Catcher in the Rye...love or hate it?- Page 2

[DramaDork925]

Posted: 11/8/05 at 10:07pm

I was 13 or 14 and loved it... Now I'm 16 and will probably still love it. That and A Tree Grows in Brooklyn are the two book that I'll always love...

Does anyone thing that it could possibly make a good musical?

[WiCkEDrOcKS]

Posted: 11/8/05 at 10:29pm

Im actually re-reading CITR now. I love it every time I read it. It's an American classic and one of the best books ever written if you ask me. Holden is such a layerd, complicated, contradictary, confusing, irritating character but I love every minute of it. Ive read this book 5 times and I still haven't figured out who Holden really is. In all honesty, I dont think Holden knows who he is. And thats the magic of this masterpiece. When a book can make you contasntly think (whether about social/economic/political *etc* issues or a simple plot line), it has achieved something *IMO* rare and extremely congratulatory. The Catcher in the Rye is such a book. It's flawless and incredible.

[smartpenguin78]

Posted: 11/8/05 at 11:09pm

"Didn't care for it. Sorry for thoese who like it."
Did you mean you feel sorry for us because we like it?

I think it is healthy for some to like things and others not to, especially when you can articulate the reasons you feel that way, it helps us all to learn and grow.

[BrendanStryker]

Posted: 11/8/05 at 11:20pm

Hate Holden Caufield, thus I hate the book.

[nztheatreluva]

Posted: 11/9/05 at 2:28am

I had to read it for english this year and I despised it the first time I read it, but I'm starting to appreciate it more

[munkustrap178]

Posted: 11/9/05 at 3:22am

How do people hate this book? Wow.

[popcultureboy]

Posted: 11/9/05 at 6:34am

Believe it or not, it IS possible to hate things that are accepted classics. I disliked Holden so strongly when I read it (at the age of 17) that I didn't even finish the book. I have often meant to go back and give the book a second chance but almost 14 years later I haven't been able to as I remember all too well how much I didn't enjoy it the first time.

[BrendanStryker]

Posted: 11/9/05 at 7:23am

I agree with pop, and stated so, above. I hate the main character so intently, that it is impossible for me to "love" the book as a whole.

[melissa errico fan]

Posted: 11/9/05 at 8:28am

Love it!
One of my all-time favorite books.

[yodamarie78]

Posted: 11/9/05 at 10:37am

I just finished reading it for the first time (I'm 27 for anyone who cares). I really loved it, but unlike Patronus and Penguin I don't think I would have appreciated it as much when I was a teenager. At the time I would not have been able to allow myself to empathise with Holden to the same extent that I can now.

Updated On: 11/9/05 at 10:37 AM

[Patronus]

Posted: 11/9/05 at 10:40am

Well, thanks for blowing my theory out of the water, yodamarie78.

How does it feel to be the exception to my proposed rule?

[smartpenguin78]

Posted: 11/9/05 at 10:43am

She has a tendency to do that, but it is a very good thing.

[yodamarie78]

Posted: 11/9/05 at 10:45am

I'm an anomaly

And I think it's fitting that I should be the opposite of the two of you

[Patronus]

Posted: 11/9/05 at 10:47am

Good. I can always use another complete weirdo on my "PALS LIST".

It also occured to me that I didn't directly answer the original question.

I didn't love it or hate it. Lukewarm I suppose. I enjoyed "The Bell Jar" a lot more, which for some reason I group them together in my head.

[stephygirl51]

Posted: 11/9/05 at 11:22am

Loved it the first time, still love the thousandth...I told my mom (when I read it the first time when I was younger) that I wanted to name my son Holden. And today, I think I still might.

[Elphaba]

Posted: 11/9/05 at 11:29am

embarrassed to say I've never read it.

[bythesword84]

Posted: 11/9/05 at 1:06pm

I read it when I was 15 and I didn't like it at all. I remember trying to figure out what everyone loved about it so much.

[JACXR71]

Posted: 11/9/05 at 1:16pm

Love it - I want to smack Holden at times, but I think the real anger I feel toward this fictional character is what makes this such a good book.

[Garland Grrrl]

Posted: 11/9/05 at 2:11pm

my mother always said that this book is directly responsible for all the bad language you hear from young people these days. i had to read it when i was in 9th grade (i think i was 14) i wasn't absorbed in it. holden did not interest me. i was reading books on holocaust survivors, slaves and people with REAL problems.
i am fascinated that several young men who have shot famous figures were reading this book, and that mark david chapman actually had a copy on him when he was apprehended for shooting john lennon. i read an article on this years ago. i think it has to do with young men of a certain economic class experiencing a violent reaction to the inauthenticity and other behaviours required of them as they assumed the mantle of maturity. i'm no sociologist, but it interested me very much.

[Rathnait62]

Posted: 11/9/05 at 2:18pm

well la-di-dah

[TheaterBaby]

Posted: 11/9/05 at 2:20pm

It's one of the few books that have actually kept me interested enough to read the entire thing. So I loved it.

[BrendanStryker]

Posted: 11/9/05 at 2:40pm

One of the few? You don't like to read? What sort of books have you tried? I cannot imagine not loving reading.

[Garland Grrrl]

Posted: 11/9/05 at 2:41pm

there is something about holden's battles against the the phonies of the world.

here is a link to some of the chapman/caulfield writings...

holden/chapman

Updated On: 11/9/05 at 02:41 PM

[redhotinnyc2]

Posted: 11/9/05 at 2:56pm

I seem to recall liking it a lot. But it has been so long since I read it.

[TheaterBaby]

Posted: 11/9/05 at 3:37pm

I really don't read very much (anymore). I have an incredibly short attention span.

I do enjoy most of Shakespeare's work. I've read many of his plays in full.
I enjoy Biographies, but again the person's life has to be really interesting to keep me from stopping halfway through and forgetting to finish.

I enjoy reading plays.
The only novels I've ever really liked (that I can recall) are:
Catcher in the Rye
A Tale of Two Cities
The Grapes of Wrath

I've read a lot of books half way. lol