Another week passes, and no new books. I am, surprisingly, still being so responsible! Standing outside of bookstores, looking longingly through the windows, but otherwise well behaved. The purse remains safely in my handbag.
And don’t even get me started on the reason I’m trying to save my dollars – my Library Services course. I am suffering from the most frustrating and stressful enrolment based angst ever. How hard is it to reply to a.) an email (admittedly, more than one email) or b.) a phone call? Semester starts, oh only tomorrow, and while all my on-campus subjects are, or at least seem to be, organized, my one remaining subject spot remains blank no matter how hard I try to get in contact with the powers that be. Their system is so unprofessional and disorganized. I like to be prepared weeks if not MONTHS in advance, none of this last minute stuff. Argh.
As someone who went through a stage of reading The Catcher in the Rye at least once a year, the news of J.D. Salinger‘s death this week made me pause and reflect on the special place that he held in my reading life for such a long time. I know that you have to be of a particular disposition to connect with Holden Caulfield, but it is a bond that once forged seems to be unbreakable. I think for many people it is the first book that lets them know, in the words of Mr. Antolini, that:
Among other things, you’ll find that you’re not the first person who was ever confused and frightened and even sickened by human behavior. You’re by no means alone on that score, you’ll be excited and stimulated to know. Many, many men have been just as troubled morally and spiritually as you are right now. Happily, some of them kept records of their troubles. You’ll learn from them — if you want to. Just as someday, if you have something to offer, someone will learn something from you. It’s a beautiful reciprocal arrangement. And it isn’t education. It’s history. It’s poetry.
And hearing that can be such a powerful thing when you’re a teenager, it’s just too easy to dismiss (or forget?) the urgency of that emotion when we’re all old, jaded and desperately trying to shed anything that remains of our adolescence.
Book Loot, Holden Caulfield, J.D. Salinger, January 2010, The Catcher in the Rye