OK. So I will admit that I am totally late to this, but I just read To Kill A Mockingbird. I know, sad right. In high school and college I always drifted to older period English Classes. So I read plenty of Shakespeare and Chaucer but not so much when it comes to more “modern” classics. Don’t get me wrong, I enjoy reading, when I can find the time. Ebooks have made it so much easier. I just throw a couple books on my iPad and when I get a free moment I can do some reading and I don’t need a booklight. So I’ve been catching up lately. I read Neil Gaiman’s The Graveyard Book, which I really liked. I found out it was loosely based on Rudyard Kipling’s The Jungle Book, so I decided to read that. That turned out to be great timing because the new movie came out shortly after and I think I enjoyed it much more having just read the book. I went on to read The Adventures of Huckleberry Finn, Johnny Got His Gun and a few others. I cannot tell you how disappointed I was with The Great Gatspy. Oh my. I don’t think I’ve ever been so disappointed with a novel, and I read Rick Springfield’s autobiography. Anyway, I just finished To Kill A Mockingbird and I can genuinely say that I wish I had read it sooner. My wife told me she read it at a young age and that she really liked it but I wonder if reading it now added to its impact on me. While Huck Finn’s world was all about the kids getting one over on the adults, Scout was just trying to figure out what was going on in her world. While the adults still had their faults, and Atticus might have been a little too perfect, she was confused by what seemed like contradictions in the actions and ideas of adults. I was impressed by how Lee exploited the innocence of Scout while not making her out to be just dumb. Atticus’s closing argument was what really did it for me (I know shocking right!). The fact that he acknowledged the world is not always fair and some people have great advantages while others are disadvantaged, but in the eyes of the law we should all have the same opportunities. Unlike The Great Gatspy which basically said if you’ve got money and class you can get away with just about anything. Man did I hate that book.
So yeah, read To Kill A Mockingbird if you haven’t. It was definitely worth the time. I like to think I take a little something away from everything that I read, but this book actually kept me thinking and reflecting afterward. Is sucks because everyone I know read the book 20 years ago and respond with a, “yeah it was a pretty good book.”