City to read ‘Three Cups of Tea" next January

By Cori Bolger

The Lake Oswego Review, Jul 26, 2007, Updated Oct 30, 2009

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The Lake Oswego Public Library has chosen a true story set in Pakistan for its second annual citywide reading program Lake Oswego Reads, which kicks off in January.

The book, “Three Cups of Tea: One Man’s Mission to Fight Terrorism and Build Nations … One School at a Time,” was selected by a steering committee comprised of local leaders and librarians.

Published in 2006, the book is co-authored by award-winning Portland journalist David Oliver Relin. The steering committee selected it out of more than 40 book suggestions contributed by local residents.

“We knew it would be very different to go from fiction to non-fiction,” Cyndie Glazer, Lake Oswego Reads coordinator, said. “When we all met, the committee all thought this would be the right book for our second year.”

It tells the story of co-author Greg Mortenson, who in 1993 wandered into the most desolate reaches of northern Pakistan after a failed attempt to reach the peak of K2, the second-highest mountain on Earth.

Alone and without food, water or shelter, he eventually stumbled into an impoverished Pakistani village and was nursed back to health.

While recovering, he observed the village’s children sitting outdoors, scratching their lessons in the dirt with sticks. The village was so poor that it could not afford the $1-a-day salary to hire a teacher. When he left, Mortensen promised that he would return to build a school.

He had no reason to believe he would fulfill the promise, but with the help of inspired adults and children who donated money, Mortensen built 55 schools in a region where Americans are feared and hated.

In pursuit of his goal, Mortenson has survived an armed kidnapping that was issued by enraged mullahs, repeated death threats and wrenching separations from his wife and children.

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