There are a number of books that I feel like I should have read at some point in my life. You know the ones I’m talking about… the classic you somehow missed out on in school, the Pulitzer Prize winner, the novel the critics raved about. Some of them I still have hopes of reading someday. Others are actually sitting in my TBR pile, just waiting for the right time. Then again, some you really don’t care anything about, no matter how "important" others might think they are.
A good friend, who happens to be a retired English teacher, and I were discussing some of these books over the summer. She was surprised to find out I had never read To Kill A Mockingbird (by Harper Lee) or seen the movie version (starring Gregory Peck).
When my birthday rolled around in September, she gave me a copy of the book. I read it last week and really enjoyed it! In fact, I can’t imagine why I hadn’t read it before. I may have to insist my husband put the movie in his queue at Netflix soon, while the book is still fresh in my mind.
- Kelly
- Making my way through the ups and downs of life, holding fast to my favorite Bible verse: "For we walk by faith, not by sight." ~2 Corinthians 5:7. I began blogging in earnest at Yahoo360 on October 24, 2005. (briefly using LiveJournal and blog-city prior to that) In June 2008 I moved to Blogger. I'm now at WordPress where I hope to remain.
11 comments:
I have to confess I read this a while ago, before I started blogging so no review, and didn't really like it. Why, I can't really remember so perhaps I should re-read it - if the book is still on one of our many cases, I tend to take books to the charity shop If I know I won't read them again.
By the way well done on my snowball question, you were the only one to get it spot on - want a place on our team?
Oh, Kelly, I'm so glad you loved the book. (The movie is awesome,too, because it follows the book so closely.) To me, it's an American classic. I read it in high school and loved it. I've read it several times since. I'm trying to read some classics, too. I'm reading Flannery O'Connor's short stories now and loving them. I know you'd love her, too (if you haven't read them). I need to post more about books on my blog. (Am reading lots of Hemingway who I'm head over heels in love with at the moment...especially "A Moveable Feast".) Great post!! Blessings!
Read it and studied it decades ago. Loved both the book and the movie.
I can honestly say that, in all my years of English, Advanced English, and all the Lit. courses in college I read and enjoyed the majority of the classics. Some, even in French.
When I was in high school we had to memorize reams of poetry in adv. English. I loved it, and, to this day I can rattle off a good portion of it. We memorized things like portions of Shakespeare, Tennyson's Idylls of the King and lots of Poe.
I even liked Silas Marner (sp?).
I'm not sure that kids today read much of the wonderful classics that I read. I guess that's a sign of the times.
I'm just like Pammie! I can still recite Shakespeare, Poe, Frost and tons of other poets I learned in high school. I wish high schools taught more poetry and classic literature. I loved Silas Marner and Great Expectations best from high school English.
Hooray! Now you have me wanting to re-read it. (It was an English class assignment in high school.)
I have to say that I have not read it since high school. I think that maybe I should go to the library to pick it up.
Tracy, maybe it just appeals more to American readers.
I sure hope Bob doesn't come in here and say he read it in HS english class because if he did, then so did I. (and I know I've never read this before now!!) I do remember studying many of the classics, lots of Shakespeare and Dickens among other things.
Even in school I had trouble with memorization and hated having to learn poetry. Maybe that's why I had such an aversion to poetry for so many years. I love it now that I can just read it and enjoy it (and not have to memorize or analyze it!). I can still quote a few snippets of Poe and the beginning of Evangeline (Longfellow?). "This is the forest primeval..."
...Have you ever read "Lord of the Flies."
That's my favorite book...
I used in for like 5 high school book reports and what not.
It's one of my my top 5. Love it. Have read it probably a half dozen times.
Tommy has good taste -- really like Lord of the Flies too.
Also, Kelly, I can't remember if I read this in high school or not but somewhere along the way, I did. Maybe it was on a list and we could choose it?
Re: Flannery O'Connor -- have tried her and find her stuff difficult. Maybe an acquired taste? I remember doing a comparative study in some English class about her, Carson McCullers (The Heart is a Lonely Hunter; Member of the Wedding) and Harper Lee -- the southern genre and the gender neutral names. If I remember correctly, Harper Lee was a "one hit wonder" with Mockingbird. Boy she did it right didn't she.
And Marion is right -- this is one of the few movies that actually does justice to the book. Atticus Finch will ALWAYS be Gregory Peck, and vice-versa.
Yep, I read and enjoyed "Lord of the Flies". Did you see the movie version?
Bob...have you read any Kate Chopin? I discovered her when my sister and I met with Quid and Marion in Natchitoches. I got an anthology of her short stories, including The Awakening, and enjoyed them. A little depressing, but good.
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