The Catcher in the Rye

"C’mon – it’s mythic."

"The Catcher in the Rye was assigned reading for me in seventh grade. I think the reason everybody in the world connects with this book is because it’s about being isolated—just slightly outside of what you perceive to be the norm. It’s the ultimate story of being a little bit on the outside, and I think everybody sort of regards themselves as being that way. And the language! It was the first book I ever read that made me laugh out loud."

"As a 13- or 14-year-old, I was insecure and felt a lot of anxiety about how I fit in socially and academically at my strict private school. Reading The Catcher in the Rye , I related very profoundly to Holden Caulfield as an intelligent but self-sabotaging high school student. I enjoyed the humor and the social observations of Holden’s character, and I felt a kinship that made my insecurities about my own dysfunction a little less paralyzing. The book was very good therapy for me and made me..."

"I was a difficult teenager and turned to books as an escape. I saw my alienation and angst reflected in the story of rebellious Holden Caulfield and I would mimic him by calling everyone ‘phoney’. It made such an impression on me that in Garbage’s video for ‘Why Do You Love Me’ I’m reading my dad’s old copy. He never got it back."