Leaving Microsoft: New book on Service-Tripping Around the World

By Joshua | September 14th, 2006 | 1 Comment »

“What started as a trekking holiday in Nepal became a spiritual journey, and then a mission: to change the world one book and one child at a time by setting up libraries in the developing world.”

I have not yet read John Wood’s Leaving Microsoft to Change the World, but people keep telling me I should. “An Entrepreneur’s Odyssey to Educate the World’s Children,” as the subtitle reads, is definitely on my wish list. In the meantime, if any Tranquilo Travelers out there have read it, please tell me what you think.

Speaking of libraries, I have a few friends in Nicaragua who, in addition to running various tourist services, have helped set up the country’s first lending libraries. Here’s one in San Juan del Sur. Another is the Puedo Leer library in Granada. Support them by bringing down books, donating, or visiting and offering to read to the kids.

Or just buy a book like Leaving Microsoft and get inspired.

Here are some more books I wish I was reading (in a parallel universe that didn’t involve packing up my stuff and moving across the country):

The White Man’s Burden: Why the West’s Efforts to Aid the Rest Have Done So Much Ill and So Little Good, by William Easterly

LAST RESORTS: The Cost of Tourism in the Caribbean, by Polly Pattullo

How to Live Your Dream of Volunteering Overseas, by Joseph Collins, Zahara Heckscher, and Stefano DeZerega.

Sun After Dark: Flights into the Foreign, by Pico Iyer

I’ll stop this list before it explodes. Time to get back to work. Filling boxes. Clearing the clutter.