2025 & 2026 Reading Challenge discussion

What did you think of the book? How many stars did you give it? Would you recommend it to others? Does this book deserve to be called a classic?

Just finished. The best thing I can say about this book is that it was a quick read. I do not believe I was the intended audience, as I have very little patience for petulant, privileged, angst-ridden teenagers. Not my favorite read and wouldn't recommend to anyone over the age of 15. 1 star.

I got a bang out of this book. I liked it. I really did. It killed me. 5 stars.

I'm now excited to read Franny and Zooey

Sara wrote: "I got a bang out of this book. I liked it. I really did. It killed me. 5 stars."

Sara, you are too funny. Just reading your response gave me uproarious giggles.

I finished the book today. Here is my summary of the book! I tried to keep out huge spoilers just in case there are people who haven't read it yet.

This was a great classic book! I didn't care much for the writing style of Salinger, but once I got into the story I ignored it... for the most part. Holden Caulfield is a jerk. Or at least i thought at the beginning of the book. The author made the character seem like a stuck up snot. Like he didn't care about anyone but himself. He flunked out of school... his 2nd and was really snotty about it in my opinion. Later in the book we realize he isn't stuck up at all! I won't give anything away but I can pretty much relate to Holden's life. Once I figured out what the author was telling us about Holden, I liked the book so much better. At the end, I had a lot of sympathy for him. I would have given this book 5 stars, but I am taking one star off for the writing style. This is one classic book I would definitely recommend!

I would have given this book two stars. I I wasn't satisfied with not finding out what was meant by his obsessions with the ducks. It was not believable that he didn't know about migration, since he went to private schools that I couldn't afford to go to, and they taught me that in elementary school.

I now would give this book FIVE STARS. Salinger cleverly discussed WW2 with out being overt. So cleverly that cliff notes could talk around it and fool most people. If you want to know how The Catcher In The Rye Is About war, power and money join my group BREAKING THE CODE TO THE CATCHER IN THE RYE.
https://www.goodreads.com/group/show/...