The Catcher In The Rye.

[MyWinona]

Obvious reason why I got into these book. I just finished it. Still don´t know if I enjoyed it. I just don´t get Holden. Maybe 'cause I read the spanish translation or something. Maybe I missed a lot things. Has anyone else read it??

[oinone]

I did 5 years ago. My favorite one from Salinger is Nine Stories and Glass family stories.
But in this I especially love Phoebe. Maybe it can be lost in translation or we couldn't get him because he is too American.

[eagle-rare]

I first read "Catcher in the Rye" when I was 13 or 14.  That over thirty years ago. I understood Holden and fell in love with the book instantly.

That you don't understand Holden may be a good thing. It also puts you in lock-step with the latest trend. The New York Times posted an article last year titled, "Get a Life, Holden Caulfield."

www.nytimes.com/2009/06/21/weekinreview/21schuessler.html


            "Teachers say teenagers just don't like Holden as much as they used to."

Like I said, that could be a good thing.

[NightMonkey]

Yeh read it about a year ago, didnt take very long, was actually surprised how short it was.  I can understand the character and stuff but because it has such a big following and build up you expect a bit more. 
Would have been more impressive if i had not heard a thing about it and picked it up out of the blue.

[eagle-rare]

   " Yeh read it about a year ago, didn't take very long, was actually surprised how short it was."

What? You get paid to read by the word?  Hah!  I don't think I like your attitude.

Hemmingway,arguably the greatest short story writer from the U.S., proclaimed the following to be his greatest short story:

                                           " For Sale: Baby Shoes, Never Used."


                                          "...and stuff "

 That is what I look for in literary critique, reminiscent of Dorothy Parker.

 What book does rock your socks, and stuff?

[NightMonkey]

You actually made me laugh about my own comment.
 
I was trying to say that i was expecting a marathon read (not that length has anything to do with how good or bad a book is) but was surprised it wasn't.
It is a good book, but with the build up it has i suppose i was disappointed.
You have given me encouragement to read it again after I finish my current read (which is a Stephen King btw, and I suppose you will slate me for that  )

You recommend any others?

[eagle-rare]

"There are no trashy books, only trashy readers."   Tom Conti in the movie, "Reuben,Reuben".  A great movie of dog assisted suicide.


"You recommend any others?"

Consumer's Digest?   Beyond Good and Evil?  Penthouse Forum?

How would I know?
They are all good.

I was interested in what you like to read.
I read Steven King's ," Misery", twenty years ago. I enjoyed it, he certainly can spin a yarn.
What else do you read?

[NightMonkey]

‘Penthouse Forum?’  

Yes Mr King Can ‘spin a yarn’ as you put it.

I have read a bit of everything from J.K Rowling to Thomas Harris…..….and stuff.  

But not so many classic books

[eagle-rare]

Have never read Rowling,yet, I am sure that she is delightful and that I would enjoy her work.

 I read Harris' ,"Silence of the Lambs". just about the same time  I read "Misery". It was a phase, I havn't read anything contemporary since.

I am currently reading Norman Mailer's biography of Picasso,it's a manly thing,(grunt), William J. Higginson's "Haiku Handbook", it's a Beat thing,(om), and Hunter S. Thompson's , "Songs of the Doomed",it's a "I give up and you can all go f yourself" thing,(boom).

I wouldn't recommend any of that to anyone.

Read, it's all good,

but don't dismiss , "Catcher in the Rye", with a "yeh" and " stuff", Dorothy Parker.

I am on watch.

Hah!

[NightMonkey]

Sorry again about that, I am a bit ignorant at times.  I will read it again, soon.

Harris’s, ‘Red Dragon’ is the most thrilling book I have ever read, I would recommend it (although having seen the film before reading would spoil it)

I really should read more ‘classics’.  Does anything off this list catch your eye or be worth reading more than the others (although this list is aimed at a more commercial perspective).  I have only read 2 of them (the catcher and lord of the flies)

http://www.amazon.co.uk/b...ar-order/lm/1DF8UFOX75MMI

[eagle-rare]

Hey, if you liked it,reread it, if you didn't, move on.
I'm just giving you the rub, it's a Winona Ryder fansite, not the main table at the  Alqonquin.

I don't know what books to recommend you,we don't seem to connect on that level. That's not a bad thing,it's a difference thing.
There is no list of books that everyone has to read, if someone tells you there is,it's a crock. What they are really telling you is,"This is who I am" ,and that has nothing to do with what  or who you might relate to.

I'm not an educated man,I found the books I like to read by finding who influenced the people I admired.  For instance, when I was sixteen I read a book about John Lennon written by Anthony Fawcett. There was a quote by Henry Miller in that book,something about a chair, and it stuck in my mind. A couple of years later I am rummaging through a bargin bin in a bookstore and I came across "Tropic of Cancer" by Henry Miller. Miller introduced me to Sherwood Anderson's, "Winesburg , Ohio" and to Dostoevsky and to Anais Nin. And to a host of others.

Who influenced Harris? If you start that path I believe you'll find the books you want to read.

Of that list,I have read 15 of the 20. They are all worth reading. And thank you,you have introduced to a couple of books I would like to read.

My favorite book of all time is, "The Brothers Karamazov", by Fyodor Dostoevsky. Then there are the two "Tropics" by Miller,and  anything  by James Joyce. Scott Fitzgerald,Hemingway,Jack London, Burroughs,Kerouac,....I don't know.

Conrad's, "The Heart Of Darkness" ?

Try this,

www.randomhouse.com/modernlibrary/100bestnovels.html

Read what you love.

[NightMonkey]

I hear you Eagle

[eagle-rare]

Hey,no problem.

Anytime you want the over-inflated opinion of a self-righteous narcissist with ear hair,look me up.

That's why God invented the internet.

[phil]

Sherwood Anderson's, "Winesburg , Ohio"

 I second this one, wholeheartedly.
 A great book.

And Hemingway introduced me in one of his stories to Ivan Turgenev's, A Sportsman's Notebook
(or sometimes known as A Hunter's Sketches).
A beautiful book of short sketches.

[eagle-rare]

^^^

I have read Gogol but never Turgenev, thank you for the reference.