Train on Thursday: The Catcher in the Rye, J.D. Salinger

I travel with public transport on regular base. One of my favorite past times when in bus or train besides reading is checking out what other people read. I usually look these books up (especially when someone is so hooked they don't notice me checking them out) to see if they would be something for me. In this weekly I will introduce you to the books I spotted while traveling. Feel free to leave a comment with your public transport books. If you want to write your own post feel free to link your post in the comments.

The Catcher in the Rye J.D. Salinger cover
Holden narrates the story of a couple of days in his sixteen-year-old life, just after he's been expelled from prep school, in a slang that sounds edgy even today and keeps this novel on banned book lists. It begins,
"If you really want to hear about it, the first thing you'll probably want to know is where I was born and what my lousy childhood was like, and how my parents were occupied and all before they had me, and all that David Copperfield kind of crap, but I don't feel like going into it, if you want to know the truth. In the first place, that stuff bores me, and in the second place, my parents would have about two hemorrhages apiece if I told anything pretty personal about them."
His constant wry observations about what he encounters, from teachers to phonies (the two of course are not mutually exclusive) capture the essence of the eternal teenage experience of alienation.

Oww it is one of those books. I have tried last year to read a few of the "classics" and I can't seem to get a grip on them. Usually I end up thinking what the wonder of the book really is and I end up on the internet looking for the why's. So small chance this book will end up in my book chest.
Did you read this book? And if yes what would be a good reason for me to pick it up?

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23 May, 2013 delete

This is one of my all time favorite books and definitely think you should give it a try. Holden is the best narrator in literature! In my opinion anyway, lol.

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24 May, 2013 delete

If you don't get on with the classics, you just don't. And that's okay! So maybe library this one? I picked up a gorgeous copy on the 50th anniversary myself but still haven't read it.

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