Reading Journal

I finished Catcher in the Rye as well as a juvenile lit book on Thomas Edison. I learned a bit from both of them. Edison had a pretty interesting life as an inventor and I think a lot can be learned from him about how to, and how not to, achieve success in life.

The first time I read Catcher in the Rye was my sophomore of high school. Voluntarily, nonetheless. I had a friend a year ahead of me who needed a copy to read for his English class. (I ended up taking a different English class my junior year, so I didn't take the regular one.) I borrowed one from my Communications Arts teacher and read it either before or after I loaned it to him.
I got more out of it this time. Mainly, I finally came to my own understanding as to why it's titled the way it is. I mean, I had read the line towards the end where he says that he wants to be that person in the song "if a body catch a body coming through the rye" (or something like that; I'm too lazy to look for the exact reference). He talks, essentially, about how he wants to save kids from going over the edge. I'll probably have to read it again before I can explain what I mean.

Another thing that was shared with me was that the band Explosions in the Sky got a lot of inspiration for their 5th studio album from the book. Sure enough, it's true. At least, that's my assessment from reading the book and wiki article that said so.


A couple of days ago, I started Zen and the Art of Motorcycle Maintenance. And it's pretty good so far. I'm not very far into it, but I already like the author. Not sure where the book plans on going, but that's okay. I find myself really identifying with the author, so I think I might end up with a new best friend after this book! On a superficial level, Robert M. Pirsig "writ[es] and edit[es] technical manuals...for a living." (p. 24)

Every so often, I meet someone and I know pretty early on that we're going to be bosom buddies. Sometimes that happens with books, too. It happened with this one.
Page 3 (first page of text)
"I'm happy to be riding back in this country. It is a kind of nowhere, famous for nothing at all and has an appeal because of just that."
Page 4.
"We want to make good time, but for us now this is measured with emphasis on 'good' rather than 'time' and when you make that shift in emphasis the whole approach changes."
That same page includes why he likes riding so much, and a lot of it applies to why I like riding my bicycle so much. Which makes me interested to read the rest of the book.

And his drunken discourse delivered in delirium from pages 28-32 on ghosts and Isaac Newton certainly was a nice distraction while I was giving blood.

I really recommend this book to everyone who doesn't mind getting beyond the superficial every once in a while. Seriously, I'm only on page 32 and I'm already trying to decide who to loan it to first! Years from now, I may end up having to get another copy because I've read it so much. I just hope it doesn't disappoint me and fizzle out towards the end.