I watched the movie and read the book and had given it a 3 stars. The movie was about the writer and how he lived during writing the book and after it became a best seller. Many people started to chase him, Harase him and so on as everyone who read the book thought that it was talking about them. The book was also used in many other movies. Like for example in conspiracy theory movie (Mel Gibson and Julia Roberts) where it was conspired that the CIA uses it to make the assassins kill people. So even though the boom was only about the author himself it was rather used to fulfill other objectives. I actually loved the movie and felt sad about the author as he had to hide, and wherever he went his weird fans found him. 

Overall it’s a good watch. But I must read the book. So watch this space.

I read the book. Written as a 16 year old person. Comes from a rich family and loves them very much. He has not achieved in school and moved to many schools. I didn’t like the vulgarity of the language especially the book is written in the 50s so this makes me surprised. 

Something strange happens to me after I put the book down and go to sleep. The monotony of the writer comes to my dreams as if I have been hypnotized! The first night when this happened I remembered the movie Conspiracy theory and how all the trained assassins when triggered will first go and buy a copy of the book! I don’t know if it’s because of what happened to me (the hypnosis) or because of what I saw in the movie and it just triggered something inside. 

Some excerpts from the book:

This one where the book name came from: “And I’m standing on the edge of some crazy cliff. What I have to do, I have to catch everybody if they start to go over the cliff — I mean if they’re running and they don’t look where they’re going I have to come out from somewhere and catch them. That’s all I’d do all day. I’d just be the catcher in the rye and all. I know it’s crazy, but that’s the only thing I’d really like to be. I know it’s crazy.”

This one where his teacher was telling him about his education and what it does to him: “Something else an academic education will do for you. If you go along with it any considerable distance, it’ll begin to give you an idea what size mind you have. What it’ll fit and, maybe, what it won’t. After a while, you’ll have an idea what kind of thoughts your particular size mind should be wearing. For one thing, it may save you an extraordinary amount of time trying on ideas that don’t suit you, aren’t becoming to you. You’ll begin to know your true measurements and dress your mind accordingly.”

Of course the teacher also proved to be a pervert.