From the Bookshelf of Topeka & Shawnee Co. Public Library…

If you were to ask me if I had read To Kill a Mockingbird before 2009, I would have replied "Of course." Of course I read it in high school. Honestly, I can't remember a thing about it, so obviously it didn't make an impression, but nonetheless I read it.

Now, I'm not so sure that I ever did.

Perhaps I skimmed it. Perhaps I saw the movie. Maybe it just didn't stick with me at that point in my life. Or, it could be, I just didn't read it. Whatever reason, reading it this time was like reading a new

If you were to ask me if I had read To Kill a Mockingbird before 2009, I would have replied "Of course." Of course I read it in high school. Honestly, I can't remember a thing about it, so obviously it didn't make an impression, but nonetheless I read it.

Now, I'm not so sure that I ever did.

Perhaps I skimmed it. Perhaps I saw the movie. Maybe it just didn't stick with me at that point in my life. Or, it could be, I just didn't read it. Whatever reason, reading it this time was like reading a new book.

Everyone has read the 1961 Pullizer-winning novel, so I won't go in to all the details. My impression: I really liked it. Initially, I loved it, but that began to wane in the last hundred pages as the story became bogged down by its preachiness and anticlimax. Equally, I was disappointed with the stereotypical characters, none of whom seem to have grown much by the end.

Despite my minor differences with the novel, To Kill a Mockingbird is an impressive piece of writing, especially being the author's first. The child-like perspective is very well done and easy to relate to. The story itself is well constructed and beatiful, but not as profound as I had hoped.

Overrated? Perhaps a little, but I feel comfortable calling Lee's only novel a classic. Don't ask me about it in another 15 years, though; I may not remember having read it.