Rediscovered Country

I have a confession to make: Up until a month ago, I didn't read everyday. I'm an English teacher, and yet I found it difficult to "find time" to read everyday. I felt like a hypocrite; an ugly, pathetic excuse for a teacher of Literature. Ah, how my cunning plan has done more for me than I ever dreamed!

What was that cunning plan, you may ask? I made a deal with my Honors Reading Class that they had to read 30 minutes a day, I had to read 30 minutes a day, and if I didn't they got a night off. Why didn't I think of this before? I'm so excited about my daily reading! I'm such a dork, and I wanted to share with you my rediscovered country of daily reading!

Well, I'll keep confessing, since I started. Um, yeah, I've never read To Kill a Mockingbird. I'm reading it now, and I now realize why Bruce Willis and Demi Moore named one of their daughters after Mockingbird's pint-size heroine, Scout. (I still don't know where they got Rumer, though.) I'm in love with the Finch family, and I want to be just like Atticus when I grow up. I'm half-way through the book, and I still can't believe I've never read it before. It's so glorious. Harper Lee's style is so simple and bold at the same time. Where was I in high school? Where was my head during my independent reading in college? I don't know, but I'm making up for lost time.

I also recently read Lord of the Flies, but I wasn't so impressed. I just didn't "get it." Maybe I'll re-read All the King's Men next, but the movie looks, well, completely underwhelming. Have you read that!?! Ohmygosh, I've only read it once (when I was 17), but I still haven't forgotten it. (Thank you, Susan Weber!) That book had some of the most detailed descriptions of the deep south ever. I found myself completely immobilized by the idea of oppressive Louisiana heat as I read it. It was absolutely spellbinding. Go read it...NOW!