Dolberry likes to reread old books from time to time & in the last few weeks before Christmas, I was re-reading The Catcher in the Rye by J.D. Salinger. (Not to be confused w/ the equally excellent Bob Uecker autobiography, The Catcher in the Wry.) At one time of my life (i.e., high school) this was probably my favorite novel of all time. I recall feeling totally linked into Holden Caulfield's experience: feeling lost in a larger world, not knowing how to fight back, and wanting to save the innocents from being lost to it. Now I read it, and while I think I still feel all those things from the previous sentence, now all I come away with is that Holden Caulfield is a jerk.
So what happened? Obviously, the book hasn't changed; so I guess I have. Did I just not read it critically enough the first time around or has 25 additional years of life left me unsympathetic to the protagonist's obvious psychological troubles? I'm interested in what others think.
Anyway, while you guys do that ... I'll leave you w/ Dolberry's favorite 15 "important" novels of all time. (Important is defined as one that you might be required to read in high school or college.) Some of these I haven't read in a while so there's a chance I may no longer like them. So, buyer beware.
15. To Kill a Mockingbird - Harper Lee
14. The Bridge of San Luis Rey - Thornton Wilder
13. The Power and the Glory - Graham Greene
12. Slaughterhouse Five - Kurt Vonnegut Jr.
11. The Jungle - Upton Sinclair
10. Sister Carrie - Theodore Dreiser
9. Fahrenheit 451 - Ray Bradbury
8. The Grapes of Wrath - John Steinbeck
7. Catch-22 - Joseph Heller
6. Lord of the Flies - William Golding
5. The Great Gatsby - F. Scott Fitzgerald
4. Crime and Punishment - Fyodor Dostoyevsky
3. A Tale of Two Cities - Charles Dickens
2. The Lord of the Rings trilogy - J.R.R. Tolkien (nasty hobbitses!)
1. The Adventures of Huckleberry Finn - Mark Twain
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