2015 Reading Challenge [Closed] discussion

I loved To Kill a Mockingbird. Like most people, we read it in school, and I absolutely adored it. It's been 25 years or so since I've read it, but it still holds a special place in my heart (I'm actually a little scared to read it again in case I don't love it as much as I remember!).

But I have no interest in reading the sequel. At all. I think I'm scarred by the God-awful "sequel" to Gone with the Wind. Admittedly, that wasn't actually written by Margaret Mitchell which probably had a lot to do with it sucking so badly. But honestly, I really just don't want to read it, and I'm wondering if I'm the only one who loved the first but doesn't want to read the second.

I thought it was a prequel and it had been written before TKAM was published?

I can understand being wary of something published that late, but I think we just have to wait and see (I am indifferent atm).

I had heard that there was a question as to whether Harper Lee had really given permission for this book to be published so I was thinking of not reading it on principle, but that story seems to have died down. So Yes I want to read it.

From NYT: On July 14, 55 years after Lee's first book, Go Set a Watchman will be published, with a first printing of 2 million copies. She wrote it in 1957, before Mockingbird, and Jean Louise "Scout" Finch is its main character. In Watchman, Scout is an adult living in New York City, going home to visit her father, Atticus. When Lee submitted Watchman to her publisher, her editor suggested she rewrite it to focus on Scout's childhood — and Mockingbird was hatched.

I absolutely loved To Kill a Mockingbird and am looking forward to reading this new book!

Ah I probably got confused thinking it was a prequel cause it was written before.
Thank you for the clarification. :)

I had mixed feelings about To Kill A Mockingbird, I didn't really enjoy the first half but I really liked the second half, so I'm still intrigued enough to read the sequel.

Knowing now that it was written way back then, I'm not as anti as I was, but I'm definitely still on the fence. I might wait until there are lots of reviews to read through.

I'm pretty indifferent at the moment. I haven't read TKAM, yet. It's on one of my reading challenges, so I'll get to it soon-ish. I think after I've read TKAM, I'll know if I am interested in GSAW.

Reading some of the early reviews, I'm even less inclined to read it now.

I wasn't going to read it but then it was chosen as my book club's next read. I just reread TKAM to get myself ready for GSAW. I haven't heard good reviews but as a citizen of Alabama I kind of have to read it, right?

I named my son after Atticus Finch and hearing that he gets kind of dragged through the mud in the sequel kinda dampens my desire to read it at all...

I don't have any desire to read the sequel. I just recently read TKAM for the first time and loved it. Couldn't believe I never read it before now. I want to keep my thoughts and memories of the book intact in a book I loved. If I read a sequel it might mar my thoughts on the characters. I'm this way as well about watching some movies that were made from books I read. But, that's just me.

That's how I feel too Alina - I don't think a sequel is necessary and it could spoil it for me.

I was so excited for the TKAM sequel, but after I heard that many people doesn't find it that good and that Atticus has a different character, it kind of killed my excitment. But I'll read it sometime and see for myself :)

I think I'm the anomaly here... I read To Kill a Mockingbird and I hated it. We had to read it for grade nine English and everyone in my grade hated it so much they changed the required book for grade nines the next semester. Maybe it's a generation thing, but I felt no connection to this book. My thought when I heard the sequel was being released was 'who would want to read it?'.

I'm always interested to know what makes a book I don't like enjoyable to others. What made you all like it so much?

Megan wrote: "I think I'm the anomaly here... I read To Kill a Mockingbird and I hated it. We had to read it for grade nine English and everyone in my grade hated it so much they changed the required book for gr..."

I didn't actually feel any connection to the book at all since I was born in 1990 and although racism is still present in the world today, it wasn't really in my world growing up. *I grew up a military brat overseas*. For me, I just honestly loved the story. The fact that Atticus was able to look past the color of someone skin because he was a human and deserved a fair trial. To me, it was the first book I read and realized that human compassion isn't just skin deep, that it's a mental state of compassion that goes along with the concept of what's right vs what's wrong.

Not to mention that I just loved Scout's outlook on life :P

I read it so long ago, for Grade 10 English, and I honestly can't remember what I loved so much about it, but I remember that I absolutely loved it. Growing up (in Australia), like Brittany, racism wasn't really in my world - sadly I can't say that any more, as it's become so evident just how racist a large number of Australians are. I'm thankful that it hadn't spread down to our generation while we were young.

I think I'm going to reread this next year - I'd like to see if I still love it as much as I did the first time.

Jody wrote: "I read it so long ago, for Grade 10 English, and I honestly can't remember what I loved so much about it, but I remember that I absolutely loved it. Growing up (in Australia), like Brittany, racis..."

I feel the same Jody! I think it is so sad how the world seems to be digressing when it comes to racism. WE ARE SUPPOSED TO BE MOVING FORWARD AS THE HUMAN RACE GETS SMARTER, NOT GOING BACK TO BARBARIC THOUGHTS AND ACTIONS!!!! But I think I will join you in reading this again next year followed by Go Set a Watchman (sadly, I still haven't read it this year due to lack of funds lol).

I read To Kill A Mockingbird a few years ago and I loved it. For me it is more of a growing up story and finding out what the world is like - that nothing is simple and good people can do very bad things. I think the book endures not because of the racism theme but because it is so human.

I also want to re-read To Kill a Mockingbird soon, maybe we could do it together?

I'd like that Sophie! It would be fun to read it together and compare notes.

@Brittany, Jody & Marta

That's still so interesting to me! This book didn't really do that for me, I found it boring and I just couldn't get into it. I knew that was the message there but I didn't feel for it. Now I'm wondering if it's because I was presented with a different book way earlier on that rooted those concepts so much earlier. Runaway to Freedom: A Story of the Underground Railway was read to us in grades 2, 3 and 4. It follows a young girl trying to escape slavery on the Underground Railroad so it obviously touches on equality and racism and the horrors of that extreme segregation. Maybe that's why I didn't care for To Kill a Mockingbird? Because it was mild compared to that?

Maybe I should try reading TKAM on my own, outside of school...

I think that sometimes we just don't like books that everyone else seems to. For me, the two "classics" that I just didn't get the hype over are The Great Gatsby and The Catcher in the Rye. But as they're both on the slim side, and I read them many, many years ago, I think I'm going to give them another crack at some point.

I don't want to read the sequel. I really don't believe harper lee wrote the sequel. That whole situation is suspicious to me.

I want to read it out of curiosity for what else they can do with these characters. I first read it in high school and thought it was just ok. I find reading anything in school and analyzing it to death kills it for me. I reread it on my own a few years later and likes it a lot better.