Worth the trouble

As many of you know, I am the manliest being to ever roam the face of the earth. As Ray Stevens once sang, I'm a logger, up from Oregon, quite possibly the toughest man in the entire world. It is because I am comfortable with my overwhelming masculinity (and because I see Jennie was not penalized in her interview for saying she likes to read Nicholas Sparks books because they make her cry) that I feel free to tell you this.
I dern near cried today for the first time since sixth grade. I finished the novel The Kite Runner I had been reading for my AP English class and the blasted thing was just so emotional. And I was at school, in the middle of the computer lab of all places. No womanly weeping actually occured, but it was real close.
I don't know if any of you are familiar with The Kite Runner, but you certainly should be.
The Kite Runner is about a young boy growin up in Afghanistan shortly before the Russians invaded, but don't be scared off by the setting; this isn't a war novel, at least not for the first two hundred pages or so. The writing is nothing spectacular, but Khaled Hosseini makes up for this by delivering a really good story. That last line wasn't exactly elegant, but I think that's the beauty of the novel; there's no need to analyze or think too hard about The Kite Runner, it's just a good read.
I mentioned earlier that the last time I cried was in sixth grade. That outburst came at the conclusion of another novel, Where the Red Fern Grows. It has come to my attention that some people (specifically Matt Welker and Alexander Merritt) were not moved to tears at the end of this classic and even defied logic by finding humor in the tragic passing of Old Dan and Little Ann. These people are souless. That book is a masterpiece.
I know people like my sister generally avoid books that aren't about ill-fated romances or quirky modern working girls, but I hope their literary lethargy will not prevent them from enjoying what is, in my opinion, a novel well worth the trouble of reading.