OK so here’s the deal. I never had to read Harper Lee’s American classic To Kill a Mockingbird in school. So I didn’t.

Them’s just the breaks, guys. I didn’t read a lot of books that most kids had to in school because I was part of a super-secret quasi-European intensive training program designed to keep high school students from ever being invited to parties. We had to read Hamlet, Ethan Fromme, French existentialists, Romeo & Juliet, Scandinavian drama queens, 1984 (twice), Animal Farm (thrice), Fahrenheit 451, Macbeth, Things Fall Apart, Their Eyes Were Watching God, Julius Caesar, John Donne, The Scarlet Letter, and I THINK Frankenstein. After that riveting all-star lineup, can you really blame me for not touching any high school recommended reading I wasn’t going to be tested on?

But then, to my complete and total shame, I saw that it was To Kill a Mockingbird’s 50th anniversary. And I had still not read it. So I dusted off an old second-hand copy I had found years ago and shoved on my shelf. And I got reading. And now I finally get why all my bookish friends can always cry “Mockingbird” when asked what book affected them most as a child.

Having never read the book or even seen the classic film, I was willfully ignorant of what TKAM was about. I knew vaguely that it had something to do with a lawyer and racism but that’s like saying the Empire State Building has something to do with floors and steel girders. It’s true but MAN does it miss the important things. The book manages to be this time capsule for this era I’ve never seen while at the same time feeling like a modern story, with little girl who could have been me when I was growing up (minus the dramatic fire, court case, and violent showdown).

Probably the most ridick part of reading this book was when I was about halfway through and got spoiled by a scene in ABC Family’s Pretty Little Liars. The high school characters are discussing the book in their English class (like normal students) and totally ruined the ending for me! UGH! Like, okay, I know that after 50 years I probably can’t ask for spoiler alerts but still. I wanted to be surprised.

Anyway! I guess my point is it’s never too late to pick up a classic you missed out on when you were young. That’s what makes them classics.

Currently reading: seeeekret manuscript thingy