Weekly Geeks, August 1-7
August 2, 2010 at 12:03 am Kate 4 comments
Until I feared I would lose it, I never loved to read. One does not love breathing.
- Harper Lee, To Kill a Mockingbird
This week’s Geeks is about To Kill a Mockingbird. While it’s a brilliant book and I love it more every time I read it, it’s not a book that changed my life.
It didn’t change my perspective on race; it was just incredibly well-written. The novel is populated with Good People who Do The Right Thing fighting against Injustice and Intolerance, and I agree that it’s an important book that everyone should read. But I can’t say much more than that.
So with that, I’ll leave you with the answers to last week’s author picture quiz and call it a post! Hope you all had a lovely weekend, and if you have more to say about TKAM than I did, please leave your thoughts in the comments form!
Favorite Authors: J. D. Salinger (oh, and his daughter, who is emphatically not one of my favorites), Charles Dickens and Susanna Clarke
Author of the book currently reading: Margaret Atwood (Life Before Man)
Author of the book most recently finished: Sarah Waters (The Night Watch)
Hottest Author: Joshua Ferris (There are probably hotter authors, but look at him! He’s adorable.)
Entry filed under: Weekly Geeks. Tags: to kill a mockingbird, Weekly Geeks.
1.
Shannon | August 2, 2010 at 9:06 pm
You know, it wasn’t life-changing for me either. I love it, but I think maybe I was too young when I first read it — much of the race stuff went right over my head. I mean, it’s in my all-time top 100, but so are 99 other books. It is beautifully written, and I remember that what I liked most about it was reading about how Scout felt about reading, because that’s how I was when I was her age.
2.
Kate | August 3, 2010 at 7:36 am
Maybe age does have something to do with it — I read it when I was, oh, maybe 14. The parts that I remember best and love are just the ordinary aspects of Scout’s life, like the ham costume and finding things in the hollow tree.
And I agree — it’s in my top 100, but so are 99 others! That’s a succinct way of putting it.
3.
Britney | August 3, 2010 at 6:22 pm
Great book, but not life-changing. I loved that the whole book was about how Jem broke his arm.. :)
4.
Kate | August 3, 2010 at 10:12 pm
Ah, yes! And you only find out how at the very end — it is really beautifully written. Are we maybe too young as a generation to really “get” the race relations thing, do you think?