What are you reading? (Page 2)

I am reading all the Fudge books by Judy Bloom to my son, for the second time.  That's all the time I have to read.  I had never read them before.  They are pretty good. 

Just started How To Change The World: Social Entrepreneurs and the Power of New Ideas, by David Bornstein.  Needed something inspirational.  Some quick facts:

• According to a recent Harris Poll, a whopping 97% of Generation Y are looking for work that allows them "to have an impact on the world."

   

• In recent years, courses or centers in social entrepreneurship have been created in over 250 universities and colleges such as Harvard Business School, Yale School of Management, Duke, NYU's Stern & Wagner, Wharton, Oxford, and Stanford.

   

• Teach for America received 25,000 applications for 3,700 slots in 2008, an increase of more than a third over 2007. In Ivy League schools such as Yale, Cornell, and Dartmouth, close to 10% of all graduates applied to the program.

   

• In the past two years, the Acumen Fund, an organization that supports social entrepreneurs who solve major problems through business solutions (eg. malaria nets, water purification, loans for housing), received more than 1,000 applications from top ranked business students for just 15 fellowship positions.

   

• The list of top business entrepreneurs who are focusing either full time or a considerable amount of time on social entrepreneurship is highly impressive:
  1. Pierre Omidyar, founder of ebay, created Omidyar Network to "enable individual self-empowerment on a global scale."
  2. Jeff Skoll, cofounder of ebay, also runs Participant Productions, which makes socially conscious films including An Inconvenient Truth and Goodnight and Good Luck.
  3. Bill Gates has left Microsoft to pursue a full-time career in philanthropy.
  4. Warren Buffett recently donated $30 billion to the Gates Foundation.
  5. William Draper, one of the biggest venture capitalists in Silicon Valley, created the Draper Richards Foundation to support social entrepreneurs.
  6. Klaus Schwab, the founder of the World Economic Forum (Davos), founded the Schwab Foundation for Social Entrepreneurship.
  7. Sergey Brin and Larry Page, founders of Google, created Google.org, which supports social entrepreneurs and has raised over $1 billion.
  8. Legendary venture capitalist John Doerr is leading an effort to raise $100 million for microcredit loans.

   

• The Grameen Bank, the leading example for social entrepreneurs worldwide, received the Nobel Peace Prize in 2006.

   

• The Bridgespan Group, a consulting group that advises social entrepreneurs, received 1,800 applications for 18 job openings in 2006.

I read that so long ago, I can't tell you anything about it now. But I remember it being very good. Maybe I should suggest it for a future book club book.

I can relate.  I really liked the fourth book and hope I am still alive when the movie finally comes out.  Okay, the first part will be out in November but who knows when they will finish it. I hate that!  At least you have plenty of time to catch up.

I am "reading" (audiobook)  Little Bird of Heaven by Joyce Carol Oates. I am on an Oates kick since she's coming to do a session at the public library in March.  I am a long time fan.  Before that I "read" another by her, A Fair Maiden.     She has a loooong list of books, so I should be busy for a while.

I also "read" Shades of Grey by Jasper Fforde.  SO clever!  He's also coming to the library in March, it's a good month.

I have The Girl with the Dragon Tattoo, which I bought in October, but haven't picked it up yet. I rarely read books anymore in print, it takes me a long time 3 pages at a time before bed.   I also have a new Nook, so any "real" reading will probably be there for a while.    I finally requested the Epub format from the library for all 3 Larsson books so I can download them, but I don't know when they will be available. 

Life - Keith Richards and James Fox. Fascinating life story, well written (in my opinion) and brutally honest. Some great witty lines in there - for instance talking about drugs "I never overdid it. Well I shouldn't say never. Sometimes I was f****ng comatose."