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Common Reading Experience

2007-2008
During the 2007 Fall semester, Fort Lewis students, faculty, staff and community members shared an intellectual experience by reading Mountains Beyond Mountains: The Quest of Dr. Paul Farmer, a Man who Would Cure the World by Pulitzer Prize winning author Tracy Kidder.

Mountains Beyond Mountains tells the story of Dr. Paul Farmer. An infectious disease specialist and anthropologist, Dr. Farmer is working to change the world of health care in places like Cuba, Peru and the prisons of Russia. Dr. Farmer is also responsible for establishing a community-based hospital in Haiti that provides medical treatment for many Haitians afflicted with HIV/AIDS and other diseases..

In many courses throughout the first semester, students explored ideas from the text. The college also scheduled events such as discussion groups, lectures and films tied to the book's themes in order to help foster a community of readers, thinkers and writers. See a list of events here.

2008-2009
During the 2008 Fall Semester, Fort Lewis students, faculty and staff will read Three Cups of Tea: One Man's Mission to Promote Peace . . . . One School at a Time by by Greg Mortenson and David Oliver Relin.

Three Cups of Tea tells the story of how Mortenson drifted into an impoverished Pakistan village in the Karakoram Mountains after he failed to climb the mountain, K2.

Moved by the inhabitants' kindness, he promised to return and build a school. He built not just one but 55 schools in the forbidding terrain that gave birth to the Taliban. He only requires that the community be involved in the construction and that girls must be able to attend. This book recounts his experiences.

A list of 2008 Common Reading Experience events will be posted.

Mountains Beyond Mountains & Three Cups of Tea

Fort Lewis College students are reading Mountains Beyond Mountains by Tracy Kidder for the 2007-2008 Common Reading Experience.

Three Cups of Tea will be the 2008-2009 Common Reading Experience book.