I have been inspired by literature…

I have been inspired by literature… Those of you that have known me as a young man might be thrown off by this statement. However it's amazingly true that a boy with a learning disability struggling to graduate high school with 1.8 grade point average has read over 50 books in the last 4 years but its true. How did I do this? I cheated…;) "If you're not cheating you're not trying" I listened to them all. I'm a subscriber to audible.com and I download 2 books a month. I then put them on my iPhone which I take everywhere. I listen on my way to work and back, driving, walking, riding my bike, or taking the bus. I also listen during errands: dishes, walking the dog, getting water or mail at work, and exercising. In addition I listened to the books on 2x the speed which takes a while of get used to, but your mind adapts quickly. Through this I can't explain the amount of insight and knowledge I have gained because of this discovery of learning. The only way of explaining the transformation is if you could imagine getting off an airplane and started understanding the new foreign language where you arrived at. Because so much of my life I felt that I was in the dark. I couldn't access information like many of my peers could. It would be like not having the internet today while everyone around you does. But now I take another step forward in reading and writing, because I'm around it so much at work and on the internet.

Anyhow here are the books that have influenced me in my decisions to take bigger and more dangerous risks in life. As well as a brief summary of how they inspired me. :)

• Into the Wild - Christopher McCandless's dangerous sense of adventure and passion for independence and travel.
• Where Men Win Glory - Even when life is comfortable and plentiful, you should still follow your heart no matter the cost.
• Neither Here Nor There - Bill's fabulously fun story of his experiences of him as a young and old man, backpacking Europe with his friend Kats.
• A Million Miles in a Thousand Years - "How I Learned to Live a Better Story" Donald Miller looked inwardly at his own life that seemed unmeaningful and uninteresting and then decided to train to ride his bike across the US. Through this, he learned to live a better story.
• A Moveable Feast - Hemingway living in Paris :)
• The Greater Journey - This story is about Americans going to Paris to study, learn, live, and come back to give Americans back home a better life.
• Steve Jobs - Responding to failure, trusting your own genius, and having the persistence to see it through.
• Teacher Man - Frank McCourt taught me to push myself and my students "toward freedom and push fear into the corner".
• The Absolutely True Diary of the Part Time Indian - Taught me about self discovery and adapting to differences. Being the true native that he was, he expanded on his life outside the reservation.
• The Bible - Understanding that God will always take care of me, and the amazing stories of people who have decided to change their life because they heard the words "follow me."
• Brothers K - Never giving up the fight in life and doing what you love. My learning disability and just finding a way to overcome the odds.

I'm planning on listening to some of these books again when I'm there in Zagreb, so I can go more in depth in my journal writing. Some of these books were very inspiring because of their own journal writings or they wrote about someones else's journal. Writing down these moments helps you to remember your choices and why you chose that path. To that end that's why I'm going to be blogging through this experience. So I look back someday and remember moments, and also start a dialog with my friends and family. Hopefully to inspire you.