John Wood is the Founder and Board Co-Chair of Room to Read, one of the fastest-growing and award-winning charities founded during this century. A former Microsoft marketing executive, Wood left the company in 1999 to start the organization. He documented his decision and the creation of Room to Read in his memoir, Leaving Microsoft to Change the World.

To date, Room to Read has opened over 1,600 schools and 15,000 libraries, distributed over 12 million books including over 850 self-published original local language titles, and supported over 20,000 girls to succeed in secondary school and beyond.

In Creating Room to Read, Wood tackles the organization’s next steps, the challenges of managing expansion while maintaining integrity; of raising money in a collapsing economy; of promoting gender equality through scholarships for girls; and of changing the mission to include not just building libraries but also publishing books for children who literally have no books in their native language and training thousands of teachers and librarians. Thanks to Room to Read, 7.5 million children in Asia and Africa have now had the benefit of books and schools.

John Wood, Founder and Board Co-Chair of Room to Read has shared the first chapter of his book Creating Room to Read on my blog. Check it out if you have a minute and share it with other booklovers.

http://tinyurl.com/b88swy3