I too was attacked repeatedly by a mockingbird while walking my dog in Amityville. It swooped over my head and hovered before me like a day bat. I didn't know what type of bird it was. Tonight it sang away - and I realized it was my attacker. I only recently read the book T K A M and thought about Bo Radley, who mostly came out at night - and how they hunted down poor Tom Robinson above the jail at night.

Lydia, thanks for your response. The usual silence about the Mrs. Dubose episode has always puzzled me. I don't know if readers generally don't find it compelling or it is relatively unmemorable coming on the heels of the indelible image of Atticus shooting the mad dog. But I'm with you about that quote. It is Atticus's warning to Jem and foreshadows that the first baby steps of standing up to the status quo cannot be expected to succeed but are nonetheless necessary.It's when you know you're licked before you begin but you begin anyway and you see it through no matter what.It epitomizes Atticus's involvement, don't you think? I think it is one of the most powerful messages in all of TKaM.I am interested in how the novel is perceived by those from countries other than the U.S. Netla has already weighed in - I wonder if there is any equivalent to this way of life and the beliefs expressed in the novel in other places? Those of us from the industrial north might view the novel as though it is in fact from other country!Siobhan, I'm sure you would prefer to hear directly from readers outside the U.S., but your question interested me so I asked two of my non-U.S. friends about what they think. I thought I would share their responses. The first friend was born, bred, and still lives in Yorkshire. She says that she half-expected TKaM to be completely foreign to her. Instead she found that, although many of the characteristics make the place and people of TKaM unique to the American South, there were just as many instances in which she could identify. She feels that Maycomb could almost be any small town in England, with similar eccentrics, prejudices, and pathos. She sees the theme as universal to the human condition. My second friend is Argentinian. She says what enchanted her so much was the children's day-to-day lives: how they were left to their own devices and how safe their world seemed until, of course, things were no longer safe for them. I think I have profoundly thoughtful friends! An experience of mine: I tried to read Ne tirez pas sur l'oiseau moqueur, but I finally gave up because Jem and Scout speaking French just seemed too incongruous to me. It makes me wonder how many English translations come out sounding absurd to the speakers of the language the story was originally written in.

It's so interesting to take novels we enjoyed as young people, and re-read as adults. It's a whole different viewpoint. I wouldn't include The Little Prince as a novel, but it is a wonderful little book. Every time I read it, or my kids read it, it's different. April and Lars, perhaps I will try Russian novels again . . . if I own it and can mark it up, and if it's a good translation. But maybe not Dostoevsky. After reading Dickens and Hugo, who were also likely paid by the word, I don't think I have the attention span anymore. My son was in Les Mis in high school, and I decided to read the novel by the time the show closed. Well, through 4 months, wholesale skipping pages dealing with pruning fruit trees, underground sewer systems, and Napoleonic battles, I finished the last page while waiting for him to get home from the cast party. Grueling. Excellent, but grueling.

I had no idea it was being made into a play. How wonderful!!! You know, last night DH and I watched “De-Lovely” with Kevin Kline and Ashley Judd again and I couldn’t help but wish that Broadway would bring back Cole Porter’s gorgeous, wonderful musicals again. The music, the acting, the costumes were brilliant.