Mark's Book Blog: The Classics Never Die

Tuesday, August 25, 2009

The Classics Never Die - "To Kill a Mockingbird"

Atticus Finch. Scout. Jem. Boo Radley.

Because most of us associate To Kill a Mockingbird with high school English class, we rarely think of it as one of our favorite books. I know many people who attribute their decision to become a lawyer to Atticus Finch. Robert Duvall's greatest role? The Godfather films? Of course not. It has to be his wordless debut as Boo Radley opposite Gregory Peck in the original film version of the movie.

Atticus and Scout are iconic, unforgettable characters. They represent hope and goodness. The book is full of emotion--Scout's coming of age, Atticus' strength. It's a book that you can read again and again. I get emotional each time I read Scout's greeting near the end: "Hey Boo."

What classics stick with you? Others that stick with me include "Huckleberry Finn" and "Uncle Tom's Cabin."

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Mark's Book Blog

Welcome to Mark's Book Blog!

Why did I set this up? Several reasons.

1. I'm constantly asked for book recommendations. I often cannot remember what I've read recently and, consequently, struggle for a recommendation. This will keep me up to date.

2. We're all busy. Sometimes I forget what I liked and what I didn't like about a book I read a month or two ago. As a result, this blog commits me to memorialize a book shortly after reading the book.

3. I, too, want book recommendations from those I trust (so I may or may not read your recommendation). From this blog, you can see what I've liked--you may not like my taste, may never come back to the blog--that's ok. If, though, you like some or all of what I like, tell me. And, more importantly, tell me what else I'd like!

Here's my recommendation scale--I will rate all books I read (subject to my ability to rate a book that I stop reading for good reason). The recommendation scale has gone through many iterations since inception of the blog and is effective for all books recommended on or after December 29, 2009. For the recommendation scale applicable to books recommended prior to that time, go here.

This blog uses a "grading" system. In order to accomplish the blog's goal of "recommending" books, the grading scale works out like this:

A - Highly recommended

B - Recommended

C - OK, you might like it

D - A waste of time

F - A HUGE waste of time

If a book, let's say it's a sports-themed, non-fiction book, earns a recommendation in the "A" range, the blog post will note that the book is "Highly recommended for fans of [we'll just insert the sport of tonsil hockey here as a placeholder]." In other words, even an "A" recommendation may not be a book that I suggest you read. It depends on your tastes. Certainly some books in the "A" range will be recommended to all.

One other note. I am generally a stickler for grammar and punctuation (for using made-up words like "stickler," not so much). As I've stated in various posts, I am well aware that this blog does not utilize the well-established "underline book titles" convention. There are some places where book titles are in quotes. There are other places where book titles are merely capitalized. While I apologize in advance for being such a heathen as to ignore this convention, it bothers me. It really does. This is the kind of stuff that keeps me up nights. Seriously. I decided, however, about 50 posts in that I would make the lack of consistency in the identification of book titles the consistency for the site. Therefore and henceforth, I will utilize whatever convention I want in any willy nilly fashion I see fit.

Mark

Mark's Book Blog

Tuesday, August 25, 2009

The Classics Never Die - "To Kill a Mockingbird"

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