Is To Kill a Mockingbird a must-read?

Houston Chronicle ^ | 4/6/07 | me

[urtax$@work]

If there's one book you should read before you die, it's To Kill a Mockingbird. That's not my opinion. Apparently I was sick back in ninth grade when every other American kid read Harper Lee's novel of racism, moral courage and coming of age in 1930s Alabama. I read it for the first time only this week and have my misgivings.

But according to the Guardian newspaper's Web site, a 2006 poll of librarians — British librarians — put To Kill a Mockingbird atop the list of books every adult should read before they shuffle off. Ahead of the Bible. Ahead of Huckleberry Finn and Pride and Prejudice and even Harry "the Franchise" Potter.

Go to link to see rest of article: http://www.chron.com/disp/story.mpl/life/4691912.html

[urtax$@work]

I don't know if it was the first of this genre, but i would classify this as "Southern Apologetics" . It seems to be the only type with Southern themed literature you see on the shelves and on the screen.

[pleikumud]

The Autobiography of Ronald Reagan is a Must read.

[tranzorZ]

Maybe, but it is still one Hell of a good book.

[muawiyah]

Most of Tennessee William's pot-boilers are far better, more entertaining, and even meaningful.

A kid would better spend his afternoon reading through Frank Miller's "The 300" to learn something about bravery, dedication to duty, and speaking truth to power.

[Jagman]

I know we’re in the age of relative quality, but what about the complete works of Shakespeare, or Dante, or Homer?

[carton253]

Southern Apologetics??

I must have read a different To Kill a Mockingbird.

[David Isaac]

I agree, it is indeed, a good book. I just finished it myself. I don’t believe that the racism angle was overplayed. It was the times. There have been plenty of places and times that people were less than perfect. It is the people who dwell on it and expect people today, to be held responsible for the actions and thoughts of yesterday, that are the truly twisted ones.

[miss marmelstein]

I love the book because of its wonderful humor and the fascinating depiction of Depression America. I’ve even traveled to Monroeville, AL to visit the sites of the novel. The courthouse still stands with a museum attached and in summer the townspeople perform the play version of the book in the courthouse park.

[proxy_user]

I you’re going in for this kind of thing, how about The Sound and the Fury?

You won’t read that in the 9th grade - or at least it’s not part of the official curriculum.

[nctexan]

It's good that today the public does not need to make such hard decisions on what to read.

Oprah pulls the strings and America responds.

[Red Badger]

For a real taste of the South of that era:

The Sound and the Fury, by William Faulkner.....

[Stonewall Jackson]

Plus greats like Milton, Twain, Doyle, Kipling, Stevenson, and so many others.

[Red Badger]

I must have read a different To Kill a Mockingbird.

He must have read: To Kill a Jim Crow..........

[wildcatf4f3]

get ‘em while they’re young said Dewey.

[Red Badger]

Shakespeare, or Dante, or Homer? DWE need not apply............(Dead White Europeans)........

[Miss Didi]

Loved the book as a girl; still one of my favorites. The movie is great, too. Gregory Peck is wonderful; little Scout in her ham costume is precious.

[CholeraJoe]

“A Confederacy of Dunces.”

[xp38]

Uncle Tom’s Cabin had a far greater impact than To Kill a Mockingbird.

[carton253]

I think the movie is better than the book. I saw the movie first...then read the book. I was very disappointed because it was different. (As they usually are)

Loved Dill, well all three of the children were great.

[SoftballMominVA]

The list in full

To Kill a Mockingbird by Harper Lee The Bible

The Lord of the Rings Trilogy by JRR Tolkien

1984 by George Orwell

A Christmas Carol by Charles Dickens

Jane Eyre by Charlotte Bronte

Pride and Prejudice by Jane Austen

All Quite on the Western Front by E M Remarque

His Dark Materials Trilogy by Phillip Pullman

Birdsong by Sebastian Faulks

The Grapes of Wrath by John Steinbeck

The Lord of the Flies by William Golding

The Curious Incident of the Dog in the Night-time by Mark Haddon

Tess of the D'urbevilles by Thomas Hardy

Winnie the Pooh by AA Milne

Wuthering Heights by Emily Bronte

The Wind in the Willows by Kenneth Graham

Gone With the Wind by Margaret Mitchell

Great Expectations by Charles Dickens

The Time Traveller's Wife by Audrey Niffenegger

The Lovely Bones by Alice Sebold

The Prophet by Khalil Gibran

David Copperfield by Charles Dickens

The Alchemist by Paulo Coelho

The Master and Margarita by Mikhail Bulgakov

Life of Pi by Yann Martel

Middlemarch by George Eliot

The Poisonwood Bible by Barbara Kingsolver

A Clockwork Orange by Anthony Burgess

A Day in the Life of Ivan Denisovich by Alexander Solzenhitsyn

List is too full of modern lit - how could a group of BRITISH librarians come up with a list that excluded Shakespeare?

And no, I did not mispell "All QUITE on the Western Front, it was listed that way - good job editors!