Atticus Finch was my hero. The lawyer I wanted to be, the perfect father, a strong man of quiet character who, when angry, refrained from emotional outbursts and instead put all his energy into effecting change, starting with one man's life.

If you haven't read Harper Lee's "To Kill a Mockingbird," you've missed a rare opportunity to be changed by a book. On the Library of Congress' list of 88 "Books that Shaped America," it shares the limelight with a broad spectrum of literature spanning this young country's lifespan, both fictional and true to life - one heck of a summer reading list. The LOC publicized the list in June to highlight its summer exhibit in Washington, D.C. Public comment on the books is invited at Loc.gov/bookfest.

Among other works is one which continues to change lives in a dramatic way: "Alcoholics Anonymous," or what AA members call, "The Big Book." First published in 1939, the book now is published annually by the thousands, in print and free online at AA.org, and by 2006 surpassed 25 million copies. It's shared at meetings, sold in stores, and even available in paperback at prisons. Its 12-step program also helps overeaters, gamblers, drug addicts, and sex addicts. AA's Big Book and meetings information are available in Coeur d'Alene 10 a.m. to 2 p.m. at 118 N. Seventh St, Suite B-5.

Also on the list of 88 are Benjamin Franklin's "Experiments and Observations on Electricity" and "Poor Richard Improved," and Thomas Paine's "Common Sense."

Thought-provoking novels abound, such as Nathaniel Hawthorne's "The Scarlet Letter," Herman Melville's "Moby-Dick," Harriet Beecher Stowe's "Uncle Tom's Cabin," Louisa May Alcott's "Little Women," Mark Twain's "Adventures of Huckleberry Finn," Jack London's "The Call of the Wild," F. Scott Fitzgerald's "The Great Gatsby," William Faulkner's "The Sound and the Fury," Zora Neale Hurston's "Their Eyes Were Watching God," Eugene O'Neill's "The Iceman Cometh," Tennessee Williams' "A Streetcar Named Desire," J. D. Salinger's "The Catcher in the Rye," and Ray Bradbury's "Fahrenheit 451."

There is Truman Capote's stunning "In Cold Blood," nonfiction which reads like prose and whose veracity of detail was challenged.

For those with philosophical tastes are Henry David Thoreau's "Walden," "Poems" by Emily Dickinson, and - while fiction - the existential Ayn Rand's "Atlas Shrugged."

The nonfiction list includes Meriwether Lewis' account of the expedition, Ralph Nader's Unsafe at Any Speed, Ida Tarbell's The History of Standard Oil, Joy of Cooking by Irma Rombauer, civil rights activist W.E.B. Du Bois' The Souls of Black Folk, Dale Carnegie's How to Win Friends and Influence People, Dr. Spock's The Common Sense Book of Baby and Child Care, the groundbreaking and controversial Alfred Kinsey's Sexual Behavior in the Human Male, Carl Sagan's Cosmos, as well as the autobiographies of Malcolm X and Cesar Chvez.

If you like ghost stories try Toni Morrison's "Beloved" and Washington Irving's "The Legend of Sleepy Hollow."

Kids read too. A few classics for all ages made the list, including Dr. Seuss' "The Cat in the Hat," E.B. White's "Charlotte's Web," and slightly macabre Maurice Sendak's "Where the Wild Things Are:"

"Oh please don't go - we'll eat you up - we love you so!"

Sholeh Patrick is a columnist for the Hagadone News Network mourning America's declining readership. Contact her at sholehjo@hotmail.com.