Friday Favorites: To Kill a Mockingbird

On Fridays I post a little shout out to one of my favorite books and explain why I love it so much. It gives me the chance to fangirl over books I never reviewed on this blog and lets me post about some not necessarily YA books I love.

Which book?
To Kill a Mockingbird, by Harper Lee

Genre?
Fiction

Summary? (From GoodReads)
Harper Lee's Pulitzer Prize-winning masterwork of honor and injustice in the deep South--and the heroism of one man in the face of blind and violent hatred.

One of the best-loved stories of all time, To Kill a Mockingbird has been translated into more than forty languages, sold more than thirty million copies worldwide, served as the basis of an enormously popular motion picture, and was voted one of the best novels of the twentieth century by librarians across the country.

A gripping, heart-wrenching, and wholly remarkable tale of coming-of-age in a South poisoned by virulent prejudice, it views a world of great beauty and savage inequities through the eyes of a young girl, as her father--a crusading local lawyer--risks everything to defend a black man unjustly accused of a terrible crime.

When did I first read it?
Five years ago, I think.

Why did I first read it?
It was always one of those books that I’d heard about other people reading for school, but I was never assigned it, so I never read it in high school. But then I figured that I should see what all the hype was about, so in college I checked it out from the library. And discovered that all the hype is entirely, 100 percent merited.

What did I think about it then?
I fell in love with Scout immediately. She’s such a plucky little girl, so full of spunk, and I just loved her narrative voice. Then, as I got further and further into the story, I came to appreciate the plot too, and the message it was trying to get across. I was expecting the book to be all about racism, so I was intrigued to find that it’s also about growing up, family, friendship, and figuring out what you believe then standing up for it.

What do I think about it now?
I still adore this book so much, and I’ve reread it quite a few times. I just never get tired of Scout. And of course, there’s Atticus Finch, that epitome of a good man. I’m glad, though, that I read it when I was older and not when everyone else was being forced to read it for school. I think being forced to read this one would’ve ruined it for me—it would’ve taken away the wonder and the joy of discovering that this book was so much more than I anticipated.

Have you read this book? What did you think?