Fascinated I was when I first read The Catcher in the Rye. Caught up somewhere in Jr High I spent most of my time skipping school or with my nose in a book. This being one of them...
10 years later I was astonished when a man I was seeing had never read it. He who had taught me so much about life had not read this book which had made it on many "top book" lists.
I found a ratty, much loved copy of it one day in a book store near my place in a small town I was living in. I brought it home, wrote a note in it and left it on his pillow for him to find. I was brought up with the understanding that one does not give a book as a gift without writing in it first. As I think back to it now, I don't remember what I wrote. I do remember it being off center and a bit long though. That's my usual style though... I can't help it, just me being me.
Time passed, things came and went and life changed.. years later I was sitting at my desk at a new job and in a new place in my life. A package arrived for me at work and after recognizing the writing on the wrapping I waited days before opening it. When I finally did inside I found a time capsule of memories, things that I had forgotten and grown past. Most of it I didn't bother with, some old photos I'd forgotten about, a CD I still haven't played, a note I didn't really read and the copy of The Catcher in the Rye. I'll admit... my stomach did a little flip and my heart sank a bit.
I flipped through the pages and came across my note I had written a few years earlier which was now was accompanied by a note of his own. I read it and re-read it and then took it and put it away with the rest of the past. This book had become a bitter vessel of communication between us. I didn't need it in my life.
A few more years later I battled silently one afternoon as I sorted through my heaps of books. One pile to go to the used book store, the other to keep. I put The Catcher in the Rye in the "used book store" pile and moments later took it out and put it in the "Keep" pile. Taking it out again I put it back in the "Used Book Store" pile and back again to the "Keep" pile. I flipped so many times that to this day I don't know if I kept the book or not. What I do know though, is I tried to be a Catcher in the Rye and it didn't work and somewhere there is book with a piece of my story in it.
Just as someday, if you have something to offer, someone will learn something from you. It's a beautiful reciprocal arrangement. And it isn't education. It's history. It's poetry.
10 years later I was astonished when a man I was seeing had never read it. He who had taught me so much about life had not read this book which had made it on many "top book" lists.
I found a ratty, much loved copy of it one day in a book store near my place in a small town I was living in. I brought it home, wrote a note in it and left it on his pillow for him to find. I was brought up with the understanding that one does not give a book as a gift without writing in it first. As I think back to it now, I don't remember what I wrote. I do remember it being off center and a bit long though. That's my usual style though... I can't help it, just me being me.
Time passed, things came and went and life changed.. years later I was sitting at my desk at a new job and in a new place in my life. A package arrived for me at work and after recognizing the writing on the wrapping I waited days before opening it. When I finally did inside I found a time capsule of memories, things that I had forgotten and grown past. Most of it I didn't bother with, some old photos I'd forgotten about, a CD I still haven't played, a note I didn't really read and the copy of The Catcher in the Rye. I'll admit... my stomach did a little flip and my heart sank a bit.
I flipped through the pages and came across my note I had written a few years earlier which was now was accompanied by a note of his own. I read it and re-read it and then took it and put it away with the rest of the past. This book had become a bitter vessel of communication between us. I didn't need it in my life.
A few more years later I battled silently one afternoon as I sorted through my heaps of books. One pile to go to the used book store, the other to keep. I put The Catcher in the Rye in the "used book store" pile and moments later took it out and put it in the "Keep" pile. Taking it out again I put it back in the "Used Book Store" pile and back again to the "Keep" pile. I flipped so many times that to this day I don't know if I kept the book or not. What I do know though, is I tried to be a Catcher in the Rye and it didn't work and somewhere there is book with a piece of my story in it.
Just as someday, if you have something to offer, someone will learn something from you. It's a beautiful reciprocal arrangement. And it isn't education. It's history. It's poetry.
-J.D. Salinger, 1919- 2010
2 comments:
This is Tom from Patronus incognitus I also keep a non-political blog and I just became a grandpa there!
http://patternsofink.blogspot.com/
hrm, wow. It's a strange thought how moments can be preserved for so long, without your knowing, then all of a sudden they come back in to your life somehow.
If you did give it away, imagine what the person who ends up buying it from the 2nd hand book shop will think hehe! :D
I haven't heard of the book, not that I know much about great books (I tend to read the same ones over again in my laziness). :) I'll amazon-it though!
Ahhh.. non related to your post, sorry, but since your country is the king of wild rice, do you have any tips? It's so expensive, I bought a tiny packet (100grams) for one million dollars (obviously I'm exaggerating) and I wanna put it to good use!
haha ; )
R
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