I am really enjoying this book and just ended it the other night. it was really good. I was wondering if any of you have read this book and would want to discuss it.

p.s. its a project for my class that I join a book club and talk about the books I read.

so please help me out and write me back thanks.. and hope to hear back from you guys....

Alex

Alex,

My transfer wasn't 100 % successful, it looks like I was the one who wrote your posting...

I wanted to attract your attention to the fiction forum: because of your interests, I suggest you start by exploring the threads here.

I haven't read Catcher, but I know many other members have.


It's lovely to see you are interested in so many books.


We are finishing our discussion of Heart of Darkness, by Joseph Conrad.

We are also reading Wicked by Gregory Maguire as a sidebar discussion, and on April 1st we shall start discussing No Country for Old Men by Cormac Mc Carthy.

As for reading suggestions, you will find that our forums are full of them.


So make yourself at home...

Hi Alex -

I'm sure that many of us on this site have read "Catcher in the Rye." It's a true American classic and in my top ten favorites.

I'm an old man now, but I remember reading "Catcher in the Rye" when I was seventeen, away from home for the first time and working at Hudson's Department Store in downtown Detroit. I had one room in a boarding-house not too far from Hudson's, I was laying on my bed reading and laughing out loud - the landlady heard me through the door, asked me what I was laughing about and, when I showed her the book, asked me to lend it to her when I finished. I did, and she loved it, too.

Holden Caulfield - a name that always brings back pleasant memories and good times.

Ralph

I read Catcher in the Rye about four or five years ago as a related text for English - I chose it, hence the related text. I enjoyed it. But to discuss it I may need to read it again

I've read it and I didn't mind it. I had very high expectations reading it because it has such a reputation. It wasn't my favourite book though. I have the feeling that I would have appreciated the character of Holden Caufield if I had read it in my mid teens. At times I found him a little whiny and annoying but at the same time I could see his point of view about certain things and why he resented certain parts of society.

I had to read it because, at the beginning of the book, a class mate told me she feels like she's talking to me. We were 16 at the time.

It was amusing, I loved the character's strong sense of individuality and sarcasm, but he was too naive and imature on the other hand. It's a good book, I should buy it... I don't own many books. *spleen*

I'm almost afraid to read Catcher in the Rye again. Maybe because when I read it, I think in eighth grade, I was becoming an alienated teenager like Holden Caulfield (and even attending my first year of private school), the book had a powerful, painful effect on me. But what if I might now view the book more in terms of the faults that critics were quick to point out? It often happens that when we revisit a book that affected us so deeply years ago, we say, "Oh, I can't see what all the fuss was about." But at the time, the book affected me viscerally, the way few books ever have. I thought the scene where he ponders the "fuck you" graffitied on the stairwell was both tragic and affirming, etched into my mind like a laser (just one example). The book might be one that will affect deeply only people who tend to be depressive. I'd give a re-read a shot, though. Anyone interested in joining?
DWill

^ Yea. I want to read it again too...

I read Catcher in the Rye a long time ago, maybe more than 25 years ago. I remember liking the way the narrative caught the "voice" of Holden Caulfield's thoughts, but also thinking that some of the slang was already dated, and having an insight about how fast all slang becomes archaic as opposed to more standard usage. I wonder if that won't change now, at least for a while because of the technology we have to capture speech as speech, a virtual "oral tradition" that gives a longer-lasting status to voices that aren't standardized. But I digress, and in a wordy way, too. I would probably re-read and discuss this book if we read it, but I'd like to give the alternative idea that maybe we would like to read Frannie and Zooey by J. D. Salinger instead. I thought after I first read it that it might well be my favorite book ever. That was a long time ago, too. I don't know if it would still have that place on my list, but I think the topics and his treatment of them might make for a lively and thought-provoking discussion at booktalk. (Ever the stealthy and innocent-looking trouble-maker....)

I remembered I had to write an essay about "The Catcher in the Rye" by J.D. Salinger about the themes in the book. Well, this story is definitely about the coming of age, and how that changes a person. To Holden Caufield, it is torture growing up. He had a rough life. However, he can relate to children. I can kind of relate to him because as a young girl, I had so much fun, i didn't want to grow up now that I am a young adult. Who wants to have to deal with all the heartaches and pains of becoming an adult.

TP