I Finally Read To Kill A Mockingbird - Good Book

The title of this post says it all.  I'm probably close to 50 years behind schedule (most everybody, I think, read it in high school), but I finally did it.  I read To Kill A Mockingbird. Drum roll, please.  So why did I wait until medicare/social security age to read it?  That's an easy one - it's the Los Gatos Library Evening Book Club selection for October.  In fact, we meet next Tuesday, the 20th, at 7:00, to discuss it.  I will be there.  Will I have a lot to say (a foolish question, for those who know me)?  I'm not sure.  I liked this book.  I gave it a 3/4. Was I blown away?  No.  Was I emotionally connected to the characters?  Maybe a little. Was it well-written?  I think it was.

I'm not trying to minimize the impact of this book on many people.  I know that it is considered a classic.  But it just didn't hit me that way.  I thought it was a good story told and written well.  I don't really have much more to say about it than that.  I guess I could give you the storyline.  But doesn't everybody already know what it's about?  I mean, haven't we been hearing about both the book (1960) and the movie (1962) for over 50 years.  The short answer is yes.  And now that we've got Go Set A Watchman, published just this past July, but written in the mid-50s, interest in TKAM has, once again, skyrocketed.

I'm not going to stand on a soapbox and tell you to read it.  If you are in the vast majority that have already read it, then just ignore this whole discussion.  But if you haven't read it, and feel guilty about it, I can honestly say that you should at least give it some thought.  It's not only a good book, but it will also pull you from the ignorant masses (from where I just escaped) to the land of the enlightened.  That's nothing to sneeze at.

Then

Now (at 89)