‘Notebook’ author Nicholas Sparks reveals passions to Rogers crowd
Posted on Monday, October 13, 2008
ROGERS - Nicholas Sparks burst onto the literary scene in 1996 with his international best-selling book "The Notebook," the novel the blockbuster movie by the same name is based on.
Sparks, who visited with high school classes in Rogers early last week, served as the main attraction at a fundraising event organized by the Rogers Public Library at the Embassy Suites on Saturday.
Since releasing "The Notebook," Sparks has spent considerable time atop the New York Times Best Seller's List, having crafted 14 highlyacclaimed novels over a span of just 12 years, the latest," The Lucky One," released just last week.
"I was never big into reading before someone told me about Nicholas Sparks," said 24-year-old Springdale resident Heather Stewart, who was turned onto the author by a friend three years ago. "I don't know how to explain it. He's just so good."
So good, in fact, that residents of Oregon, Illinois and Georgia - to name a few - planned to visit friends in Northwest Arkansas this weekend specifically so they could see Sparks in person and hear him speak. When the author himself stepped to the microphone, he opened the door to the side of Nicholas Sparks many fans may not have known.
"One of the things I find most interesting is when people talk about their passions," Sparks said. "There's something about when you get a person talking about something they're passionate about - something other than what they do - that fascinates me."
So that's exactly what Sparks did. He talked about his three passions - his family, his dogs and track and field.
But the story that moved those in attendance Saturday - and that has been attracting the most attention to Sparks outside of his writing abilities - was his love of track and field. The assumption Sparks, who has pumped out more than one extremely-detailed, highlyacclaimed novel per year since receiving his break with "The Notebook," has no time for anything but writing was quickly shot down. In fact, for several months of every year, Sparks can be found with a whistle in his mouth and a stopwatch in hand at New Bern High School, just a few miles from his home in eastern North Carolina.
While coaching the track team, Sparks and his wife started an "unconventional"Christian school of their own for grades 6 through 12 in North Carolina called Epiphany School. Students do more than learn about rain forests, cultures, history and environmental issues. By the time each student graduates, he or she travels to at least 26 countries on six continents. They explore the rain forests of Costa Rica. They hike the Mayan ruins in Mexico. They cruise the Nile River and see the Egyptian Pyramids. They walk the Great Wall of China and more.
"My wife and I believe in making a difference," Sparks said. "We're really excited about this school. We're getting close to reaching our capacity of 300 students. When they leave here, they'll have spent 250 days abroad and have the coolest photo album ever."
It's a side of Sparks many listening at the Embassy on Saturday were not aware of. But it's a side that hardly takes a back seat to his writing.
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