One of those things you never knew you couldn't live without

Yesterday I had a few minutes to waste before work, so I wandered through my local Borders Express (formerly known as Waldenbooks). They seem to rearrange things in that store fairly often, so I usually take a look at the overall layout to see if what, if anything, has changed. As I passed to tiny biography section, the word "mockingbird" caught my eye.

"It can't be," I thought.

But it was.

Someone--a fellow named Charles J. Shields--has finally written what looks like a comprehensive biography of Harper Lee. Based on a brief perusal of the dust jacket flaps, it does not look as if Mr. Shields actually spoke to the famously reclusive author (although she did recently write a letter to Oprah's magazine), but I would guess that he wouldn't have had access to the people and information that he did without at leat her tacit approval.

Apparently quite a bit of the book is devoted to Lee's relationship with Truman Capote and her involvement in the research and writing of In Cold Blood. I had forgotten that she played such a major role in the production of that book.

To Kill a Mockingbird is one of my all time favorite books, and I am sure that there are many, *many* people who would say the same thing. I tend to read it in uncertain or frustrating times of my life. I take comfort in the fact that no matter how many times I read it certain facts remain true. Miss Maudie's house always burns down. Atticus always defends Tom Robinson. Boo Radley always comes out.

It takes me about three and a half hours to read, which means that I probably have about twenty hours invested in the book. Sadly, it's not quite as much time as I have invested in watching the original Star Wars trilogy. :)