Saturday, November 04, 2006

Banff Mountain Book Festival

This past couple of days Brent and I have been away to beautiful snowy Banff. You may say awww, you poor guys "having" to be in the mountains BUT It WAS work (for me) and required lots of mental exertion for both of us. We went to seven seminar sessions wherein authors spoke about their books, two "literary lunches" where we were fed whilst listening to readings by two authors from their books, two evening programs where we heard from four adventurers about their travels, and went to a small session (just my mountain lit. class) to talk to Greg Mortenson, one of the authors and evening speakers. So...what did we learn from our experience. Well, rather than write it out here, I'm going to highly recommend that you all read Three Cups of Tea by Greg Mortenson and an American journalist. I will give the disclaimer that the book itself I did not find particularly good but the ideas and Mortenson's work I find tremendously interesting. Please please read the book if you have time, and let me know what you think. The concept of girls' education is compelling in what it returns to the cultural and physical community. Some websites that might help: The book's website Mortenson's organization's website Also, I got to meet Sharon Wood, the first North American woman to ascend Everest (and come back alive). There's much, much more I could say about the week...if you're interested, you'll have to ask in person. :)

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