The best I can think to say about this is that it’s a quick read. I guess there was something to it, but really it was a bit grating. In terms of writing though, it was 100 per cent what it set out to be, and the character never wavered. So while I can see the skill, I guess, I didn’t really enjoy the experience.

I hated this book. I tried hard to like it, but if I wanted to hear the plight of a whining teenager, I could just call one of my friends and listen to them talk.

Some time ago we were reading this book in class and I noticed something funny. Either someone loved it or hated it, but no one stayed indifferent.

I was really glad to have finally read this book, it was sitting on the shelf for years, I kid you not.

Anyway, it always kind of struck me as a book for reading in school, I don’t really know why that would be.

So I read it, I had no expectations of it, I like when I have no expectations of something, that way you can’t be dissapointed. Well, it didn’t really go anywhere, so I can see why someone would be kind of let down with it, but I saw it more as a snapshot of the guys life. Like how he came to realise certain things about him in a very short space of time, I like how he learns as he goes along in his rather haphazard way. He is so typical of us all at that sort of age, you don’t see more than you want to, but it sort of happens to you anyhow, I don’t know if that makes any sense at all, I have had 2 bottles of Grolsch whilst watching the rugby…

I wanted to read this because I seem to be the only person on the planet who didn’t read it in high school, but…

Ugh! Why on earth is this a “classic”?!? By the time I hit page 15 I was already flipping ahead to see how long it was and if the incessant whining ever stopped. I forced myself to finish it because it is a “classic” but I wanted to claw my eyes out the whole time. I started thinking that maybe this is a book that only appeals to teenagers, but then I realized that even if I had read it ten years ago I still wouldn’t have related. (maybe my reaction would have been less violent, though)

I was lucky that I read this when I had the same mind-set of Holden. Now it is a book I can read over and over again, and I can understand how I felt when I was angsty. Maybe I’ll read it when I have kids that are in that phase, and I’ll be able to relate.

I was reading and reading and got to page 50…100…200…and couldn’t figure out why people said it was a masterpiece, but I kept reading. It took until page 224, but that page changed everything for me. After reading the part where Holden tells Phoebe he wants to be the catcher in the rye, I was able to look back on the entire novel and realize why it was worth reading, and I realized that this is one of my favorite books of all time.

I liked it. It was hard to get through at the beginning, but I think there’s a good reason: I’m 20. My best friend put it best when she said “I would have loved it if I was 13.” I would have idolized Holden and his independence and his flying by the seat of his pants. But I didn’t. It was a good read, though. I just would have loved to see an adjective other than “crumby,” “phony,” or the occaisonal “vomity.” But once it got to the point where the title is explained, it really picked up. There’s some deep stuff hidden in there. Not a life-changer, but I was glad to have read it.