My Three Favorite Books

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Recommended: The catcher in the rye - levels of understanding j d salinger

My Three Favorite Books

While packing up, saying goodbye for the last time, and moving away from home I would be reviewing the items that were in my suitcase. My toothbrush, contact case, and glasses would be the first to be checked off on my mental list of "must haves", but I would also make sure I had packed my three favorite literary works. Assuming that there are no libraries at my disposal near my new residence, J. D. Salinger's novel The Catcher in the Rye, Shakespeare's Macbeth, and Franz Kafka's Metamorphosis would sit atop all of my personal belongings. I pick these three, not only for their entertainment value, but also because they all hold a special meaning in my life. Each work expresses the feelings and emotions I was feeling when I read them.

The Catcher in the Rye holds the number one spot on my "all time favorite novels". I first encountered this novel my sophomore year of high school. I was first warned of the language and adult content in the novel and then told about the author's life as a recluse. The mysterious nature of this novel instantly grabbed my attention. After reading the first page I was hooked; finally, a story about a kid who not only thought like I did, but also talked like a real person. I soon found out that I could quite easily see the personality traits of the characters in the novel and compare them with students in my own class, and I could see myself as Holden. My second year of high school was very difficult for me. Problems at home, and the discovery of my personality along with the stresses of schoolwork eventually depressed me and my grades suffered because of it. Just like Holden, I could no longer tolerate anyone around me and became very condescending and cynical. His solution to just run away from it all did not seem far off as a solution to my own problems. However, I read on. When Holden left for New York, he began to realize that the people he encountered were not much different from his former classmates. He began to isolate himself from everyone around him and eventually ended up in a mental institution. Running away from the problem did not work; I began to understand that I would have to learn to accept the differences between people before I could live life happily.

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