Three Cups Of Tea - Greg Mortenson

'Here we drink three cups of tea to do business; the first you are a stranger, the second you become a friend, and the third, you join our family, and for our family we are prepared to do anything -- even die.' Haji Ali, Korphe Village Chief, Karakoram mountains, Pakistan In 1993, after a terrifying and disastrous attempt to climb K2, a mountaineer called Greg Mortenson drifted, cold and dehydrated, into an impoverished Pakistan village in the Karakoram Mountains. Moved by the inhabitants' kindness, he promised to return and build a school. Three Cups of Tea is the story of that promise and its extraordinary outcome. Over the next decade Mortenson built not just one but fifty-five schools -- especially for girls -- in remote villages across the forbidding and breathtaking landscape of Pakistan and Afghanistan, just as the Taliban rose to power. His story is at once a riveting adventure and a testament to the power of the humanitarian spirit.

Why read - I had noted this book previously to add to my wish list, but when a few people had told me they had read it and loved it, i brought it.


I was a little disappointed with this book. I was all ready for a really good read and It just did not deliver.  I found the style of writing hard to get into and found my mind wandering constantly from the story.  The style was incredibly scatty in places and jumped from one section of the story to the next with no clear explanation or time frames. I can understand he had to fit a lot of story into one book, but he left a lot of gaps in the story.  I also found that not knowing anything about the country or the culture, this was not really explained. He almost expected the reader to understand exactly what he was talking about with no real explanation. This made the book hard to follow and left big gaps for me. 


The general story, following his times in a troubled land, was interesting. And i do think he is incredibly brave to continue to travel to the places he did and carry on working despite getting himself caught up in danger. However i expected more information in regards to the schools he was building. This was only brushed upon, and again with the writing, he had built one school and in the next chapter he was on his sixth or seventh with no real explanation.  He spoke more about his  travels around the country and less about the schools he was building. 


Overall I wanted to love this book, I just could not get into it. I could not follow it and feel that i could really understand what it was about. ANd i was very disappointed with the lack of story involving the actual school.