Thursday 17 June 2010

To kill a mockingbird revisited

When i was at school i enjoyed reading but as i entered my teenage years and i discovered girls, music and other more interesting things, the books were left behind. It wasn't until i met my wife and her huge collection of books that my reading flame got rekindled.
Among her collection of classic books was 'To Kill a Mockingbird' which i first read aged around 15 because i had to in order to pass English Literature. It didn't mean much to me at the time, pleasant enough story about a lawyer defending a coloured guy in the Deep South of America, but 10 years later, with more mature eyes, i picked it up and when i finally put it down again i had decided it was one of the greatest books i have ever read.
This month it is fifty years old and it is rightly being flouted as one of the best books of the last century although that is a tough list to be placed head of.
My rejuvenated reading bug has seen me drag out some proper classics from the many book shelves that clog up our home, books that i had read previously but seem to have not really read at all.
1984, Huckleberry Finn, Frankenstein, Grapes of Wrath and Last of the Mohican's all seem to contain underlying messages and commentary that i just never got first time around.
It is good to read when you are younger but in my case i was just reading them and not actually 'reading' them at all but maybe it's just something that was wasted on a teenager and in my case, To Kill A Mockingbird needed a more mature and life experienced brain to really understand.

5 comments:

Anonymous said...

hanz,

i'm old enough to remember "white" water fountains (i think u brits call them bubblers) and "colored" water fountains. i also remember the "coloreds" living in "shanty towns" outside of town. i also remember that the hate went both ways, one group just had more power than the other.

"To Kill A Mockingbird" is a great book, but it is a watered down version of reality. for anyone who got a taste of reality no words can describe just how dramatic and life threatening the events really were for people will to take the actions written about in the book.

q

ps - give us a lucy update please

Cody Bones said...

I do remember reading "To kill a Mockingbird" in school, and then the reaction I had to reading it as an adult. Staggering. The only other book that I had that reaction to was "Atlas Shrugged" by Ayn Rand

Falling on a bruise said...

Not sure about bubblers q, i have always called them drinking fountains.

Lucy update is i am trying to talk Lucy into doing the political posts but you know how stubborn women can be!

I haven't read Atlas Shrugged Cody but if you recommend it i am sure i could get hold of it.

Anonymous said...

atlas shrugged is ok. the message is certainly elitest. im pretty damn arrogant and the eliteism in it was a bit much even for me.

you're doing good on pol posts. your left views piss me off regularly.

q

Cody Bones said...

Q,

I don't think that it's elitist, so much as a recognition of special talents in our world, and the question of how to reward them. It definitely was a different read for me as an adult than as a high school student.