Three Cups of Tea

Simply put, this book is amazing. I have no idea why it took me so long to finally get into it. Once I did, I think I finished it in four days, even finishing one chapter while walking off of a plane. The story is really inspiring, and it's got me thinking about:

sacrifice
work
education
literacy
love
humility
relationships
tolerance
respect
kindness

Here's part of what I would consider the climax of the story: "Sitting there beside him, I realized that everything, all the difficulties I'd gone through, from the time I'd promised to build the school, through the long struggle to complete it, was nothing compared to the sacrifices he was prepared to make for his people. Here was this illiterate man, who'd hardly ever left his little village in the Karakoram, yet he was the wisest man I've ever met." - Greg Mortenson

I've been thinking about that idea, about the sacrifices Haji Ali was prepared to make. He made many of them, but he didn't make them all. Yet he was fully prepared to. I wonder, is that willingness in and of itself a sacrifice?

On a lighter note, I also wonder what books I might like if I just pushed past the fact that they don't initially capture my interest. Little Women? (bo-ring) To Kill a Mockingbird? One of the many Steinbeck novels that have now been recommended to me, following my Travels with Charley post? I'm not sure. I read Oliver Twist recently, and decided the musical, even though I haven't seen it, is probably better than the novel.