College Students! discussion

Here is a discussion thread for To Kill a Mockingbird by Harper Lee. This is one of my all-time favorite books, so I hope we're able to have a good discussion about it.

We are going to have one thread for each book as now Goodreads has made a spoiler tag that you can use to put before anything that is a spoiler. Use your discretion as to what would be a pretty big spoiler and label it. Please put up to what page the spoiler is for.

To create the tag simply do this:

< spoiler> Blah blah blah spoilery stuff < /spoiler>


*Take out the spaces in both of the spoiler tag.

It will look like this:

(view spoiler)[ Blah blah blah spoilery stuff (hide spoiler)]

Discuss away...

To Kill a Mocking Bird is one of my top favorite classic novel. I loved from the first time I've read it. =)~

I agree Burgendya! I re-read To Kill a Mockingbird years ago after having read it for the first time in school. For anyone who had to read this for class and maybe doesn't remember, or doesn't have the best feelings, I definitely suggest a re-read. It's just so excellent.

I think that having to read it in high school is really a detriment to some great works, especially this one. It is really funny and poignant, but I think the force factor winds up covering up a lot of that.

Believe it or not, I never had the chance to read this until college. I love the book but not so much the movie.

Laura wrote: "Believe it or not, I never had the chance to read this until college. I love the book but not so much the movie."

What? What? What? Gregory Peck was so amazing as Atticus Finch...he won best actor at The Oscars! Haha. I like the movie and the film.

I agree, Mike. I adore the movie. But, there's always a bit of added charm in a book that a movie can't always convey :-)

I haven't watched the movie but I certainly love the book. One of the best books I've ever read. The characters are still part of me and I smile whenever I think of Atticus (the best father character I've read in a long time), Scout, and Jem (wow, I wished Jem was my big brother!). There are so many things to love about the book: the narration style, the situations discussed, the conflicts that arose, and the conclusion. The story runs deep in the history of the United States and the core of what it means to be a human being.

I think To Kill a Mockingbird is one of the first books I read in high school that I really engaged with. The narrative is so strong.

(view spoiler)[ Tom Robinson being shot as he's trying to escape prison is one of the few literary moments that I think will always stick with me. Some of the themes are heartbreaking. (view spoiler)[ (hide spoiler)] (hide spoiler)]

I'm an English major and I absolutely despise To Kill A Mockingbird, but I blame my schooling for that. I read it for the first time in 8th grade and was forced by my teacher to read along to the audio recording, which was torturously slow. It took us 4 weeks to finish. Then I read it again in 9th, 10th, and 11th grade. I think having to do that would make almost anyone hate it. Maybe in a few years I'll give it another shot... but for now, it's on my Worst Books Ever list.

Wow. Your teachers knowledge of books must have not been very broad... I never repeated a book.

My 8th grade class was actually a Gifted kids class, so everyone was definitely literate. The teacher just loved the audiobook so much that she wanted us to listen to it...and never explained why we had to follow along at the same time. I remember being yelled at for reading ahead, though. And yes, I went to the same high school for 9th-12th. I have no idea why they made us read it so many times (especially for an AP Composition class), but that's how it happened.

Maybe it was because the themes were so heavy that she wanted to make sure everyone was on the same page? I don't know. That seems like a terrible way to read a book! Especially one like this.

I just read this for the first time last month. I think it was probably on some "suggested reading lists" in high school, but it was never actually assigned.
I thought the book was awesome, but I actually found it funny that I always thought (view spoiler)[the book centered around the trial and halfway through the book I was like, "wait... where's this trial?!" lol. While the trial is definitely a huge part of the book, there is a lot more to it than that. (hide spoiler)] I really enjoyed the book and I'm glad I finally read it. It was number 1 on my to-read list since I first got my Goodreads account 5 years ago!

As an education major this is one of my favorite novels. I read it for the first time as a sophomore in high school. My mother bought me a first edition paperback of it. I plan to do literary groups if I teach tenth grade English. I <3 the book and the original movie with Gregory Peck.