Books and stuff. Mostly books.

I don't know how or why I waited until now to read "To Kill a Mockingbird." Seriously? Why didn't anyone make me before age 32? I was discussing it with my hair dresser this week because she commented on it when she saw me come in with it. She asked if I was in AP English in high school. I said yes. She said, "That's why; it was those of us in normal English classes that read it while you were all reading other things." But why?? Why would AP English classes not have to read this? And why didn't my parents make me read it if my teachers weren't going to?
Regardless, I finally got around to it. I LOVE IT. It is so great! I can't help but hear these perfect southern accents when I'm reading it (since I do know southern accents quite well). Scout might be my new favorite literary character. I mean, I love her so much I might want to name my first child Scout.
There are so many quotable lines! I have to get my own copy so I can go back through it and underline a lot of stuff. Here's my favorites, and their context in case you don't remember:
1) Scout starts school and when her teacher realizes she's literate, she tells her that her dad has to stop teaching her to read. Scout says, "Until I feared I would lose it, I never loved to read. One does not love breathing." Ah! Those two sentences stopped me ever so briefly and made me sigh.
2) Atticus and Heck are discussing Bob Ewell, who is just pure evil, near the end. Heck says "Mr Finch, there's just some kind of men you have to shoot before you can say hidy to 'em. Even then, they ain't worth the bullet it takes to shoot 'em." Agreed.
If you have not read this classic, you simply must. Simply must.

(Side note-I finished this book tonight while I was on the stationary bike at the gym for the first time post ankle issue. I survived and so far my ankle feels good!)

In other book related news, my friend Emily has a fun blog. She's much more consistent with writing on hers than I am! Last week she asked for some guest posts as she's away from her blog some this week, and she wanted people to write about their favorite things. Books always come to mind when someone asks me about favorite things. I remembered the post I wrote earlier this year about my favorite book, "My Name is Asher Lev." I edited it a bit for readers who maybe don't know me, and sent it to her. She graciously allowed me to be her very first guest writer! I feel honored, and kind of like I got published :) You can see the post here if you want.

On that note, I'm off to figure out what other classic books I've missed that I definitely need to read.