36. Read 5 classics (in progress)
I’m reading Catcher in the Rye. After a stretch of reading childrens, and light YA stuff I felt like I needed something with a little bit more substance so I grabbed it from the library.
So far I’m enjoying it a lot more than I thought I would. First-person narration kind of grits on me sometimes but Salinger just makes Holden come alive so thoroughly that it really really works. I love the style, the matter-of-factness that I’m so attracted to in writing. I love how he often shows without telling (the scene where Holden goes into the phone booth to make a call and realizes he has no one he wants to call comes to mind) and often tells without showing much of anything. Holden’s probably the most honest and self-aware narrator I’ve come across in recent memory and it’s refreshing. I feel like he might have annoyed me if I read this in highschool when most people seem to, but right now he sort of hits the spot.
That said, I’m not even halfway yet so we’ll see if I’m still enjoying it when I finish it.
