who what where when why wednesday.

q:

what's your favorite book?

a:

the catcher in the rye.

this morning on the diane rehm show {don't you just love her shaky little self?} she dedicated the hour to the 50th anniversary of to kill a mockingbird. listeners called in to share its impact on their lives.

there are 1,500 little atticus' running around this universe because of this book
there are underground boo radley clubs doing secret acts of service
and countless stories from students who claimed they never wanted to read their "required reading" in high school until this book... it changed them.

catcher in the rye, though. i know... i'm deviating.

i loved this book, too. i've read it again and again.

and like all the students that called in... i never had any interest in reading "old man and the sea" or "of mice and men" or "lord of the flies". i had a sour taste in my mouth for reading books. thankfully, thankfully, thankfully i was assigned the tract that read this book AND catcher in the rye. i missed out on grapes of wrath and the great gatsby, but i caught those later... on my own. BECAUSE i learned that there are great books out there, even when i'm assigned to read a certain number of pages on a certain day and remember certain details and write my thoughts on certain topics. i even enjoyed it then.

so. j.d. salinger... catcher in the rye...
oh, how i love you.

i love when you use the words "lousy" and "crummy"
i love when you're conversational.
i love that you're so young.
and defiant.
and independent enough to take on the world like a poser adult.

i especially love that your name is holden.
{it's secretly been written on a sticky note in my wallet ever since i read you when i was 16. i love that name.}