Thursday 1 January 2015

1960: To Kill A Mockingbird

Book Name: To Kill A Mockingbird

Author: Harper Lee

Genre: Fiction

Year Published: 1960


So, somehow I got to 26 without reading To Kill A Mockingbird, so I just had to put it on my list. I know loads of people did it for GCSE and often people really hate the books they did for that on account of having to go over and analyse them so much, but people still seem to like this one anyway. (I did Catcher in the Rye, in case you're interested). Anyway it's so popular and yet I had no idea what it was about before I started reading. I'm kind of glad of this as I was able to approach it completely anew and without anyone else's opinion on it.
I really really liked this book. You may have noticed my posts are normally quite infrequent, but this one is less than a month after The Ghost Pirates and that's because I read it in only 10 days (this is really good for me as I'm a slow reader). I was reading it all the time when I was at home, eager to see what happened next and thoroughly caught up in Scout's life. Scout reminded me a bit of myself when I was younger which helped me enjoy her story more I think - preferring trousers to skirts and being friends with boys more than girls etc. 
The racism side of the book was actually really interesting to me. I guess that fortunately it's something I don't have to think about much and I was as disappointed as Scout and Jem when the jury convicted Tom despite evidence to the contrary. It really makes you understand how unfair and ridiculous everything was and it did make me a bit angry too. I really like the way the book is done through the eyes of children. Their innocence makes you realise how stubborn adults can be sometimes.
Anyway, I know maybe you might have been avoiding this book because everyone goes on about it, but it actually is worth your time. It's well written, interesting, thought provoking and has a good mix of suspense and humour. I'm sure you won't be disappointed.

Other Books I Considered: Whatever Happened to Baby Jane - Henry Farrell
Books I Read Inbetween: Demon Dentist - David Walliams; The Locked Room - Paul Auster; Into the Darkest Corner - Elizabeth Haynes; Carpe Jugulum - Terry Pratchett

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