Associate I earn from qualifying purchases. If you are a book-lover like me, then you can relate – there are so many books and so little time. Listening to audiobooks on 1.5x speed can only help so much. Any faster and I literally start to panic. When I see a book that I want to read, I know it will be a while before I can get to it, so I like to pop the book on my TBR list. You should already know that means “To Be Read.” And you should already have a method for tracking it. If you don’t do this yet, just trust me when I tell you that it will give you peace of mind. See a book, log it, go back to reading your current selection. It’s the bibliophile’s equivalent of writing down whatever is running through your head keeping you awake at night so that you can sleep. Personally, I use Goodreads for tracking my books. (Go follow me there!)
There are other methods for tracking books that you want to read. Some people keep a database, while others make a physical stack of books. Since I like to use the library or their app, my “currently reading” selections are often dictated by availability. When I search for something on the app, it is often something new and popular, which leads to putting the book on hold. When it comes available, I only have two weeks to read it. Recently I had four of my hold books come available within a few days. One of them was this audiobook, which I have already listened to twice, so I immediately returned it and put myself back at the end of the line to get it again later. That was painful.
Read Harder
I love a Reading Challenge. I especially love ways to motivate myself to read outside of my comfort zone. Sometimes this means picking something that would not have made it onto my TBR otherwise and bumping things further down the list that I have wanted to read for years. Sometimes I get lucky and a task comes up like the one for my book club suggesting that we read a book that has been on our TBR list for at least a year. This prompted me to get curious about my Goodreads list and see what book had been on the list the longest.
According to my sources, I started using Goodreads in July of 2009. I have used it for nearly 10 years. I went back to college in the summer of 2008 and finished my B.A. in English. I will not pretend that I was always consistent in logging books, but I have racked up 401 books read and only have 346 on my TBR list. When I sorted by date, the oldest book still on my list ever since July 2009 was To Kill a Mockingbird. Somehow, I was never assigned this book in high school or college and neither of my kids were either. Honestly, I only watched the movie in the summer of 2017. I love Gregory Peck, but I think I always felt like the subject matter was too heavy and was not prepared to have my heart broken.
Challenge Accepted
The book has been read (#402!) and the heart has been broken. TKAM officially moves from my longest held TBR to my newest all-time favorite. Beautifully written. I could listen to Sissy Spacek read that audiobook forever. For this book to have been written when it was and to have never been out of print since, that speaks to the beauty of this book. I am immensely grateful to this challenge for lighting the fire under my backside that moved me to finally read this one. Sometimes classics are classics for very good reasons. If you have not read this book, go do it now. If you have read it, do it again!
Is there anything I can say about To Kill a Mockingbird that has not already been said? No. The internet is full of wonderful commentary, such as this close reading of the first line which blew my mind. #Protip: When you get to the end, ALWAYS immediately go back to the beginning. I will say that I am grateful that my first encounter with this book was not in school. Thank goodness that I was able to immerse myself in the story instead of looking for themes and such. They are aplenty, but the story and the characters let me forget about them. The best “capital L literature” is the stuff that lets you forget that you are reading one of the best books ever and just be absorbed in one of the best books ever.
Quote This Book
There are so many quotable quotes in To Kill a Mockingbird. The only thing I don’t like about audiobooks or library books is that I can’t underline and highlight them. English majors are used to highlighting our books. Even if I was planning to sell my books back to the book store, (just kidding, I never did this!) making notes in a text for Lit class is going to help the next person who reads the book. On the other hand, not being able to mark up the text helps me get out of analysis mode and allows me to “just read” the book. There was one point in TKAM when I hit rewind and wanted to hear that juicy quote again. Let’s be real – I hit reverse several times until I was sure I had the quote firmly in my brain – or firm enough that I could google it later. It was when Miss Maudie said, “People in their right minds never take pride in their talents.”
This book is designed to make us think about a lot of stuff, but I did not expect to be challenged with this. We have recently done Strengthsfinder at work. I am a proponent of people leaning into the things they are good at and delegating or steering clear of the things for which they just don’t have a knack. So when Miss Maudie says, “People in their right minds never take pride in their talents,” I am thrown for a loop. She doesn’t just say people shouldn’t do it, but that those who do it are downright certifiable. What’s so crazy about being proud of your talents? Does she mean “pride” in the Biblical sense? As in Seven Deadly Sins? Sin is a theme, right? It is a SIN to kill a mockingbird. The talent that sparks the conversation is Atticus’s sharp-shooting. I think we can understand why he hasn’t told his children about this particular talent, but why does Miss Maudie extend her statement to everyone in their right mind? In my experience, Southerners do like to generalize. We also lean into words like “always” and “never.” When I heard this statement, I instantly began asking myself if I do take pride in my talents. Do I even know what they are? Then again, am I in my right mind? Do I know anyone who is?
Of all the lines to quote in this book, this one stayed with me until the end and remained my favorite. I love Miss Maudie. She is wonderful and insightful. Every kid should have a Miss Maudie in their life during their formative years.
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