a long way gone

I haven't blogged in an age. Being back at uni means I'm pretty busy most of the time, and also a bit less inspired to share about what's going on in life as it's probably not so interesting as last year... in my opinion.

So anyway I just thought I'd write a blog about this book I just read. These days I seem to be getting slower and slower at reading, and less determined to finish. I am in the middle of a bajillion books right now, but this one I picked up in the uni library whilst looking for books for dissertation research, opened the first page to have a quick skim read, and ended up reading it solidly for 2h30 and then the following evening for about 5 hours to finish it.

It's called by a guy called Ishmael Beah and is called "A Long Way Gone: The True Story of a Child Soldier". Ishmael was a child soldier in Sierra Leone when he was about 13 years old, and has written this account of his life, described as "an astonishing confession" by the Observer.

I'd really recommend it to everyone, it's not a Christian book as far as I know, but he now talks in front of governments and important people all over the world in order to raise awareness for the plight of child soldiers all over the world, of which there are still estimated to be between 300,000 - 800,000.

Page 1.

New York City, 1998

MY HIGH SCHOOL FRIENDS have begun to suspect I haven't told them the full story of my life.

  "Why did you leave Sierra Leone?"

  "Because there is a war."

  "Did you witness some of the fighting?"

  "Everyone in the country did."

  "You m,ean you saw people running around with guns and shooting each other?"

  "Yes, all the time."

  "Cool."

I smile a little.

  "You should tell us about it sometime."

  "Yes, sometime."

It's an incredible book, the quote from the Washington Post on the cover reads

'Everyone in the world should read this book.'

It won't let me embed this video of him talking to CBS news about his life as a child soldier, but you should check it out.