I feel compelled to write what is surely the obligatory J.D. Salinger post. (Not that that’s a bad thing.) I only read The Catcher in the Rye once. Just the one time, as a freshman in high school. My librarian gave it to me and said, “I think you would like this.” And I did. I had no idea what it was about, but I took her word for it. The things I have heard people object to about it, the language and the selfishness and sex, those things made me feel as if I was not alone. I only read it once because I have been afraid that if I went back and read it again, it wouldn’t be as great as I remembered. (I suppose that 2010 should be my year to rectify that.)
The character of Holden Caulfield nudged me in the direction of librarianship. Just a nudge, but enough that I still remember standing there as my librarian slid the book across the desk at me. Face up. It was a tiny step towards what it is that I love about what I do: connecting people to books that might change them forever. I enjoyed thinking of J.D. Salinger, grumpy and reticent, but there. Connecting those of us who read and related to Holden. But, of course, we still have the book.
I am impossibly late on this, but I would love to hear your memories of reading The Catcher in the Rye.
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4 Comments
I’ve never read it.
@Cassandra: Since you’ve been reading classics, it’s a modern classic you might want to put on your list. I was thinking about it some more this morning and I think that even if I read it and don’t relate to it as much, it will be a good reminder of what it’s like to be a teenager, which is always a helpful sort of thing for teachers/parents to read. There was something else I read in the past year or two that was like that. It didn’t do much for me but it reminded me of what it was like to be a teenager.
Here’s a good review of how one person’s thoughts on the book have changed over time. http://biblioklept.org/2010/01/29/a-few-thoughts-on-the-catcher-in-the-rye/
This was the first book that I read as a teenager that I really in truly enjoyed, and didn’t just read it because it was required. It was the book that showed me that reading really could be fun. But like you, I’ve only read it that once, and never again…maybe I should put it on my long, long list of “must reads”…or in this case, must re-reads.
I will put it on the “Official Kari” list
My 6th grader keeps bringing books home for us to read together and I keep telling her not this semester. I am SO hoping next semester, when I enter the teaching program at the university and am not so much stressed about passing biology and trigonometry, that I can read for fun!! I did manage to finish Pride and Prejudice over Christmas break like I told you I would. And I have been buying up the books on the list. Still not much luck in getting my 6th grader to read any of them…she still likes books with “cool covers”…though I did almost talk her into reading “A Wrinkle in Time”…I told her it was your favorite and since you are a librarian at a school and not her mom…she is at least thinking about it… (is that typical 12 year old behavior or what??)