Same except late 20s, fantastic little read, wish I would of read it when I was 17.

Reading it when you're 17 turns you into a killer

I read it a few months ago. It's pretty good. Probably more enjoyable to read when you are 17. But at 40 we don't have to worry about you becoming a killer.

Oh I am about 120 pages in - he kills someone?? Cannot say I anticipated that I was thinking he was going to top himself.

Anyway he has just finished iceskating...it is pretty readable but I guess I am just thinking whiny teenager with teenager problems so far. Yeah he makes some interesting observations but I dunno - I cant quite put my finger on it.

Not saying he kills someone, saying identifying too closely with him makes you a killer.

Ya I was just talking about big poppas post. No spoilers

It instantly became my favorite book in high school since I felt like I identified so well with Holden and his belief that everyone is fake. I reread it a few years ago (I was 27) and thought that Holden was a whiny, sniveling, spoiled brat. I think that I just looked past that when I was younger. That being said, it is still a great book.

I read the first 5 pages or something like that, and thought it was emo BS, and threw it away. Maybe I should give it another go.

Adventures of Huckleberry Finn: preteens
Catcher in the Rye: teens
The Moviegoer: late 20s
Suttree: adult life

Finished reading The Innocent Man by John Grisham.

Next, reread Huck for the stuff you missed as a pre-teen. (Though Hemingway wasn't wrong about the ending being a mistake; Twain had trouble finishing the book.)

Haha - here I was thinking, last night as I was reading, where the fark is he gonna have a death in this thing. Then as I was reading the final page - I went hold on - did I miss something in this reading. Did he kill someone on the first page, Maurice the pimp....mofo I do not think I miss stuff like that? Ultimately, I consoled myself with the thought that if I did miss something it must be just old age.

If you want to read my take

http://forumserver.twoplustwo.com/22...12/index3.html

#288 on my blog has it.

Yes I know it is a shameless plug.

Cat's Cradle Kurt Vonnegut is my next cat to kill.

Digger, here's what you're missing:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mark_David_Chapman

Cheers - I caught that in the wiki as I was organising my thoughts for my take on the novel.

I am obviously from a completely different culture to 1950s America but *I do not understand the desire to censor it. It is not wholly unsympathetic to Christian values - Holden engages a prostitute but ultimately does not sleep with her. Holden makes comment on Jesus and although he makes a heretical observation about the fate of Judas and an unflattering appraisal of the disciples ---> it is from a position wholly sympathetic to Jesus. He is charitable and kind towards the Nuns with a very kind view of their role.
He is very critical of the mysogny and immaturity of his peers towards women - although he is not wholly free of the same urges.

Yes - it is not wholesome but the moral panic appears absurd.

It connects to my whole critique of alot of totalitarian and religious traditions - where I use a simple measure of whether a culture or government treats its citizens as adults or as children.

/end incoherent - semi relevant diatribe

(* I do understand the desire to censor - hmmm it just appears to be an absurd overreaction that probably hints that those that read it and wanted to censor it could not actually see beyond the "offensive signs" to what was actually meant, or that they could but they do not trust the rest of society to make a sophisticated judgement and thus infantilise all of us. [Mind you the assumption that alot of "us" not seeing beyond a certain reading is not unreasonable])

// end continual qualifying clauses to my original rant.

I might be wrong but wasn't Conan Doyle an occultist - in any case, it was quite fashionable in some literary circles at the turn of the 20th century in England to engage in occultist cultural practices.

As I recall, the original drive to censor the book was based entirely on its use of a single forbidden word, ironically enough in a graffito that Holden wants to erase to protect the innocent (hence becoming what he conceives of as a catcher in the rye). The larger question of the book's values, of its mention of prostitutes (most often metaphorically) and the like, were brought up later.

On the one hand, the ridiculousness of that kind of censorship has become obvious. Even Facebook has given up. On the other hand, this forum is still sufficiently old fashioned in its protocols that I will not be allowed to write out the proscribed word (****).

I've stalled pretty hard on 'House of Leaves'. I was loving it early on and then just became less and less interested. I still think it is mostly well written and interesting but early on I thought it had lots of potential but I'm just not feeling it anymore really. It might be worth a re-read sometime in the future once I finish.

Did you all that read it read all the Appendices? I'm kind of close to the end and may just stop at that point.

While reading that book I read a Terry Pratchett book "Interesting Times' was just ok for him. My least favorite of the 5 or so that I have read, but still amusing at times.

Just started reading 'Starship Troopers' for the first time. My 3rd RH book. So far pretty fun and what I need to counterpoint HoL.

It's interesting that Catcher in the Rye has become SUCH a famous book, and something for instance like The Moviegoer, which I think is very comparable in quality, style, and demographic (age differs but still male), relatively no one has heard of. Substitute probably 100 other titles for The Moviegoer and the point stands. It's just funny how certain books get pegged as must-reads by the educators and others kinda fall by the wayside.

After stumbling upon this: (We look at the world once, in childhood. The rest is memory.) - Louis Gluck, I decided to read some of her poetry. Really excellent stuff, but the one that took my head off was a poem called Illuminations. Sadly it isn't available online.

It is if you're a New Yorker subscriber. (Possibly also if you have a university library affiliation.)
http://archives.newyorker.com/?i=1977-01-03#folio=034

It's been nice to see some recent attention to poetry in this thread.

- The extent it is on school (systems) reading lists.
- The censorship itself creates a demand that wouldnt otherwise be there.

I agree, Russell. I wish I knew how to read John Keats' odes.

"Beauty is truth, truth beauty," –
that is all Ye know on earth, and all ye need to know.

Just finished the audiobook of The Shadow of the Wind by Carlos Ruiz Zafon. Pretty sure this made it to my wish list based on recs in this thread. It was the idea of a Cemetery of Forgotten Books that really intrigued me. I really enjoyed this book but don't think it quite made it to "loved it" status. Good story and good characters, solid effort all around. 4/5.

What would you guys recommend as good existentialist fiction?