Changing the World One Book at a Time: The Story Behind Room to Read

Here’s a story you don’t hear too often: Microsoft millionaire visits a school in Nepal and decides to abandon his job and life of luxury to bring back books for kids.

That’s John Wood’s story. The school he visited in Nepal had 75 to 80 kids packed into one small room with dirt floors, according to Oprah.com’s summary of the “I Walked Away from Millions” show about Wood. Their library had only twenty books, many of which were not suitable for children.

This injustice disturbed Wood, and he promised to do something about it. Wood founded Room to Read, a nonprofit organization dedicated to spreading child literacy. Soon, he was so passionate about his cause that he started shrugging off e-mails about Bill Gates in order to pursue child literacy, according to Oprah.com.

When he made his decision to leave Microsoft, Wood thought, “It's been a great eight years, but I'm making wealthy shareholders wealthier,” according to Oprah.com’s show summary. “Meanwhile, there are 800 million people in the developing world lacking basic literacy. . . . What kind of a man am I if I don't go face this challenge directly or devote my life to this?”

Wood wrote a book about his story, Leaving Microsoft to Change the World: An Entrepreneur’s Odyssey to Educate the World’s Children (HarperCollins), which Publishers Weekly gave a starred review. You can find it at your local bookstore or online.

According to Wood’s book web site, Room to Read has established more than 3,800 libraries, published 147 books in the local languages of the countries they work in, and provided more than 1.6 English language books and 1.4 million local language books. Read more about Wood’s accomplishments on www.leavingmiscrosoftbook.com.

For more information on Room to Read, check out www.roomtoread.org.