Readers of the World, I Need Your Help!

Okay, readers, I need your help. I’ve joined the World Party Reading Challenge, hosted by Packabook, who took over from Fizzy Thoughts. I’m really excited to read more world literature! But first…I have to find it. The challenge site offers suggestions for each month, which is a wonderful resource. Or, I could always turn to …

Thoughts on “The Rights of the Reader” by Daniel Pennac

I have been putting off writing my review of Daniel Pennac’s The Rights of the Reader. Quite honestly, the tasks of weeding through all the amazing quotes I wanted to share and shrinking all my comments down into a manageable review were rather daunting. Really, I would recommend that anyone even remotely interested in the …

Thoughts on “The Catcher in the Rye” by J.D. Salinger

Holden Caulfield has been kicked out of multiple well-known boys’ schools. In fact, he begins his story just after he’s been expelled from Pencey, his latest, and is waiting out the final days of the term before Christmas holidays, when he will leave Pencey for good and return to New York City. One night, a few days before winter break begins, Holden decides he’s too “sad and lonesome” to wait the term out at Pencey. He packs his bags, gets on a train to New York, and spends the next few days killing time in the city, wandering from hotel to bar to museum, calling anyone he can think of, and avoiding his parents.

Holden’s voice is what made The Catcher in the Rye for me. It’s rambling and unfiltered and exaggerated, teeming with verbal idiosyncracies and reeking of Holden’s personality.

Sunday Salon: How Do You Cope?

A few days ago, Clare from The Literary Omnivore and I had the following conversation on Twitter about a particularly bad book she was reading: ErinReadsblog: Do you abandon awful books or just plow through? I find they often slow my overall reading down because I’m busy avoiding them. litomnivore: I plow. I’m a completionist. …

In My Mailbox: October 10-16

In My Mailbox is a weekly meme, hosted by The Story Siren, in which bloggers share books they’ve acquired in the mail / at the library / from a bookstore. Books came to me from every direction this week! One arrived in the mail, one came home with me from the bookstore, and one (um…I …