what are you reading today?

[Bislane]

If I liked Catcher in the Rye more than this (albeit 3+ years ago) is my taste deteriorating?

[american_hearts]

catcher's the book you always like better 3 years ago. franny and zooey is better right now.

[Bislane]

Yeah I think reading Catcher on X-mas vacation, in seclusion, AND in while in high school probably slanted that whole experience a little bit. Would you say F&Z is supposed to be an answer to Holden's crises in some sense?

[Baeyer-Drewson]

Gonna put it out there, I wasn't blown away by Catcher, especially given its standing in the history of literature. I never read it in school, only read it for the first time in my early twenties, and this may have contributed to its lack of impact. Someone wanna school me?

[Bislane]

I think that the lens is just really tightly focused in Catcher and that's why a lot of people are put off - if you can't relate to such a barrage of stream-of-consciousness that's so critical and reflective, you are going to write off the majority of that book. I think that Salinger is justly praised for just this sort of commitment to his own struggle for answers that he isn't really sure are relevant or not, however.

In one sense the book is definitely a cookie-cutter HS novel that has a lot of imagery and overt themes, but I think if you're willing (and able to) to kind of lose yourself in the plot and the slow-burn of Holden's 48-hour struggle (which I wasn't even aware was occurring as I read it), then you can sort of appreciate how you might feel if you were in that character's path/place.

[NESK]

my experience is that if you read it too far away from the age holden is in the novel, itll all seem pretty bratty, self-absorbed and naive. but if your caught up in that shit, as most kids are when they get forced to read it, its not just something you can relate to, its often the first time you feel that a book is actually communicating with you on a personal level. as in, when you read in high school, you havnt developed a taste for literature outside of whats been assigned to you and catcher kind of opens up a dialouge with you that often informs what you want to read henceforth.

[NESK]

Gonna put it out there, I wasn't blown away by Catcher, especially given its standing in the history of literature.

when did you read it? like i said, its usually a point of entry for most men into literature. unless your parents really push you to read, of course. but i know alot of guys who went from catcher into other "classic" guy lit. i think the tragectory is usually salinger - vonnegut - heller.

although, i also know alot of guys who read catcher and then just started buying alot of other similarily praised novels to keep on their bookshelf even though they never finished any of them. these are the guys who own all the kerouac stuff and probably have an acoustic guitar they cant play leaning against a surf board they cant stand up on. i sort of boycotted anything beatish for a while when my friends were going through this stage.

theres other books that have the catcher effect. fight club was a big one. less than zero, too.

[BRICK DOM]

my experience is that if you read it too far away from the age holden is in the novel, itll all seem pretty bratty, self-absorbed and naive. but if your caught up in that shit, as most kids are when they get forced to read it, its not just something you can relate to, its often the first time you feel that a book is actually communicating with you on a personal level. as in, when you read in high school, you havnt developed a taste for literature outside of whats been assigned to you and catcher kind of opens up a dialouge with you that often informs what you want to read henceforth.

100% agree. When I read it junior year of high school I truly felt as if the novel spoke volumes to me, I could empathize with Holden on so many levels. It was seriously the first book with which I ever felt such a definite gravitation toward. But a couple months ago when I picked up my copy again for a quick read, it all seemed so flat and listless. I just don't feel the teenage angst any more. As to why my username is JD.Salinger, I myself am not even sure. I guess I probably just thought it was a neat idea a year ago or whatever.

Also to contribute to the thread, I just read American Psycho; albeit I glossed over the trivialities of Bateman talking to his friends or hanging out and I pretty much just pored over the violent, graphic scenes.

[NESK]

so you read like 50 pages of AP?

[Baeyer-Drewson]

...I just read American Psycho; albeit I glossed over the trivialities of Bateman talking to his friends or hanging out...

Uhhh... I think you may be missing the point of the novel.

[bfan]

when did you read it? like i said, its usually a point of entry for most men into literature. unless your parents really push you to read, of course. but i know alot of guys who went from catcher into other "classic" guy lit. i think the tragectory is usually salinger - vonnegut - heller.

theres other books that have the catcher effect. fight club was a big one. less than zero, too.

oh shit I remember reading fight club. I was like 15 and I really believed in it, the whole anti-capitalist message and then I read haunted and I realized he was just writing the same book over and over and that he was the definition of a sell out.

this is what I've started slowly picking at when I have more free time. I think I'm gonna save it though for when I have time to read it all in one go:

(sup baeyer)

[Ascent]

Reading Petrach's "Secretum" alongside Stefan Zwieg's "Twilight/Moonbeam Alley". Zwieg possibly my favourite literary figure overall.

[fallen angels]

starting this today

[Ammit]

[koven]

[pieiskewl]

borrowing it from a friend currently, haven't read pihkal, but this is a good read. very interesting, surprisingly well written and easy to read; and not full of chemistry jargon as i would have imagined

edit: highly recommend this (and pihkal)

[chubby]

[jyoni]

This is fucking brain candy, but the guy's pretty good at sensationalizing his villains. He must have a blast writing these.

[leeFX]

Awesome book, so far...

[ssheat]

[Baeyer-Drewson]

This is fucking amazing. A lot of evidence in support of something I've long suspected.

[Mtabor]

been meaning to read this one for about a year.. now that exams are mostly over, finally getting around to it.

[Baeyer-Drewson]

^Please enlarge, I cannot make out the faces of dock workers.

[pieiskewl]

just finished this, good quick read

[Goslett]

I'm catching up on New Yorker articles I missed, and I'm taking a break from reading all the philosophy shit I had to read for school. So, I'm reading these:

and

[Baeyer-Drewson]

[broneck]

am i the only one that read Less than Zero and kinda wanted to be a part of that life? (minus the rape)

[NESK]

I wanted to be in there but with enough awareness to laugh at it. When I read rules of attraction ( I was probably 19) I actually was mad that I hadn't written it because the sex/drugs/naivete was so close to what I was living through with my circle of friends that the relationship I had with the novel was almost palpable.

[NESK]

I think I gave it to my 15 year old sister afterward and was disturbed by how similar her reaction was.

[dibango]