To Kill A Mockingbird -- Harper Lee (1)

Well, I'll start off giving this book the number 1 ranking before I even tally up the points.  (I've even forgotten what the point system was.. I'll have to go back and look.

Harper Lee weaved this marvelously beautiful book together through the eyes of a child, Scout, with an amazing air of warmth and feeling.  This book makes me want to increase my vocabulary.  I be able to employ all of the words she uses when writing..  all of the four and five syllable words that we seem to lose in everyday language.  We hear a lot about all the words we gain every year in the new dictionaries.. (blog, internet, etc) but never realize that our language is actually losing far more than it's gaining.  When the settlers first arrived in the colonies, the English language had an average of 6,000 everyday words.  Our vocabulary now is around 2,000 everyday words.  This isn't to say we don't use other words... but we don't use other words on the level we use those 2,000.

She uses all of these and more.  Based in and around 1935, "Mockingbird" is about the coming of age for children in a Southern town filled with seemingly inescapable class characterizations, racial tension and rape.  The South itself plays a large role in the language and lifestyle of characters portrayed, as well as the North's handling of the South since Reconstruction ended.  I strongly recommend this book to anyone to read.

Now, once again, the all important rating:

Flow:  The book flowed effortlessly through the chapters, though Harper Lee uses a definite dividing line between chapters.  She ends each chapter with a good line, then starts the next seemingly (sometimes) in the middle of a story as if we'd been there the entire time.  I compare it to the needle on a record player skipping. For those too young to know what that means..  think of it as a CD skipping. ;)  -- 9

Believability:  Since most of the book was taken from her memories as a child and the trial itself was taken from something she'd heard about in 1936, the book is definitely believable.  I think the most believable thing about it, however, is the way she writes.  -- 9
 
Suspension of Reality:  You can hear, see and smell the characters.  When Scout brings cold corn bread to Dill to eat, I could taste it.. though I think I was probably hungry.. Point is, when I picked the book up, I almost felt the need to tell them I'd be back later...  anyway.  -- 9

Message:  The book is so popular it has never been out of print.  That is something to say.  At the same time, only 6 literary studies have been done on it, and whether there have been more compelling journals or novels out there to pick from and it has simply been unlucky, I think that may be because they felt no need to defend it.  It's so popular, why bother talking about it.  People read studies when the ones writing them bring controversy to the table. And unless a literary study is talking about how horrible the book is, there would be none.  There are so many messages in this book, the coming of age of a young boy and girl in a different era, racial tensions reflected in deciding between a black man on trial for allegedly raping a white woman, social structures, religion...  -- 9

Intrinsics:  All in all....   I don't know how much more to say about the book.  I loved it.  The language was mesmerizing and makes me want to read the dictionary... not just to see the words and understand them, but to know them.  To put them to everyday usage.  -- 10

Total:  46 of 50

To Kill A Mockingbird

Wow, this book is long..  I don't remember "1984" being nearly this long.. nor "Swiss Family Robinson".. Here I am, inundated with information and humor and sadness and the life of a child turning into a young adult during the Depression and I'm not even halfway through.  It's a great book.. and at the moment, I'd have to put it above "1984" simply for it's ability to connect and be so true to what the South was.. and is.

In the manner that "1984" was seemingly post-apocalyptic and deadly and so gritty it could turn true in a moment, "To Kill A Mockingbird" is so real and so utterly believable to be told from the eyes of a seven year old.  Loiuse Jean Finch, or Scout, as most people call her in the book, is a very smart little girl.  I think I love the language of the book the most, however.  It isn't the talking... that is mostly Southern English, and we hear enough of that growing up.  It's the narrative in the in-between parts.  I'll give two examples:


"The second grade was grim, but Jem assured me that the older I got the better school would be, that he started off the same way, and it was not until one reached the sixth grade that one learned anything of value. The sixth grade seemed to please him from the beginning: he went through a brief Egyptian Period that baffled me—he tried to walk flat a great deal, sticking one arm in front of him and one in back of him, putting one foot behind the other. He declared Egyptians walked that way; I said if they did I didn’t see how they got anything done, but Jem said they accomplished more than the Americans ever did, they invented toilet paper and perpetual embalming, and asked where would we be today if they hadn’t? Atticus told me to delete the adjectives and I’d have the facts."

"For reasons unfathomable to the most experienced prophets in Maycomb County, autumn turned to winter that year. We had two weeks of the coldest weather since 1885, Atticus said. Mr. Avery said it was written on the Rosetta Stone that when children disobeyed their parents, smoked cigarettes and made war on each other, the seasons would change: Jem and I were burdened with the guilt of contributing to the aberrations of nature, thereby causing unhappiness to our neighbors and discomfort to ourselves."

It's very beautiful writing.. so I recommend it to anyone.  And in this case, as is the same with many others I've read (though much more in my opinion in this case because of the exquisite prose she uses), the book is far better than the movie.  You don't get this type of writing translated onto the screen.  Words like unfathomable and aberrations don't translate well into picture.

That's all for now.  It's time to head out to Life Group.. hope the day goes well for everyone.

A Shiny Penny

Well, I'm going to start on the next item in my bucket list...  and this one has a lot to do with getting the land to build my dream house on.  Of course, this one will take a lot of help.  So, I'm going to enlist everyone I can find..  (of course, you'll get some sort of recognition... somewhere down the line)  but here's the plan.  I'm going to trade this shiny penny for something..  and that something for something else.. and so on, until I've traded my way into that land.

When the trade is made, I'll hand deliver the object I'm trading... no matter how far, I want to meet the people helping me do this.  The only requirement is the object being traded to me has to be worth just a little bit more than the item I'm trading to them.  Thanks!

Now, who'll trade me something for this beautiful shiny penny?  It's shiny.. and it's a penny.  Not the new ones with the weird seals on the back, but an honest Abraham Lincoln memorial penny.

And just in case anyone is wondering..  the land most resembling what I'm looking for is found at this link:
http://www.kw.com/homes-for-sale/93023/CA/Ojai/100-Senior-Canyon-Road/3yd-KW-1343_10014514.html

Oh, one more caveat..  to trade, you'll need to subscribe to my blog.  You want to find out what happens don't you?  Subscribe to the blog and comment what you'd like to trade.  Each item will have it's own post as the list grows.

Work

Well, my workload has increased dramatically...  and I've even had an offer from a friend at church who told me he might be able to get me a job with his family's business.  They have me scheduled for 41 hours this week (but I will say this much.. I need some prayer.)  I don't know if it's because I'm reaching for things as I'm checking people out.. but I've stopped leaning on my shoulder (to try to help it) and it's hurting worse now.

In any case...  work is good, I'm having a lot of fun.  I got an email from the housing department at UTA.  They have two houses I can move into this week.  But I'm not sure what they entail (whether they're empty houses and I'll have to find roommates or what...) because one house is $950, the other is $875 (or somewhere around there).  I was shocked.  They are either stand alone houses or duplexes.. they are not on campus (so that adds a little).  I think I may go down to housing and see if I can just get my name put on the list I'm supposed to be on.  The houses I was actually applying for on campus is only $250 a month, so yeah, big difference.

Anyway, I'll let everyone go..  Someone told me I look like I'm writing a book when I do these..  I've started on my symphony.  If anyone knows of good music software that I can use to simulate and record violins, cellos, cymbals, clarinets, orchestral equipment, etc... please let me know.  Thanks!  love you all.