Classics for Beginners discussion

We will officially start reading this on 1st September but feel free to start reading this anytime between now and the end of october.

One of my all-time favorites!
Nice to have an excuse to re-read it again. I just love this book, hope everyone else will enjoy it as well. Great pick.

It's one of my favorites, too. Am looking forward to reading it. I'm starting 9/5 and hope to finish that week. It's not a really long one.

Extraordinary book! It's been a while so I'll re-read it. Can't wait to hear what others have to say :)

Got my copy at the library today! Will probaby start early as I have a full month coming up!

I have never read To Kill A Mockingbird. I have always heard it spoken of in good terms and am looking forward to reading it.

I can't wait! I've read it before a few years ago and would LOVE to read it again!

It's been on my to-read list for a while now, downloaded the eBook version and shall get stuck in :)

Can't wait to read it again....It is such a wonderful book and the Characters are unforgettable!!!

LOL Desiree...I hope that you enjoy...I will be starting it very soon

Picked up my copy today!!! Can't wait to read it!!!

Got it today at the library, have never read it although it was required reading in high school. I guess I'll start catching up now, so excited!

I take ages to read books, but i'm pleased because I have just finished this one!

This might be the first book I read with the group. I've never read it, and to be honest, everyone I know that has has slated it, so I doubt I'll ever get around to it otherwise.

Is it yet old enough for a free ebook download somewhere? I suspect not...

Lee wrote: "This might be the first book I read with the group. I've never read it, and to be honest, everyone I know that has has slated it, so I doubt I'll ever get around to it otherwise.

Is it yet old en..."

First I have heard of anyone slating this book, most people rate it very highly. I know that the film with Gregory Peck is also excellent.

Jimmy wrote: First I have heard of anyone slating this book, most people rate it very highly. I know that the film with Gregory Peck is also excellent.

Well, I'll approach it with an open mind - it's certainly a significant book.

Lee wrote: "Is it yet old enough for a free ebook download somewhere? "

To answer my own question, a free epub copy is available here: http://www.epubbud.com/book.php?g=ZSK...

I LOVE THIS BOOK....I don't know how anyone can not...I found when I read it the Characters stayed with me long after I finished the book.....

Miss.terri wrote: "I have never read To Kill A Mockingbird. I have always heard it spoken of in good terms and am looking forward to reading it."

Me too, I hear alot of good things about it since I was 16 so can't wait to actually read it proberly.

Goosegirl wrote: "Miss.terri wrote: "I have never read To Kill A Mockingbird. I have always heard it spoken of in good terms and am looking forward to reading it."

Me too, I hear alot of good things about it since..."

I think you'll enjoy it. Also, the 1962 movie they did starring Gregory Peck is fantastic as well; definitely worth watching after you read the book. :)

Just finished reading the book, the first classic book that I can actually enjoy :D

I just requested this book from the library. It'll be my first time reading it. Looking forward to discussing it with you guys!

I first read this in about the 5th grade. I was a very gifted, mature child and my book-loving parents owned a bookstore and carried me to the library regularly. I grew up in Atlanta in the civil rights era of the 1960's and 1970's and saw first hand the depth of racism in the south. Martin Luther King, Jr came to our integrated bookstore and his two sons Marty and Dexter helped integrate my lily white elementary school. What I have read in this book really rings true. I alternated wanting Atticus Finch to be my dad or my husband! He is my favorite character and Gregory Peck did a masterful job in the film. I read this at least once a year. You are all in for a real treat. I look forward to seeing your impressions.

Terri wrote: "I first read this in about the 5th grade. I was a very gifted, mature child and my book-loving parents owned a bookstore and carried me to the library regularly. I grew up in Atlanta in the civil r..."

I agree wholeheartedly. Atticus is one of my all time favorite characters, and Gregory Peck was outstanding in the film.

I've just finished ready 'The Help' which is obviously not a classic - though I suspect it will be in years to come. There were at least two references made to 'To Kill a Mockingbird' in this book, and the books have many similarities in setting, themes and characters. I really enjoyed reading 'The Help' after re-reading 'To Kill a Mockingbird' a couple of months ago. They really compliment one another. Anyone agree?

Looking forward to starting this one soon. It has always been one of those that I'm ashamed to admit I never read.

@ ANGIE..Did you enjoy the Help....I have heard a lot of mixed things....

Teri-lynn wrote: "@ ANGIE..Did you enjoy the Help....I have heard a lot of mixed things...."

I loved it! Everyone I have talked to has loved it too. I'm looking forward to the movie. Will take a wee while to get to NZ! In the meantime, I might try and track down the 'To Kill a Mockingbird' movie.

This was one of the books dissected by my Grade 10 English teacher when I was in high school. I guess I'm the first here to say it wasn't my favorite. My opinion isn't colored by a poor instruction of this classic by any means (really, my Grade 10 English teacher was the best I've never had) but rather, I think it was due to the large number of classics I was exposed to during that school year. I read so many good novels that continues to stay with me today that when we arrived at Mockingbird (right after reading The Color Purple as well), this particular book no longer held the same significance with me. It's characters, themes, motifs... I've seen them in one way or another before already.

I found it an easy read though. The prose is warm, flowing and comprehensible - a happy medium between the sparseness of Fitzgerald (where it's best to slow down the eye in order to comprehend what had NOT been said) and the verboseness of Faulk (where the eye is forced to slow down in order for the brain to belatedly decipher what just been read). The heroine, Scout, is daring and relatable and her father, Atticus Finch, admirable. My one true critique is only that the racial tolerance theme of the novel can be a little better (fuller?) explored, imo.

Fallensnow wrote: "This was one of the books dissected by my Grade 10 English teacher when I was in high school. I guess I'm the first here to say it wasn't my favorite. My opinion isn't colored by a poor instruction..."

This is more or less akin to the "slating" I referred to above. In hindsight, I could probably have chosen a better word.

Fallensnow wrote: "This was one of the books dissected by my Grade 10 English teacher when I was in high school. I guess I'm the first here to say it wasn't my favorite. My opinion isn't colored by a poor instruction..."

You know, from what everyone else says about the books they read in school, I read maybe one or two a year. That was all we were asked to do!
I read: Journey to the River Sea,Skellig, The Tempest, An Inspector Callsand Holes. We also did coursework on Macbeth and Hamlet though the teacher picked out the act with most going on and we just read that.

I remember reading Great Expectations as required reading in high school. I read many classics & don't remember which were required and which I read for pleasure. TKAM wasn't required reading then as it had just come out in 1960 when I was in junior high school. A southern school would not have made it required reading while the school was still segregated. It would be another 5 years before integretation came to my small southern school.

We have a mix of integrated and segregated schools over here.

Nicolle wrote: "We have a mix or integrated and segregated schools over here."

Really, we have segregated schools here?

It's mostly posh schools which are segregated here...

Interesting, I didn't know that. I was aware of religious schools in private education, but that's a very different thing.

Yes, though not all religious schools here are private. I went to a comprehensive Catholic high school.

Nicolle wrote: "Fallensnow wrote: "This was one of the books dissected by my Grade 10 English teacher when I was in high school. I guess I'm the first here to say it wasn't my favorite. My opinion isn't colored by..."

I'm from Canada so maybe it's a difference between countries? I was placed in a special prep class whose typical course load requirements were higher than the other classes. Also, my Grade 10 teacher was something of an anomaly at my school as well (in the best way possible). He was highly exuberant and truly passionate about literature and constantly tried to push us up and beyond our ability. I don't have a complete courselist but I remember reading with him: Taming of the Shrew, Twelfth Night, Hamlet, one of the King Henry plays, Catcher in the Rye, Of Mice and Men, Brave New World, The Color Purple, To Kill a Mockingbird and several amazing short stories like The Cask of Amontillado and the Yellow Wallpaper.

Nicolle wrote: "Yes, though not all religious schools here are private. I went to a comprehensive Catholic high school."

Indeed, I helped out in an RC primary school in the nineties (which goes to show that staff/help don't have to be RC). As I say, a very different thing from segregated schools, which I'd have thought would be illegal in the UK.

Why illegal?? I also went to a RC primary and your right that the majority of teachers (and alot of pupils) are not RC. Before you had to prove your child had been baptised to be allowed to join now the criteria isn't so strict (though I doubt if they only had say 30 places in a year they would choose a non RC over a RC).

Nicolle wrote: "Why illegal?? I also went to a RC primary and your right that the majority of teachers (and alot of pupils) are not RC. Before you had to prove your child had been baptised to be allowed to join no..."

I think perhaps we're talking at cross-purposes. Mention of segregation, particularly on this thread, makes me think of racial segregation. Trying to think more laterally about your suggestion of its existence in private schools, are you perhaps referring to same-sex schools? I accept that they still exist in the UK, although they are now very few in number. Discriminating against anyone because of race, sex or creed is something that has been very clearly against UK law for a very long time though.

Yes I know what you mean. Many religious schools are now being told to accept members of other faiths. This will be why Catholic schools now have a mixture of religions, but the people who are being particularly targeted are muslim schools for girls. These schools are adamant that noone of the male gender or other religions can join he schools.
I agree with you that discrimination of any sort should not be tolerated and it is against the law in the UK, though the rules are a bit bendy.

Yay! I just found this book amongst my old books. I've been trying to find an excuse to read it, so thanks!

I started yesterday, wanted to go ahead and jump in. I had this as required reading in high school, and remember it as a book I actually enjoyed back then. So far, so good!

I do have a question, and maybe I just missed it...but does anyone know why Scout calls Atticus by his first name, and not 'dad'? She's his daughter, yes?

Off the top of my head, I don't remember. Good question, Jill! I am going to the lake this weekend and plan to start it then. Was going to wait until Monday, but it keeps calling out to me. :-)

does anybody know what the next book in the classic books discussion will be in october. I take so long in reading books that it would be good to get a head start.
:)

In october and november we are reading To Kill a Mockingbird and The Hobbit (read one or both across the two months)

Jill wrote:

"I do have a question, and maybe I just missed it...but does anyone know why Scout calls Atticus by his first name, and not 'dad'? She's his daughter, yes?"

Interesting question; I think any answer would be purely speculative. My opinion is that Atticus did not really think that it was important, what is clear is that he had the utmost respect from (and to) his children and was very fair to them, but being firm when needed - in many ways a model father. In Atticus's mind, what you are called (or the colour of your skin etc) isn't important but how you act and treat others is.

Yes I do agree with that. It isn't all about everyone (whatever colour) is good and innocent, it is purely that if you do bad you should get punished fairly whatever your ethnicity, gender or whatever.

Thanks Jimmy.. I agree that any answer would be speculative.. But that makes sense!