2011 Project365 Day 5

Date: 05 January 2011 21:11:42

This is my current book group book. I picked it up again and started reading yesterday, and am absolutely loving revisiting a much-loved favourite. I first read it in English class in school, loved it from the start and have reread it several times, though not for several years. It's just so beautifully observed, and still so powerful even though I know the story so well. I know the film is also meant to be amazing, with Gregory Peck as Atticus Finch, but I just can't bring myself to watch it. I very rarely see the films adapted from favourite books, as my mind's eye view of the characters and places is always so crystal-clear I can't bear the thought of someone else's view changing how I see them. Everyone tells me this film is different and I won't be disappointed, but I want to hang on to the magic of the book. The other week one of my colleagues, whose daughter has just started high school (that's secondary school down south), was telling us how at a parent's evening recently she'd been shocked when the English teacher had told them they don't study whole books any more, or do any Shakespeare or anything like that. Apparently now they read all sorts of different examples of writing - she particularly mentioned pamphlets, I don't know if they have a special emphasis on pamphlets or if my colleague was just so incensed by it all that that's all she took in. Supposedly it's to help them to see different interpretations and how to put across different messages and all that sort of thing. And of course we laughed at the ridiculousness of it all, but really, especially now I've started to reread "To Kill a Mockingbird", I just feel incredibly sad. I hate the thought of our children not having one book they read at school and loved, the way this book has stayed with me. What a terrible shame.