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  • I still love CITR, but Franny and Zooey is my favorite Salinger book. I loved it so much that when I finished it the first time (took about 2 hours or so) I turned right back to the beginning & started it again immediately. It's the only book I've ever done that with. I like Nine Stories, too, & I don't think I have the two-in-one book anymore but I liked Raise High The Roof Beam, Carpenters. However, I HATED Seymour: An Introduction. I thought it was boring & repetitive. I never finished it.

  • I don't know if holden caulfeild is likable, but he is absolutely relateable. I totally appreciate the discourse of Caulfeild and I'm not sure If I am an unrepresented minority that feels that way or a silent majority that is too afraid or reserved to speak out..

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  • I am very interested to know what you've got to say about the book. However, you talk way too fast for non english speaker like me. Shame. Do you really have to talk like that? Apart from very thick American accent which I found very difficult to understand I have to rewind to catch what you just said. I'm sure you have very interesting things to share too. Shame!

  • You actually make me want to reread this book a little bit. In less than 4 minutes! Congrats.

    Though with regard to Holden, my issue isn't so much that he's unlikeable as he's uninteresting to me. But that may change.

  • To the people who hadn't watched John's previous video, hearing about Willy sounds and Willy's head turning may sound very wrong... XDDD

  • What does happen to the ducks? do they go south or stay there?

  • haha comparing the Nerdfighters to Smosh. Golly I love you John. Eventhough I DO happen to be subscribed to them as well - but I preffer all of the Vlogbrothers Videos

  • I liked Holden.

  • It's funny, because the boy I used to want to be with constantly compares himself to Holden Caulfield. I think he's psychologically disturbed.

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  • I love Holden so much. I made a quilt with my friend detailing the entire story, as told with ducks. Didn't even get the extra credit we were promised, totally worth it.

  • Damn, nearly 4 years too late D:

  • Holden is much more likable than Edward Cullen.

  • @susankohistany A LOT of people are much more likable than Edward Cullen. ;)

  • See the problem I have with over analizing, is that these English teachers try to force us to see the books the way they see it, and It just doesn't make sense. and also, they try to say everything is a metaphor for this and that, and then we lose connection with the characters and it all goes to hell. just my opinion.

  • @stude444 I swear I think im going to take a screenshot of your comment,print it and give it to my english teacher. Right on. Perfectly worded. She makes me hate every book we read in class because she just explains the story in a way that I don't perceive it.

  • i want to be with holden caulfield

  • I always thought that books were meant to be analyzed and taken thoughtfully. Like, if and when my book(s) should ever get published, I WANT people to read them critically, because I probably don't realize that I'm putting in a bunch of analogies and symbols and themes that other people WILL be able to see. Because they won't have my brain, which is focused on what I'm consciously putting in the book and not what my subconscious is adding, they'll be able to understand my book better than I do!

  • In english class, i read a copy of catcher in the rye that had been extremely annotated, almost more written on than Harry's copy of Advanced Potion Making, and the story was like two stories, the story of Holden Caulfield, and one about the anonymous annotator. The Annotator probably failed the english class they annotated for.

  • interesting crap. but it happens. shit happens.when it happens,u feel sorry for them..

  • I had really wanted to read The Catcher In The Rye for a long time, but almost all of my friends who read it didn't like. What finally got me to read it was that my sister hated it, and when she hates something thats how I know it's good. I loved the book so much, because I could relate. More than anything it showed me that the issues teenagers go through are TIMELESS. The issues of angst, depression, and loss of innocence will always remain, and this book can really help someone cope with that.

  • @olookashiny I very much agree with this. I was told this book wasn't a great book to read especially as an assigned book for English because of the language but of course that didn't stop my curiosity. I read this book and sat and just thought. I would think for hours. I love books that let me do this because I can feel the sadness and the frustration and the longing for relationships that Holden struggled with. And I think because we can relate the meaning is so much more. I value this book.

  • I love that the unlikable characters are unlikable because they are actually people. I love that.

  • My english teacher was friends with that 19 year old girl. OMG IM GONNA BE FAMOUS!!! lol jk I know that nobody really gives a shit.

  • Coming back to this video when we are assigned to read The Catcher in the Rye

    ...Check

  • "Send me your willy sounds". Oh John...

  • Hehe...willy sounds...

  • my English exam is in 10 days, and today my study plan changed to "watch John's videos" :D

  • this guy is a phoney

  • Will you please be my American Literature professor?

  • do you like me right now? xD

  • you are fucking great.

  • Holy shit.

  • 'you don't read a book to appease an author, you read a book 'cos you wanna' pwns J.D.Salinger's quote :)

  • watched this in my English class today!

  • isnt this book suposed to be wierd and twisted? (please reply)

  • @BBqthecat8117 The answer to your question entirely depends on what your understanding of weird and twisted is. I don't think many people would choose to use the word twisted when talking about Catcher, weird, perhaps for some. But adolescence is a really "weird" life stage. We experience and are introduced to some new and overwhelming experiences and that's what Catcher does, it captures these experiences and uses Holden to explore what it means to be in this liminal part child part adult state

  • I read this book back in yearly 2010. I'm thinking of re-reading it cause I'm in college now and I remember how holden felt and I feel a lot like that now....subtract the misogynist stuff....

  • @lovelylostlady You should do it! 

  • My english teacher showed us this video today in class.. WHO HA NERD FIGHTERS

  • @LaqishaBrown How lucky are you!! Wish my teachers had been that cool...

  • John, will you PLEASE teach at some point in your life? Literature classrooms need professors with your mindset towards critical reading.

  • @LetItBe920 Yes, I was just thinking about that today! If only!

  • Every time John says Willy I can't help giggling

  • Ah, I miss the sidebar.

  • I think Willy must mean something different in america...

  • willy sounds :')

  • THANK YOU FOR THESE VIDEOS! i had to read the catcher in the rye over summer break for this year and i didnt get it at all! THANK YOU FOR EXPLAINING! PLEASE BE MY TEACHER!

  • In my book, it says Salinger simply dedicates his book to his mother.

  • I love tha book

  • I wish you were my literacy teacher

  • i love the smell of books

  • i honestly can't get enough of the way he says "book". he says "bock". I'm so glad he's an author so he says it so much

  • This video won helped me win the sudden death tie breaker at an Academic Challenge for my team. The ducks were the metaphor with the pond, not fish! (haha the other team said fish because they didn't know and the question mentioned pond, and I shouted ducks because I subconsciously remembered this!)

  • my red hunting cap in high school was my jacket.

  • the scary thing is that today, holden, might very well be dylan kliebold[spelling is wrong, but i don't give a shit]. you know,the more nerdy looking, colombine dude. and, he would probably not give a shit, about his little sis', phoebe.

  • Holden is the only character I've worried about after having finished the book.

  • I recently read Perks Of Being A Wallflower and it is one of my favorite books and i reaqd that its inspired by Catcher In The Rye so i love it already :D and now seeing this video.... DEAR LORD JOHN WHY HAVE I NOT DISCOVERED YOU SOONER?!?!?!?!?!? I BOW DOWN TO YOU AND HANK AS MY NERD GODS <3

  • I started to read this yesterday, and then saw this video. It made me happy :)

  • my friend made me check out this book in the beginning of the summer, and i havent touched it for almost two months...now im going to read the first half for the sole purpose of watching Part 1 of your next video about this.

  • Why didn't I find this video 9 months when I was reading this in English? I would've gotten an A. Fuck.

  • I don't know, John Green. I read Paper Towns to appease you.

    ...then I really liked it. BUT THAT'S NOT THE RELEVANT PART, IS IT?

  • Wait, though, I love Holden Caufield. Am I not supposed to? O_O

    But... He's like me. In my head.

    Anyway.

    Catcher in the Rye is a fantastic book.

    (Obvious sentence is obvious...)

  • I have that same edition of The Catcher in the Rye! I got excited when I saw that, and hearing him talk about the book makes me want to read it again.

  • Funny how the sidebar is now the below bar

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  • This is John at his nerdiest look so far.

  • I personally loved Catcher in the Rye :)

  • Please Please Please.. We need to continue to do things like this!!! I'm still waiting for the The Great Gatsby video.

  • LOVE it 

  • lawl at your thought process

  • John... it's still pronouced "Zoey" despite the name being spelled "Zooey", according to my English teacher.

  • @nedarb0 Yes, and now the name is hardly ever spelled Zoey. My name is spelled Zoe and now Youtube underlines Zoey but not Zoe. So therefore, Z-O-E is how it should be spelled.

  • why you calling me Hank dickhead?!

  • smosh! woot!

  • gah interesting.... i sort of saw myself in holden, which was a bit scary, tbh :l

  • i had to read "Brave New World" by Aldous Huxley. i did not like it at all but it does teach you a lesson.

  • I think the reason we hate read books for school analysis is BECAUSE we read it for school, normally without any choice in the matter. I had to read the book "The Giver" by Lois Lowry, (which they had to force me to do) on several occasions, three years in a row, IT SUCKED. But as I read it for the heck of it about a month a go, I thought it was a well written book with an interesting story line.

  • LMAO I LOVE YOU!

  • The boy asking the girl "do you like anyone right now" is illocutionary language. I think there is a slight difference, but there is probably someone who knows more than me that'll shoot me down :) Dunno

  • People who smell books know something people who don't smell books don't know. As I 'book smeller' myself, I know what I mean, and so do you 'book smeller's' out there..!

  • @RyanMurphyTube The whole time I was reading Catcher in the Rye, I couldn't stop smelling it.

  • No, you have it wrong, Holden is the fish in the pond, nnot the duck. The duck is allie.

  • Analyzing bad books just makes them worse, but some books you need to analyze to understand and to like.

  • I read this for fun,, a few months ago and was sad i didn't have any way to analyze it with educated people... wish i knew about these videos then!

  • My English teacher used you catcher in the rye videos in class as part of our lesson :D

  • @328blah that's awesome!

  • It is my dream, to have John as my english teacher, and Hank as my Science teacher.

  • @XpoopeyXRAWRX it seems we share the same dream.

  • @NARLZS

    indeed

  • @XpoopeyXRAWRX And the Yeti the art teacher, and The Kathrine how to pwn at mario bors teacher! :D

  • @XpoopeyXRAWRX John probably won't be your English teacher until you can show him you can use a comma correctly.

  • @kbblue3

    Okay...? So what? Sure I messed up a comma, that has nothing to do with the context of my comment, so screw off.

  • @XpoopeyXRAWRX Just sayin'. Being pretentious really doesn't go off well when you can't punctuate.

  • @kbblue3

    Not what I was even aiming for, but whatever then. You act like one miss placed comma is the worst grammatical error imaginable.

  • @XpoopeyXRAWRX Well a misplaced comma could be. Imagine: "Let's eat, Grandma!" versus "Let's eat Grandma!" Big difference.

  • @kbblue3

    Yes, because that's a completely logical explanation that's definetely going to happen in real life.

  • @XpoopeyXRAWRX Happens constantly. Trust me I know. I'm an English teacher.

  • I'm more of a math-fighter....but I have a feeling that you could actually make me like english :)

  • Crazy....I have to read this book for school. Maybe this will help me in class

  • Who the heck is Hank?

  • Why the hell does everyone hate Holden? He is like the most fucking awesome protagonist ever... excluding Harry Potter.

  • "I think we all wish that hadn't happened." LOL

  • I miss those glasses a lot.

  • Who the hell is hank?

  • @BruceLeDouche Hank is a small crisp batter cake, baked in an iron and eaten hot with butter or syrup

  • @BruceLeDouche Hank is a puppy sized elephant with telepathic powers who is now watching your every move. DFTBA. (He might also be John's brother, but that's pretty far fetched.)

  • MY COPY OF CATCHER IN THE RYE LOOKS JUST LIKE THATTTTT! *-*

  • honestly holden was way to one sided for me in his thought process. he was stuck in a depressed 7th grader state of mine. i read and understood the message, and it was still an awful book. The crucible however, had a better example IE john proctor was a better example of who we truly are. fallen broken but able to change and do the right thing even if it kills us

  • Because of this video I went into Catcher four days ago wanting to like it, and I've ended up loving it. Thank you, John, for making sure I kept an open mind :)

  • I finished the Catcher in the Rye today in last period. I literally devoured it in under two days and it's now my favorite book. Firstly, I want to thank you for existing in all your godly nerdiness and secondly, you inspire me to want to be an English teacher.

    Oh my God, critical analysis is so fun.

  • now i realy know what means the word nerd didnt see nothing this stupid atleast for 12 years

  • As a writer, this is why hate critics. Take from it what you will, don't have anyone tell you what it means. For Christ's sake, think for yourselves.

  • @andydeee That killed me. That really did.

  • Is it strange that watching this for like the tenth time in the past two years made me (a senior in high school less than a month from graduation, who had no plans of college due to a lack of direction) realize that I would love to teach High School English?

  • So, I came across this after reading Looking for Alaska (which I loved, which is why i'm here). I'm an English major so i really appreciate a video like this. and for the record, Holden is VERY likable.

  • This guy's a chump. Holden was asking about the ducks.

    And why is doing it with 19 year olds embarrassing? Seems to me like the right way to live one's life.

  • If you were my english teacher, I would actually enjoy the subject. You should really apply for the job at my school :)

  • i have to admit, i never really looked too hard at holden's last name while reading this book, because it turns out i've been pronouncing it "cauliflower"....

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  • HE BLINKS AT 1:43!!!!!!!!

    

  • Why didn't I watch these videos when I had to analyze this in class?!?! It makes so much more sense! >:V

  • I really love The Catcher in the Rye.

    Also, if you where my english teacher I would most probably die of happiness.

  • It is so worrying when people say they hate Holden, he's one of the fictional characters i've identified with the most, so many of the thoughts he has sound like they came straight from my head :/

  • Uhh... I readily list Holden as my #1 fictional crush. Behind all that angst he is so sweet!! But Edward Cullen is creepy.

  • @marawrXD A straight male agrees. Holden was cool in the way losers like me are cool in the long run. Its just real hard to get there ( age 50).

  • I have no intention to be a vampire nor do I have any mind to be with a vampire.

  • This is probably the only book I've ever read, that I hated.

  • did anyone else think that David Chase borrowed the duck symbolism and used it in the Soprano`s?

  • my last name is houha.

    pronounced hoo-ha.

    you guys should say that more often.

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  • I kind of want to be with Holden. I have been him, though. I'm over the depression and all. I really am. But I think Holden would be a good companion for me. Because we're so similar in our need to be alone a lot of the time.

  • john, i'm sorry i yelled at the video around 1:30, when you were talking about the ducks. i turned to page 60 and everything being a nice read-along person, but i didn't get to the meaning of that yet in class! so i had a SPOILERZZZ spaz and had to stop watching. i will continue when the book is finished :D

  • read the book hated it. im sorry hank :( i still love you tho

  • I want more videos of John being English teachery! He should make videos about books like this more often!

  • @AngelaSlick 1:43 hahaha.

  • J.D. Salinger died in 2010, he was 91.

    So..no..he's not watching this video. =(

    Sorry, John!

  • @heatherisloading This video was filmed in 2008, 2 years before his death.

    so... he very well might have watched this video :D

    sorry, heatherisloading!

    (had to xD)

  • @heatherisloading he made the video in 2008.................booyah

  • I read this a little over two years ago. It's my favourite book of all time...

    And now I see this! Hoo haa, Nerdfighters! :D

  • loooooool willie sounds! rofl...*wipes tear* don't worry planet youtube- its a british thing!

  • I'm reading this for 9th grade honors English right now and I love it!!! Great vid!

  • Dammit, John Green, stop making me want to read American literature that I know I don't like (but maybe I suddenly do like...?).

    Hooray for literature nerdfighterianism!

  • this made me sleepy and angry, good night.

  • catcher in the raichu

  • I've finally finished Catcher in the Rye for the first time as my English teachers in high school never had it in class for me to read. I almost think it's better that I've read it now, out of high school, and had the chance to think about it for myself without a deadline. When you read a book for class, no matter how much you may love or enjoy it, the deadline or the fact that it will be analyzed in a way that doesn't always meet your own thoughts can make it slightly less enjoyable. I loved it

  • Annoying.

  • Omg. I'm so happy I found a brainy intellectual guy who speaks and thinks as you do. I'm 26 but at heart and maybe mind, I'm still 20 lol. I never got a chance to read classics in Highschool except Canterbury tales but we didn't pay attention. Now however, I wholeheartedly appreciate novels and writers and the writing process. I truly appreciate arts and philosophy and people who think about life and other people. I still am very superficial about clothes and other material possessions such as

  • You pointed in the correct direction!

  • John, I just want to let you know that two years ago today my English teacher in High school showed us this videos in an attempt to teach us the book on the curriculum. The Catcher in the Rye. I remember that the class was a bit hesitant but int he end felt like we learned something. I just wanted to thank you for helping me understand this book.

  • fuggin phonies

  • I'm doing a research paper on Salinger. I'm citing this video. Don't worry, I replaced your 'like' s with ellipses.

  • before i watched a second of this video i added it to my favorites because

    john green + catcher in the rye = automatic awesome

  • I read The Catcher In The Rye thanks to vlogbrothers a few months ago & today a comprehension came up in my English exam about it. *atcha!* NERDFIGHTERS :D

  • John, all the best parts of LisaNova mixed with all the best parts of Smosh aren't even half as awesome as critical analysis.

  • I used this video to open for my video project in AP Lang at my school. The class really loved it and my teacher is definitely a fan of you thanks to this video:) You gave me an appreciation for dissecting literature!:D

    BTW. My very critical teacher loved your analyse!

    kthnx:P

  • @batgirl6268 It's really unusual to study this book in 7th grade... not trying to patronise you, I'm just interested :]

  • critical annalysis is all good and fun in novels

    but !!

    i feel that over annalysis takes all fun out of poem

    a poem can have many metapors and meanings but when my english teacher begins to preach about onnomatopoeia the poem is greatly ruined

  • @DaftAnime Boo to your English teacher, then.

    An English teacher's job is to do alll that, plus make it life-affirming, not soul destroying. Which mine totally does :3

  • Iv never read Catcher in the rye but people keep telling me I am nearly exactly like a character called Holden I dont know if being him is good or bad but im interested in finding out what type of character he is.

  • @SpikedYum bad, very VERY bad.

  • @ryanwayne123

    Really? :/

    Im not saying it isnt bad because i havent read the book but how is it bad? what type of character is he?

  • @SpikedYum He over contemplates everything, and is the hugest hypocrite. In contemplating others stupidity, he misses his own.

  • @ryanwayne123

    Well thats odd because im nothing like that i always make sure what im saying cant be turned against me by that i mean i dont give people a hard time if i myself have done the exact same thing.

  • @SpikedYum He also has trust problems showcased by your "I always make sure what I'm saying can't be used against me"

  • @ryanwayne123

    Oh hmm maybe i have some similair personality trais as the character but obviously not all of them lol.

  • THANK YOU midterm on catcher in the rye and lord of the flies....yep... oh i live in  michigan ha

  • THANK YOU midterm on catcher in the rye and lord of the flies....yep...

  • @batgirl6268 That's BS. Read it when you want. Get a copy and read it at home. Don't let your school system take even the joy of reading away from you. NERDFIGHTERS XD

  • I want to be with Holden >.>

  • Edward cullen is neither the person i want to be nor the person i want to be with. i don't want to be edward cullen because i'm a girl and i like being a girl and edward is not a girl (also because he has to spend time with bella and i really hate bella) i also would not like to be around edward because he is a vampire a nd i am a human and i like being alive

  • I'm reading this in the 10th grade. It's ok, so far.

  • I read the catcher in the rye, it was about a catcher in the rye.

  • He reminds me of Dexter Morgan who talks like WeezyWaiter..

  • if your a nerd who likes the catcher and fast "punky" type music listen to Green Days Who Wrote Holden Cualfield From The Kerplunk LP

  • Whenever I tell people I like Holden, they look at me like I am dumb. I'm glad someone understands me.