Creating Room to Read: A Story of Hope in the Battle for Global Literacy

Written by John Wood

Narrated by Sean Pratt

The inspirational story of a former Microsoft executive's quest to build libraries around the world and share the love of books

What's happened since John Wood left Microsoft to change the world? Just ask six million kids in the poorest regions of Asia and Africa. In 1999, at the age of thirty-five, Wood quit a lucrative career to found the nonprofit Room to Read. Described by the San Francisco Chronicle as “the Andrew Carnegie of the developing world,” he strived to bring the lessons of the corporate world to the nonprofit sector-and succeeded spectacularly.

In his acclaimed first book, Leaving Microsoft to Change the World, Wood explained his vision and the story of his start-up. Now, he tackles the organization's next steps and its latest challenges-from managing expansion to raising money in a collapsing economy to publishing books for children who literally have no books in their native language. At its heart, Creating Room to Read shares moving stories of the people Room to Read works to help: impoverished children whose schools and villages have been swept away by war or natural disaster and girls whose educations would otherwise be ignored.

People at the highest levels of finance, government, and philanthropy will embrace the opportunity to learn Wood's inspiring business model and blueprint for doing good. And general readers will love Creating Room to Read for its spellbinding story of one man's mission to put books within every child's reach.

• Language: English
• Publisher: Ascent Audio
• Release date: Mar 5, 2013
• ISBN: 9781469024387

John Wood

After earning an MBA at the prestigious Kellogg School of Management, John Wood worked for several years in banking before joining Microsoft in 1991. Through hard work and determination, he ascended rapidly, earning coveted overseas assignments in Australia and China. While serving as Microsoft's Director of Business Development for the Greater China region, Wood decided to change his life's focus to help children break the cycle of poverty through the lifelong gift of education. In 2000, he founded Room to Read, a nonprofit organization that promotes literacy in Nepal, India, Sri Lanka, Cambodia, Laos, Vietnam, and soon in Africa. When not traveling the world fund-raising and visiting Room to Read communities, he lives in San Francisco.

Reviews for Creating Room to Read

[darthdeverell · Rating: 5 out of 5 stars]

John Wood’s Creating Room to Read: A Story of Hope in the Battle for Global Literacy picks up from his previous book, Leaving Microsoft to Change the World: An Entrepreneur’s Odyssey to Educate the World’s Children, and documents the successes and trials of the Room to Read non-profit that works to build libraries and foster gender equality in global literacy. He retells the formation of Room to Read so that the reader need not be familiar with the previous book and discusses how the program only works with input from the communities they help and how he and his employees bring a business mindset to non-profit work in the hope of making the most direct changes. Wood draws upon a wealth of evidence to demonstrate how education, specifically literacy, directly benefits people around the developing world, both in terms of what types of employment they can make and in how long they may expect to live. He draws upon his old boss Steve Ballmer’s methods, specifically the idea of Get Shit Done, to argue for making bold decisions. Wood also demonstrates how the things that make a company like Room to Read work are not necessarily cash donations, but things that foster access and cut overhead. The story is both inspiring and thought-provoking as Wood’s story is sure to resonate with readers looking to make a difference with what time they have on this world.