The Thankful Project: A Book

Day 19: A Prompt About "A Book"; hosted by Kenzie from Chasing Happy

For today's prompt, I decided to pick a book that I am currently reading to make my thankful post more meaningful.  So today, I am thankful for Righteous Dopefiend by Philippe Bourgois and Jeff Schoenberg.
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I am currently reading this book for my Socio Anthropology class; so as you could imagine, this book takes an anthropological approach to do an ethnic study of the daily struggles of survival of homeless people with a physical and emotional addiction to heroin.
Although I do not live in the states, this book is based off a group of people who live in San Francisco, I think this is a great read for anyone to look into the day-to-day lives of those who are homeless.
I have yet to finished reading this book as I am currently on chapter 7, but just by reading the stories of the lives of different people just makes me so thankful for the life I have.
People usually take for granted the homes that we will in and the food that we eat, and just reading this ethnographic study is a great wake up call that I shouldn't be taking my life, and every thing in it for granted.
I am just thankful that this book is opening my eyes to also see that homeless addicts do actually have feelings and their own social lives.  It's astonishing to me that they are just like us, the only difference is that they are either doing heroin or crack, and struggling to keep up with their daily demands.
Ultimately, I have learned so much by reading this book - stuff about what life is like on the other side based on the researchers spending 12 years with these group of people.
I've said it many times already, but I am thankful that this book has found its way into my hands and mind for me to be really appreciative and thankful for what I have - parents, food, and a home.