J D Salinger Dies

Reclusive American author J.D. Salinger, who wrote the American post-war literary classic "The Catcher in the Rye," died Wednesday in Cornish, New Hampshire (USA) of natural causes. He was 91.

I'm sure most of you have already read the seminal coming-of-age novel that has endured through the ages.

It was a book I read five times throughout my life -- when I was 18 and then when I was about 28 (I remember because something happened in my life which I am not about to disclose) while at home (I was unmarrried then and was living with my parents). I was just hanging around Bapak's library when the book on the shelf caught my eye. I started opening the pages and reading it.
Later, when I was 35, I read the book again, and again (when I was 45) and, sigh, sigh, again when I turned 50.
Don't ask me why I like to re-re-visit (certain) books I have already read. I just do.

I remember that the second time I read "Catcher..". I caught different things and understood it a little differently.

The last two times I read it, I had my very own copy. Bapak's was the very original 1950s copy. He did not let it -- or any of his books -- out of the house.

Back to Jerome David Salinger -- he was thought at one time to be the most important American writer to emerge since World War II. But he turned his back on success and adulation. He lived in seclusion for more than 50 years.

To date, more than 60 million copies of the novel have been sold worldwide since its publication in 1951.

Do read this.