Tuesday, May 20, 2008

101 in 1001-- Item #98-- Read a Classic Piece of Literature

"To Kill a Mockingbird" by Harper Lee

Why I Chose This Goal: What self respecting writer could continue to read trashy paperback novels his whole life? Well Not me! This book has been arguably described as the best fiction by an American Author in the 20th century... and it comes highly recommended by my 15 year old son. He was assigned to read this in his 9th grade English class.

What I Did: Upon BMOs suggestion, I checked the book out of the local Public Library and read it from cover to cover in about a week. It turned out to be everything he said it was. I had tried to read Moby Dick and Catch-22... but after perusing the Cliff's notes decided neither was a good fit for my tastes.

This also makes it 4 of 12 books toward meeting goal #30.

4 comments:

Anonymous said...

So, which book did you read? I don't think I see it there, but it may be my eyes. :)

powayslugger said...

oopps!

I was just looking at it again... it is "To Kill a Mockingbird" by Harper Lee.

I had better go back and edit the entry...

Thanks Jennifer!

Anonymous said...

Ah, now that is a classic! One of my favorite books of all time.

Did you enjoy it?

powayslugger said...

Yes- it was excellent reading. After I finished Part One--- it was hard to put down.

You know that was author Harper Lee's only novel? She didn't write much after that. Sort of hung around with Truman Capote after her success. I guess it's true--- there's at least one good book in each of us.

Today it's considered a classic- due not only to the exceptional writing- but the theme of the story still resonates with readers today. It sort of gives us an inside look into the segregation and bigotry of the times before the civil rights movement.

When I was in school it was only a dozen years or so after it was written (1961) and we were reading books like "of Mice and Men" and Romeo and Juliet... stories my son is reading in high school today! I guess that makes them timeless.

My son said it was the best book he's ever read... and he's read "holes" and "my side of the mountain".

Blog Archive