Book Review: To Kill A Mockingbird

So, this isn't really going to be a review. If you to see an actual review, you can find one here.

Suffice it to say, To Kill A Mockingbird was recently named the one book everyone should read before they die, ranking ahead of The Bible.

I don't know if I'd put it ahead of The Bible, but I'd agree everyone should read it at least once.

This was my fourth time reading it and I thought, instead of a review, I'd simply share a few of my favorite quotes...

Inside the house lived a malevolent phantom. People said he went out at night when the moon was down, and peeped in windows. When people's azaleas froze in a cold snap, it was because he had breathed on them. Any stealthy small crimes committed in Maycomb were his work. (p. 9)

Until I feared I would lose it, I never loved to read. One does not love breathing. (p. 20)

Dill was in hearty agreement with his plan of action. Dill was becoming something of a trail anyway, following Jem about. He had asked me earlier in the summer to marry him, then he promptly forgot about it. He stake me out, marked as his property, said I was the only girl he would ever love, then he neglected me. (p. 46)

When he gave us our air rifles, Atticus wouldn't teach us to shoot. Uncle Jack instructed us in the rudiments thereof; he said Atticus wasn't interested in guns. Atticus said to Jem one day, "I'd rather you shot at tin cans in the back yard, but I know you'll go after birds. Shoot all the bludjays you want, if you can hit 'em, but remember it's a sin to kill a mockingbird. (p. 103)

"Scout," said Atticus, "when summer comes you'll have to keep your head about far worse things . . . it's not fair for you and Jem, I know that, but sometimes we have to make the best of things, and the way we conduct ourselves when the chips are down - well, all I can say is, when you and Jem are grown, maybe you'll look back on this with some compassion and some feeling that I didn't let you down. This case, Tom Robinson's case, is something that goes to the essence of a man's conscience - Scout, I couldn't go to church and worship God if I didn't try to help that man." (p. 120)

"A lady?" Jem raised his head. His face was scarlet. "After all those things she said about you, a lady?"

"She was. She had her own views about things, a lot different from mine, maybe . . . son, I told you that if yoiu hadn't lost your head I'd have made you go read to her. I wanted you to see something about her - I wanted you to see what real courage is, instead of getting the idea that courage is a man with a gun in his hand. It's when you know you're licked before yoiu begin but you begin anyway and you see it through no matter what. You rarely win, but sometimes you do." (p. 128)

Who was this "her" they wer talking about? My heart sank: me. I felt the starched walls of a pink cotton penitentiary closing in one me, and for the second time in my life, I thought of running away, immediately. (p. 155)

"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. Ewell 'as one of 'em." (p. 309)

Neighbors bring food with death and flowers with sickness and little things in between. Boo was our neighbor. He gave us two soap dolls, a broken watch and chain, a pair of good luck pennies, and our lives. But neighbors give in return. We never put back into the tree what we took out of it; we had given him nothing, and it made me sad. (p. 320)

I willed myself to stay awake, but the rain was so soft and the room was so warm and his voice was so deep and his knee was so snug that I slept. (p. 322)

And finally, the best closing line I've read:

He turned out the light and went into Jem's room. He would be there all night, and he would be there when Jem waked up in the morning.