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Poll | 07/10/2009 11:00 pm

How many times have you read To Kill a Mockingbird?

Saturday marks the 39th anniversary of the publication of To Kill a Mockingbird. How many times have you read this Pulitzer Prize-winning novel? Tell us below: What did this book mean to you?

36 Reader Comments (so far…) Sign In or Register to comment

James the Game

I read about one book every two years - if that much. Just not a book reader. I’m like a little kid with astronomy books: love to look at the Hubble Telescope photos of the galaxies. The colors and images are beyond spectacular.

As a kid, though, I read books like crazy. Isaac Asimov’s books on astronomy, the Nancy Drew mysteries. Nowadays, it’s just news and sports. Why this is the case, I don’t know.

By James the Game on 07/11/2009 12:28 am
L. C.
I know for certain I’ve read it once as a child. I may have read it more than once, I’m not sure. I’ve seen the movie  starring the late Gregory Peck several times.
By L. C. on 07/11/2009 12:50 am
Linda Myers
My children and grandson, read the book as requrired reading for English and loved it. I have seen the movie, but not read the book. My daughter requires her son to read a book a movie is based on, before allowing him to see the movie in all cases, which I hope is something he carries on with his own children someday.
By Linda Myers on 07/11/2009 5:33 am
Deena B.
I read it once and loved it.  I rarely read any book more than once, though.  I recently read the biography about Harper Lee.  That kind of gave me a new perspective about the book so I may have to make an exception and re-visit this book.  I’ve also seen the movie twice, I think. 
By Deena B. on 07/11/2009 7:49 am
Eldebbo C
Seen the movie, not read the book. I love to read and have a lot of books. Some day, I will get arround to buying that one and reading it.
By Eldebbo C on 07/11/2009 7:57 am
Andy C
Often, I do the reverse:  see the movie and like it so much that I must read the book.  I read the book, may read it again, love to read and am reading something or other at all times — sometimes more than one at a time.
By Andy C on 07/11/2009 8:41 am
Green Tears

I have read it twice, both times as an assignment for classes. I’ve read, analyzed and cited it as much as I care to, but I have been in discussions of it each time that my children had to read it.

I love to read, but I prefer ‘independent reading’ of my own choosing. I have read two of the four summer reading books recommended by WoW, currently working on a third. ‘Cutting for Stone’ is the best novel I have read in a long time. It is over 500 pages but something tells me that a person could almost get through it in a day at the beach because it’s that good!

By Green Tears on 07/11/2009 9:17 am
Washington  Cube
I’ve lost count on the re-reads, but then I do a lot of re-reading, so it doesn’t really speak about the quality of the book, more than my reading habits.  I find when you return to a book, you always get something new from your different perspective.  I wasn’t wowed by this book.  Even when I was younger, the "interest" for me lay in the author and her relationship with Truman Capote.
By Washington Cube on 07/11/2009 9:30 am
Deena B.

I don’t typically re-read but my daughter often does.  She makes the same point, that she always gets something new.  For some reason, I was not aware of the Truman Capote connection the first time I read this one.  Having recently read the Harper Lee biography, in which Capote figures fairly prominently, I’m thinking of doing a re-read with that in mind. 

By Deena B. on 07/11/2009 11:48 am
Washington  Cube

If you read her biography, then you really should do a re-read, Deena, because the little Harper (Scout) and her friend Dill (Truman) figure predominantly in it.  I’ve spent time reading as much as Capote as possible, and I think she really nailed his tiny little aesthetic ass to the picket fence.  The sad thing is, Capote, like Dill, was passed from relative to relative, and while he wasn’t totally loveless, he certainly had a sad childhood.  Given that he was a sensitive, alert child, I am sure that made it much more painful for him.  

Funny.  People are responding to other things I wrote this week, and I was sure someone would go after me for telling a woman to set her father’s grave on fire.  Chuckle.

By Washington Cube on 07/11/2009 8:16 pm
Deena B.

Will definitely do the re-read. 

I had to go back and find your post telling the woman to set her father’s grave on fire.  Too funny, and no more than the old boy deserves. 

By Deena B. on 07/11/2009 9:44 pm
Washington  Cube
You really will pick up a lot, Deena, with the bio under your belt.
By Washington Cube on 07/11/2009 11:49 pm
Susan Crawford
I read it first back in high school, and then, it seemed I was compelled to re-read it every few years, just to revisit those wonderful characters. When I started teaching, I used it often in class, along with the absolutely wonderful film. It is definitely one of those stories that never fails to move me, no matter how often I have read it. There are a few books that grab me like this: Mrs. Dalloway; The Magic Mountain; Madame Bovary; A Passage to India; My Antonia; The House of Mirth. Boy, I could go on all day! The one thing all my choices have in common? Wonderful, fully human, flawed, thoughtfully-created characters engaged in the struggle to understand their lives a little better. That’s what keeps me coming back to a book over and over: trying to figure out through a character’s engagement with life a little more about my own life.
By Susan Crawford on 07/11/2009 9:44 am
MaryPage Drake
I voted once, because that is the truth.  But the answer:  "Once was enough" sounds so snide, and I absolutely ADORED the book!  Would I read it again?  You bet, if I had the time.  My life is a matter of too many books, too little time!
By MaryPage Drake on 07/11/2009 11:30 am
Bethany Christian
I read this book twice and loved every word.  And I think it translated well to the screen.  Harper Lee had a wonderful feeling for that time period and the prejudice that existed —-
By Bethany Christian on 07/11/2009 12:09 pm