Quote Originally Posted by rockzmom
...but... I cannot begin to tell you how much I loathed "Catcher in the Rye" when I was forced to read it in high school! I tell you, it was one of the books which turned me OFF reading and contributed to the downfall of my vocabulary! That and "The World According to Garp" by John Irving and as I mentioned previously, The Grapes of Wrath. These books did nothing for me except make me hate to read as a child and young adult.
How old were you when you had to read those books? "The Grapes of Wrath" is definitely not a book for children, and I rather liked it when I read it as an adult. "The Catcher in the Rye" was also originally written as a book for adults, although many teens came to love it... And it is a well-known fact that chidrens almost never appreciate any books they are made to read as a part of their school curriculum.

And you know, it is sometimes hard to explain why you like what you like... Maybe I liked "The Catcher in the Rye" because I could really relate to the hero? I know it is a rather trite thing to say, but he became like a real, living person for me. And I could really, really sympathize with his protest against all things phoney. (By the way, many of his heroes seem to be on a sort of personal anti-phoney crusade. Does it tell us something about the author himself?). And then, it was about an American kid—which meant I could have a glimpse into how people live in America. You know, books of foreign authors always held some kind of charm for me for that exact reason: reading them helped me to better understand the life and the people of other countries. That was one of the reasons I was so eager to learn foreign languages. And, of course, Salinger is just a good writer. I mean, he has his way with words.

Stainbeck, in my opinion, was less of a wordstmith than Salinger was, but I still liked The Grapes of Wrath because of the insight into a part of the pre-war American history and American life it provided to me. I didn't find it boring at all. It was actually interesting to follow the adventures and struggle of the Joads family. Maybe it was just because I was learning something new while I was reading it?