J.D. Salinger
By most standards I’d be considered a pretty avid reader. On average I read a book about every two weeks or so with maybe a few weeks a year where I don’t read much at all. This, usually, because I can’t find anything that intrigues me. Compared to Linda, though, I’m a lightweight. She can burn through two books in a good weekend. My brother Trevor fits into this category as well.
Even as a young teen I read a fair amount. I come from a family of readers. It wasn’t until high school, though, that I remember really being significantly impacted by any one book. Caught of guard you might say which, I did, along with, “I’ve never read a book with the “F” word in it.” I was a freshman in high school at the time and had never been assigned to read a book I actually enjoyed prior to ‘The Catcher in The Rye.’ It was a real eye opener. I went on to read pretty much everything Salinger wrote, finding some of his works just as excellent and others just good. I don’t recall reading anything from him that I didn’t enjoy.
Later, while Linda and I were living in New York City and before we had any children, I decided to read the book again. You know, see if I could re-capture the same magic from the first time. That was about 14 years ago and it was still just as excellent.
Yesterday J.D. Salinger passed away which reminded me of that first time I read about Holden Caulfield.
What do you remember about the first time you read one of his magnificent works?
3 comments:
ah, I love Salinger. I remember when we lived in NYC and we bought all of his books and I "burned" through them as you say. I feel the need to do some re-reads now.
Salinger has been a part of ,my life since my parents named me- after Holden's little sister. I do remember wanting and wanting to read Catcher in the Rye, but I was put off until I was 13. My first reading of it was fairly unsatisfactory-I was obviously too young. But when I read it again in High School I truly began to love all of Salinger's stories and my devotion has remained all these years.
Phoebe, nice to have you on board and good to know about your namesake-ness.
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