I had a really hard time with this one.

I couldn't think of the best or worst book I've ever read. I have my favorite books that I always keep in mind by default, but for one, many of them are kind of cliche` and I just didn't want to write about them, and two, I don't know if my favorite book I've every read constitutes as the best book I've ever read. But since this is an assignment, I chose The Catcher in the Rye by J.D. Salinger.

Also, since I haven't done anything like it yet, this will be sort of my homage to Mr. Salinger.

I read this book in ninth grade, as a recommendation from my English teacher of the time, Mrs. Garcia. She's observed my reading habits and deducted that The Catcher in the Rye would be a book I'd enjoy. I did.

I remember the day I read it. It was a Thursday in November when I went home with her copy of the book. It was like the one pictured to the right, but it was the same picture just zoomed out a little bit. The book was truly a piece of history, and just feeling it in my hands allowed me to feel everything the book had experiences, and I was about to be one of the lives that if changed. 

I walked home from school in high school, it was maybe a fifteen minute walk, but that day it took only seven, I was extremely eager to read this novel that I had heard so much about in my other books. I got home, sat on my bed and started reading. 

Since then, I've read the book at least twenty times, and I still enjoy it every time, but I can't quite point out why, but it is truly a moving book.

Around seven that night, I ate dinner with my family, I remember this day even down to those details, we had steak and potatoes,  and my dad let me drink a beer that night. He sometimes gave me different beers because he said it would help me enjoy the notes and details of his cooking more. 

After dinner, I went back to my room and read more. When I finished the book, I felt changed. I never really knew why, but over the years, I've come to realize that I could relate to Holden, and although the book didn't really teach me anything, I gave me insight into how much about the world I don't know, and seemed to change my life to some degree. I have become a totally different person since then, and although it may just have been because of the time of my life it was and I was going to change anyways, I credit most of it to The Catcher in the Rye, and that's why I think it's the best book I've ever read.

I own five copies of this book, and I read it every Christmas (partially because that's when the book takes place, partially because I just like to). I plan on giving a copy to my child when he/[hopefully not a]she is old enough, in hopes that it will aid them in growing up the way it aided me.

R.I.P J.D. Salinger 1919-2010