READING ROOM

Here's another must-read: Leaving Microsoft to Change the World, by John Wood. It's a fascinating tale of how Wood, a senior marketing staffer at Microsoft, founded Room to Read -- a program that brings books and schools to youngsters in Nepal, Vietnam and other remote areas.

In 1998, Wood, decided to take a trek to Nepal as a break from his hectic life with the Mothership. The vacation would change his life -- when he met a middle-aged Nepali man named Pasupathi, who convinced him to visit a local school. Wood was astounded to find that the only books available to the children were a handful of paperbacks left by other trekkers, including a Danielle Steel novel, Finnegans Wake, and the Lonely Planet Guide to Mongolia.

When he left the humble school, Pasupathi asked him to return. The school's teacher reiterated the request, adding, "Perhaps, sir, you will someday come back with books."

That chance encounter would ultimately result in a life-shift for Wood, who would, at age 35, leave his high profile post, and leverage his contacts and skills to make a huge difference across the world, with small amounts of money.

I've always been fascinated by "micro-loans" and the impact they can have in developing countries. Early in the book, he tells of his friendship with Nguyen Thai Vu, a bright, creative Vietnamese youngster. Wood met the young man who was working at Wood's hotel, and quickly learned of Vu's hunger to learn more about computers. Wood wanted to help Vu but had to do it in a way that that would allow the youngster to accept it, because an out-and-out gift would be rejected as insulting the growing friendship. The younster wouldn't even allow Wood to buy him an Excel book.

"How was I going to help him? I was thrilled that he was not begging and that he valued his independence. But I wanted him to achieve his dream of a full education, and he was not making it easy." Then the mentor had a brainstorm, grabbed a piece of paper, and wrote a letter informing Vu that as a Microsoft employee "I have been financially empowered by Bill Gates to provide scholarship money for promising young students in Vietnam to learn computer science," and enclosed "a crisp $20 bill" into the letter as a "study grant," providing a way for the youngster to accept the help.

That was the beginning of an ongoing partnership, writes Wood. Ultimately, Vu pursued a graduate dregree in software engineering, with the help of about $1,300 from Wood.

Like his relationship with Vu, the secret to Room to Read's success, says Wood, is that it is a partnership, a reciprocal relationship rather than just a hand-out. In the first school in Nepal, Wood generated the funds to buy the bricks, and books, but the community itself provided the labor to build the room.

Now based in San Francisco, Wood established a non-profit, now called Room to Read, and has established 3,600 libraries, built 287 schools, funded 2,300 long-term girls scholarships, and donated or published more than 2.8 million books.

I'm about half-way through this wonderful book, (I haven't yet gotten to the section about setting up the girls' scholarships) and I'll continue to post about it as I read further. But don't miss it. It's incredibly inspiring. That's wonderful these days, when it's far too easy to get a case of "charity fatique," and become completely overwhelmed by so many important causes pleading for your attention and your check book.

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