Twits and old friends

I've thoroughly enjoyed some "old" books so far this summer, all of which were new to me. I wonder how many parents have introduced their elementary-school age offspring to The Twits?

Almost certainly best-known for Charlie and the Chocolate Factory, Roald Dahl's whole list is worth reading, and I encourage you to look beyond the titles that have made it to the big screen.

Dahl's unique take on things is at least amusing for young readers and at times quite insightful for parents reading along. The Magic Finger and The Twits are my current favorites. (The Twits, detailing worms in spaghetti and other revolting but hilarious antics of the disgusting couple, would likely appeal to many reluctant readers.)

What old books have become your new favorites to recommend this summer?

Which ones do you plan to read with your kids before they go back to school?

Finally, I Know Why "Mockingbird" Sings

I don't know how I escaped high school, let alone two college honors classes in English lit, without reading To Kill a Mockingbird, but I'm sorry. Sort of. Reading Mockingbird any time in one's life is probably good for a person; reading it in middle age sort of keeps one's perspective on track.

Of course as much as I love reading, I'm plagued with writer's reading disease, symptoms of which include losing touch with a story here and there while I puzzle over the author's process, construction, possible disagreements with an editor or publisher, and so on.

Because of that, I suspect I enjoyed Lee's "forward" more than most people; I've lost count of how many times I re-read it. In February 1993, Lee wrote:

Please spare Mockingbird an Introduction. As a reader I loathe Introductions. To novels, I associate Introductions with long-gone authors and works that are being brought back into print after decades of interment. Although Mockingbird will be 33 this year, it has never been out of print and I am still alive, though very quiet. Introductions inhibit pleasure, they kill the joy of anticipation, they frustrate curiosity. The only good thing about Introdutions is that in some case they delay the dose to come. Mockingbird still says what it has to say; it has managed to survive the years without preamble.

Well, with apologies to Ms. Lee, that was a hell of an introduction. How could anyone NOT turn the page and commence with To Kill a Mockingbird after that?

So I did. And while I didn't need any (further) introduction, I did re-read the first chapter after finishing the book. It wrapped everything up more neatly for me.

Anyway, if you never read To Kill a Mockingbird, I suggest that you do. Next stop - to the library to borrow the movie, which I also somehow missed thus far...


Interesting -
- that this was the second of my 'favorite books of the year' that featured Charles Lamb rather prominently. (The first being The Guernsey Literary and Potato Peel Pie Society.) In addition to Lee's charming non-introduction, Mockingbird is prefaced by Lamb's quote, "Lawyers, I suppose, were children once."


Recommended reading -
I found the National Endowment for the Arts' biography of Harper Lee very interesting, as well as a shorter one at Teenreads.com). Because Mockingbird is Lee's only published novel, it's almost all we have. Though I intend to find those articles...