'To Kill a Mockingbird' Sequel Hits Bookstores
By Tim Jimenez
PHILADELPHIA (CBS) --- The hype is over and readers here and across the country are expected to hit the book store today as the literary classic "To Kill a Mockingbird" gets a different, controversial take.
Stores like the Barnes and Noble in Center City are opening up earlier, 7 am, for folks to get a copy of Harper Lee's 'Go Set a Watchman'.
Sarah Sawyers-Lovett, who has a podcast called BookJawn, got her copy at midnight at the Big Blue Marble bookstore in Mount Airy where she works. They held a screening of "To Kill a Mockingbird" on Monday night and at midnight they sold books and had a read-a-thon. She's already a few chapters in.
"You can definitely tell it is a first draft. Some of the language is kind of clunky and the sentences are more complicated than they needed to be," she says. "With that said, even if it was a terrible book it would be really interesting to read from an archival perspective."
Much has been said and written about the book. Harper Lee, 89, has reportedly been dealing with health issues since a stroke in 2007. Her attorney and friend says she found the manuscript.
Revealed in the book is Atticus Finch's altered views when it comes to race, which has disappointed readers and the sequel's protagonist Jean Louise, better known as Scout.
"The moral compass of her life is this very human, fallible person," Sawyers-Lovett says. "And as you grow up you sometimes realize that your heroes aren't who you want them to be and that's disappointing."
The Big Blue Marble Bookstore is already sold out and even had to break the news to a woman in the middle of the night, looking to buy a copy on her way to the airport.
"The copies we have left are for people who preordered them so they're gonna be guarded by a three-headed dog!" Sawyers-Lovett joked.