I’d completely forgotten how good this book is!

I wasn’t even going to read it. I only picked it up after I started reading Go Set A Watchman and realized that it was the sequel to To Kill A Mockingbird.

It must have been 15 or 16 years since I read it…back in 2000 when I came back from the Philippines where I’d bought the paperback copy at a place called the National Book Store. The price sticker is still stuck on the back of the book. I paid 124.75 Pesos.

I’m only 60 pages deep, but already living and loving it. The writing is just so excellent and immediately transports you into the fictional town of Maycomb, Alabama, and the residential street where the boy Jeremy (Jem), his younger sister Jean Louise (Scout) live with their father Atticus Finch…down the street from the mysterious Radley Place and the “malevolent phantom” Boo Radley.

Jem gave a reasonable description of Boo: Boo was about six-and-a-half feet tall, judging from his tracks; he dined on raw squirrels and any cats he could catch, that’s why his hands were bloodstained – if you ate an animal raw, you could never wash the blood off. There was a long jagged scar that ran across his face; what teeth he had were yellow and rotten; his eyes popped, and he drooled most of the time.

“Let’s try to make him come out,” said Dill. “I’d like to see what he looks like.” (Page 13).