My Book Report

A few months ago a friend asked me what my favorite book was. It was an easy answer for me, and it reminded me that it had been several years since I had read it. I read it again last week, and yes, it remains my favorite book of all time. I remember reading somewhere that To Kill a Mockingbird was listed by someone somewhere as one of the books everyone should read before dying. It deals with big issues—racial injustice, class, compassion, courage, gender, parenting, growing up, loss of innocence. Back in the day, I studied a little about Harper Lee and I even put the name Harper on my list of favorite girl names—the list of favorite names for my future children that I started when I was thirteen--another story for another day.

If you have never read it, or if it has been since high school, I highly recommend it. You will not be disappointed.

Here are some of my favorite quotes from the book:

Until I feared I would lose it, I never loved to read. One does not love breathing.

I'm little but I'm old.

"I think I'll be a clown when I get grown," said Dill. "Yes, sir, a clown.... There ain't one thing in this world I can do about folks except laugh, so I'm gonna join the circus and laugh my head off." "You got it backwards, Dill," said Jem. "Clowns are sad, it's folks that laugh at them." "Well, I'm gonna be a new kind of clown. I'm gonna stand in the middle of the ring and laugh at the folks."

When a child asks you something, answer him, for goodness' sake. But don't make a production of it. Children are children, but they can spot an evasion quicker than adults, and evasion simply muddles 'em.

If you just learn a single trick, Scout, 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 inside of his skin and walk around in it.

There are just some kind of men who - who're so busy worrying about the next world they've never learned to live in this one, and you can look down the street and see the results.

I was born good but had grown progressively worse every year.

Mockingbirds don't do one thing but make music for us to enjoy. They don't eat up people's gardens, don't nest in corncribs, they don't do one thing but sing their hearts out for us. That's why it's a sin to kill a mockingbird.

I wanted you to see what real courage is, instead of getting the idea that courage is a man with a gun in his hand. 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.

Now I want to watch the movie. In fact, Mike will you stop and get it on your way home. Thanks a bunch.