I was interested in his comments about Musshareff, because I read it at the time that he had to leave the presidency and there was a lot of conflict about his role and actions.

What put me off? I thought the writing style was poor and awkward. I think it is weird for an author to write about himself in the third person. I don't have the book in front of me and it's been awhile, but I recall some events seemed almost surreal and an artificial distance was placed between reader and author because of the choice of a third person narrative.

The book makes him out to be a saint - I would have liked to read a little more detail about the people who have difficulties with him, and understand their views why.

The book is about schools in Pakistan and Afghanistan, yet there is very little information about how the schools operate. How are students selected? Does everyone get to attend if they want? Where do they find the teachers? What teaching methods do they use? There are a lot of educational philosophies out there - what is working in these schools?

It might have been nice to give the students, teachers and villagers a voice in the book. Although they were quoted in the book, usually it was about how great Mortenson is and how they love him. I would like to know more about THEM - in their own voices - why school is important to them, their aspirations, their sacrifices for education. I felt like their voices and stories had been appropriated by these American authors.

It's a school! Couldn't they ask the teachers and students to tell their stories as a writing exercise, and then incorporate them into the book? Or use interviews? Something like Deborah Ellis did with Three Wishes, about Isreali and Palestinian children.

Finally, I question the concept that exporting a Western-style formal school is the right choice for education for all people everywhere. There is an assumption that seems to date back to the European missionaries that the natives should be cleaned up and sent to schools. Yet over in the Education fora, there are many who wish they could revise our version of public education and create a new model.

Mortenson may be doing something different in Pakistan, but there is so little information about what exactly is happening there that it's hard to tell.

I'm sure others disagree, but those are my thoughts.

[homefrontgirl]

I really enjoyed this book. It opened my eyes to an area of the world I didn't really understand but wanted to know more about. It was a neat perspective.

I read this last year, but I think I remember that the curriculum for the school was the same as any government run school in Pakistan. Teachers we're hired by the villages I believe. Maybe I'm wrong on this?

Also, wasn't this a biography? I think I remember the introduction is written by the journalist that wrote the story. Again, I could be wrong.

I too felt the writing was heavy and clumsy, but the underlying story is great and hopeful.

[Ms Apricot]

Originally Posted by homefrontgirl

Also, wasn't this a biography? I think I remember the introduction is written by the journalist that wrote the story. Again, I could be wrong.

Autobiography. Mortensen is listed as the lead author.

It's very weird to write an autobiography in the third person.

Of course, they could have taken his name off of it - maybe there is ego involved?

It is nice to find a book you enjoy, isn't it? I really wanted to like this book, because the intent - making education accessible - is valuable and worthwhile. It just left me with lots more questions than it answered - aside from the ugly writing style that left me frustrated.

[Viola]

Originally Posted by Ms Apricot

Read it. I was a little put off by it. I would have been much more interested in reading about the students and teachers at the schools and the villagers who put so much into creating the schools.

Yes, it definitely does focus on Greg Mortenson, but I think that's actually what I like about it. It's almost like a story of this man who tried to climb a mountain and what happened to his life next. It kind of reads like fiction, and of course, is colored by the authors' ideas about things. I find I do tend to think of David Relin as the author, attempting to interpret and narrate these events in a storybook kind of way, based on what Mortenson told him. But maybe Mortenson is the ones who has written some of the passages, like the one about his first girlfriend and then his marriage. I am not finished with it yet, but I find the post-911 perspective insightful, and I think some of the incidents and stories that are told about the people in that area of Pakistan gives me a much sense of that part of the world than I had before. Of course it's hard to know how much is influenced by the authors' sensibilities and limitations, but I do feel like there has been some illumination and my own ideas have expanded.

I got the book as a Christmas present, because a friend knows I like books about mountain climbing and the history of food items (like coffee, tea, salt, etc), so that is why he sent it to me--I think he thought it was about tea. So it was different from what I expected, and I don't know if I would have picked up a book about an organization that builds schools in Pakistan. For one thing, I wouldn't have even thought that Pakistan needed people to come and build schools for their people, so I wasn't sure that I would even like the book. It had enough about this guy's adventures, however, that I think that's why I have enjoyed it. Although I will admit that the author comes off as saintly sometimes, and some of the treatment is heavy handed, but I figured that was the doing of David Relin being complimentary. I can see how it would have been disappointing if what I had been expecting was a story from the other side of things. Actually, that would be really interesting to read.