50 books to read before you die discussion
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To Kill a Mockingbird
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To Kill a Mockingbird
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Buck
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rated it 5 stars
Jul 02, 2017 09:31AM
This is the 5th book on the list and our July 2017 group read. We last read this as a group June 2016
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When we read this, the first time around, it generated a good bit of discussion, here: https://www.goodreads.com/topic/show/...
Harper Lee's only other book is Go Set a Watchman. It was the failed precursor to To Kill a Mockingbird. The story goes that she sent it to a publisher who advised her to rewrite it. It's rumored that her childhood friend, Truman Capote, may have helped her with the rewrite. Go Set a Watchman was published many years later.Lisa and I did a buddy read of Go set a Watchman. https://www.goodreads.com/topic/show/...
I really like To Kill a Mockingbird, and it was good to read it again. I find that, as much as I like this book, I feel very reluctant to read Watchman. I have read some very mixed reviews, and I don't want to spoil Mockingbird for myself.
I didn't finish Watchman. They just did not seem like the same characters. (It might be an ok book by itself.) But To Kill a Mockingbird will never be spoiled for me.
I read "to kill a mockingbird" this year and wondered to myself why I hadn't read it before. I have her second book on my to read list and I can't wait to get to it, a lot of people say it isn't good but I can't wait to get back to these characters.
It might be helpful to you to read a little background on why the second book is different before you read it. This was a major news item a couple years ago. As someone noted above, the characters are very different. There's a good reason for this.
On knowing the background on a book...When I first started going to college I had a Humanities prof that expected us to know the history of the artist, the time they live in, and about how the artwork is made.
Now with the internet, we can also find out how the art was received and more.
This way we could really have a richer understanding of the artwork, be it music, book, painting or other.
Allison wrote: "I read "to kill a mockingbird" this year and wondered to myself why I hadn't read it before. I have her second book on my to read list and I can't wait to get to it, a lot of people say it isn't good but I can't wait to get back to these characters. ..."
You might be interested in reading the discussion we had a couple of years ago about Go Set A Watchman. Although it is set after To Kill a Mockingbird, it was written first and it's really not a sequel. Here's the link: https://www.goodreads.com/topic/show/...
