RIP, Salinger & thanks for writing The Catcher in the Rye!

I honestly wasn't planning on posting today as I'm really tired, but I sort of changed my mind after reading some of the posts about J. D. Salinger's passing, which was announced yesterday. I found out about it on Twitter and I can't say I was terribly heartbroken personally, but I do acknowledge the loss of a great writer who wrote of my favourite books ever: The Catcher in the Rye (based on this short story).
Yes, it's "a classic", but I don't think I would've given it a chance if it hadn't been sent to me by a certain someone back in early 2003, I think. ;) I guess it's just not the kind of book I'd usually pick up myself, but I'm so glad I was encouraged to give it a chance as it instantly became one of my all-time favourite books. I remember reading it in one sitting and then re-reading it as soon as I was done. Back then I was 17 and very angsty so the book really, really spoke to me like nothing else I've read before. Back then it was just perfect. I've considered re-reading it now (at the ripe old age of 24!), but I'm slightly worried that I just wouldn't really be able to relate to it anymore since I've changed so much since then (some might even say I've had a personality transplant, lol) and I'm worried about being somewhat less impressed now ... Not very likely though as reading some of the amazing quotes from the book brought it all back to me and I still love Holden's words of wisdom! I remembered I actually posted a whole bunch of my favourite quotes on my old Livejournal thingy back in 2003 - I found them now and I thought I'd share some of them here! Enjoy! :)

"Certain things they should stay the way they are. You ought to be able to stick them in one of those big glass cases and just leave them alone. I know that's impossible, but it's too bad anyway."

"If you sat around there long enough and heard all the phonies applauding and all, you got to hate everybody in the world."

"You take somebody that cries their goddam eyes out over phony stuff in the movies, and nine times out of ten they're mean bastards at heart. I'm not kidding."

"Then I thought about the whole bunch of them sticking me in a goddam cemetary and all, with my name on this tombstone and all. Surrounded by dead guys. Boy, when you're dead, they really fix you up. I hope to hell when I do die somebody has sense enough to just dump me in the river ot something. Anything except sticking me in a goddam cemetery. People coming and putting a bunch of flowers on your stomach on Sunday, and all that crap. Who wants flowers when you're dead? Nobody."

"Goddam money. It always ends up making you blue as hell."

"I’m always saying ‘Glad to've met you’ to someone I’m not at all glad I met. If you want to stay alive, you have to say that stuff, though."

"I felt like jumping out the window. I probably would’ve, too, if I’d been sure somebody’d cover me up as soon as I landed. I didn’t want a bunch of stupid rubbernecks looking at me when I was all gory."

''All you knew was, you were happy. You really were.''

''The best thing, though, in that museum was that everything always stayed right where it was.''

"They advertise in about a thousand magazines, always showing some hotshot guy on a horse jumping over a fence. Like as if all you ever did at Pencey was play polo all the time. I never saw a horse anywhere near the place."

"It said if you had any sores in your mouth that didn't heal pretty quickly, it was a sign that you probably had cancer. I'd had this sore on the inside of my lip for about two weeks. So I figured I was getting cancer. That magazine was some little cheerer upper."

"Game, my ass. Some game. If you get on the side where all the hot-shots are, then it's a game, all right - I'll admit that. But if you get on the other side, where there aren't any hot-shots, then what's a game about it? Nothing. No game."

'I'm just going through a phase right now. Everybody goes through phases and all, don't they?' "

When I was all set to go, when I had my bags and all, I stood for a while next to the stairs and took a last look down the goddam corridor. I was sort of crying. I don't know why. I put my red hunting hat on, and turned the peak around to the back, the way I liked it, and then I yelled at the top of my goddam voice, 'Sleep tight, ya morons!'"

"Then I started reading this timetable I had in my pocket. Just to stop lying. Once I get started, I can go on for hours if I feel like it. No kidding. Hours."

"The goddam movies. They can ruin you. I'm not kidding."

"That's the whole trouble. You can't ever find a place that's nice and peaceful, because there isn't any. You may think there is, but once you get there, when you're not looking, somebody'll sneak up and write 'fuck you' right under your nose."

"I always pick a gorgeous time to fall over a suitcase or something."

"I thought what I'd do was, I'd pretend I was one of those deaf-mutes. That way I wouldn't have to have any goddam stupid useless conversations with anybody. If anybody wanted to tell me something, they'd have to write it on a piece of paper and shove it over to me. They'd get bored as hell doing that after a while, and then I'd be through with having conversations for the rest of my life."

I mean, surely this book wins the The Book with the Best Quotes Ever Award? Just reading them again after all these years makes me smile. :)

So yeah, RIP, Salinger & thanks for writing such a great book!

Have *you* read The Catcher in the Rye and what did you think of it?