British librarians' favorite: To Kill a Mockingbird

Today is World Book Day*, and British librarians voted Harper Lee's To Kill a Mockingbird "the book everyone should read." Lest you think this was influenced by the film "Capote," in which Catherine Keener plays Harper Lee -- Truman Capote's lifelong friend and important supporter -- the film is only opening in the U.K. tomorrow.

Capote and Lee were childhood friends, and Capote appears fictionalized in the book as the child Dill. Note this "for further reading" page for the book, this Feb. 5, 2006 Observer story about Lee, and this April 3, 2005 story in the Lawrence, Kan. Journal-World about Lee's involvement in Capote's "In Cold Blood."

Update: Turns out March 2 is World Book Day only in the UK and Ireland. In most places it's April 23, as established by UNESCO, the birthday of Shakespeare and Cervantes.

Harper Lee, World Book Day, Truman Capote, To Kill a Mockingbird