The International Bank of Bob by Bob Harris
The International Bank of Bob: Connecting Our Worlds One $25 Kiva Loan at a Time
by Bob Harris
BookCrossing: http://www.bookcrossing.com/journal/11729899/
Took me three years to read this, but I'm glad I finally did. This book chronicles experiences Bob Harris had as he traveled the world to visit organizations involved in Kiva.org. He even got to meet a few of the individuals whose projects he helped to fund. Bob also tells about the creation of his group, The Friends of Bob, which actually wasn't his idea. I learned about Bob through ResQGeek, because Bob joined the Becky's Hugs team, which is pretty awesome. He's definitely a good guy. It was great to learn what he learned, see what he saw, and experience what he experienced (I don't think I'll be trying charcoal yogurt any time soon). The Rwanda chapter was particularly moving to me. Bob did a great job of showing the humanity in everyone. And the overall message of the good that can be done when people have faith in each other and encourage each other to succeed is something many of us need considering the current state of the world. So even though it took me a while to get through this book, I finished it at just the right time for me.
I will continue to make Kiva loans (though I don't have $20,000+ to put into it like Bob did!) and support people who need support. I love watching them succeed despite the odds in their parts of the world.
My thoughts about the footnotes... some of them contained way too much information I didn't need. Some were just links to sources. And some were hilarious. I think all the good info in them just should have been worked into the copy itself or put in the sources section in the back. But this definitely wasn't the worst footnoted book I've ever read, and I did enjoy some of the info a lot.
Pop Sugar Reading Challenge: A book that's been on your TBR list for way too long.