The Catcher in the Rye, J.D. Salinger

    It's true that I was forced to read this in the 8th grade, and whenever I was forced to hear the teacher reading, I opted to sleep instead.  But I also read it in 9th grade on a boring Sunday afternoon with nothing else to do. I got through it, but I don't feel like I gained anything significant from it, and while having similar qualities to Holden (like angst, probably the only thing that kept me reading), he didn't interest me enough to fall head over heels for him like so many other people. Maybe it was the drinking, maybe it was that he couldn't get through a paragraph without writing "goddamnit" at least once, maybe it was because he was dreadfully whiney and selfish, maybe it was because nothing exciting happened in the book, but after finishing it and realizing that he made no effort to better himself, I wanted a refund on my Sunday afternoon.