2km (kilomockingbirds)

I recently re-read To Kill a Mockingbird. I did this because when I tried to talk to someone about it having read it for the first time at the age of 21, they said 'What are you in high school or something?' (I should add that they're American). Now, aside from To Kill a Mockingbird being a excellent book that I would recommend to anyone, did he have a point? Does being forced to read something in school hinder your enjoyment of it, even to the point of putting you off reading forever? I have always been a reader, and so when it came to reading and writing about Of Mice and Men during GCSE English it was nice to go in depth. I liked the book too, like To Kill a Mockingbird it deals with some pretty serious issues. The former is perhaps about eugenics, the latter about racism, both about innocence.

But being forced to read a book, rather than doing so by choice, will inevitably dampen enjoyment of it, especially if an essay is due. It seems that two things could happen. The reader realises that reading and understanding a book without having to eloquently express plot devices to a teacher is much better and will happily read books their whole life; that or the reader gets fed up and swears off reading forever. I feel sorry for those people.

Anyway, back to the original topic of this post. While reading the book I found myself nostalgic for a childhood in the 1930s American south that I never had. It can do even that, so if you have not, read it yourself. You shan't be disappointed.

First post, please be gentle!

Hello!

This is my first foray into blogging, I always was slow to catch onto trends. Anyway, as you might have guessed from the blog title, my name is Stuart, or any variation you like. Studog is a good one, but Disco Stu never really took off. For more about me, see my profile.

My blog's name is taken from a quote by my housemate Alun. He once uttered 'What is Alun?', and it has frequently been repeated. That there is a back story to this detracts from its esoteric nature, and also it's boring, so I wont tell it. I actually wanted to call it 'Something Profound', but for starters it was taken, and also I have a feeling it wouldn't be true.

I have been inspired to blog mostly my the blogs that my friends have set up, and some are very insightful. Ed's blog (http://theworldarounded.blogspot.com) is limited to 22 words per post, and teaches the value of being concise. I shall try not to ramble.

So as this is my first post, I shall tell you about the beginnings of this blog. How I started: apparently, my email address was already taken (huh?), so I reset the password as you are allowed to do, and found that someone in Pakistan had somehow set up a google account with my email address. They didn't appear to be using it, so I changed the password and user details and reclaimed my rightful google account. Take that, Pakistan!

My reason for starting: I have thoughts on several topics I wish to commit to the ages, or at least as long as we have the internet. They include, but are not limited to:

Music, art, literature and films.
Meteorology and climate change, and the environment in general. You will find a large number of blogs on this topic, some agreeing with the IPCC's doom and gloom, others vehemently against it to the point of accusations of lying and conspiracy. I expect to cover some middle ground.
General life and love, though I hope I don't treat this as a diary, I do hope at least some other people read it!
Christianity, criticisms of my own and considered responses to its more fundamentalist detractors.

Occasionally I might blog about politics too, but you should ignore those because I wont have a clue what I'm on about.

Laters!