Latest Reading

I recently finished Harper Lee’s To Kill a Mockingbird, a book which I’ve somehow managed to never read. I do remember seeing the movie quite some time ago but the only part I recalled was the line about a man’s collar wilting in the summer heat.

The book is a beautiful look at race and class in Alabama through the innocent eyes of a child. I loved the book because of the characters. They seemed real, a magical act only a rare author can manage. Of course, it is maintained that the book is largely autobiographical so perhaps they were somewhat real. Anyway, you’re swiftly pulled into their world and enjoy the story while reading about the best and worst of humanity. Most classics aren’t very classic in my opinion. This one was.

On a list of screen heroes, Atticus Finch was named the greatest by the American Film Institute, beating out Indiana Jones, Superman, and Gandhi, among others. I’m not sure he’d be number one on my list, though I haven’t given the matter much thought. But he’d be up there. What a man! I’ll have to reread the book when I’m a father to learn a lesson or two.

Quotes:

“If you can learn a simple trick… you’ll get along a lot better with all kinds of folks. You never really understand a person until you consider things from his point of view… until you climb into his skin and walk around in it.”

On courage: “It’s when you know you’re licked before you begin but you begin anyway and you see it through no matter what. You rarely win, but sometimes you do.”

“There’s just some kind of men you have to shoot before you can say hidy to ‘em. Even then, they ain’t worth the bullet it takes to shoot ‘em.”