J.D. Salinger Dies

I don't recall reading Salinger in high school or college. I suppose I did but I had no interest in literature back in those days.

Now, with so many life experiences behind me, I find that I absolutely love these classics. I began an aggressive reading program in 2001. I forget the exact year I started reading again, but I do remember having a stack of eleven books (maybe more) that I would read during my deployment overseas. I think that was in 2002.

A couple years ago my younger daughter ran across an old copy of Catcher in the Rye and gave it to me, knowing that I had begun reading again. I couldn't believe how much I enjoyed that book. It continues to haunt me today. It perhaps haunts me more than any other book.

This past week I have continued to re-read Henry James' The Beast in the Jungle, perhaps the best romance I have ever read. Prior to that I read, perhaps his best-known novella, The Turn of the Screw, and although it was very, very good, I enjoyed The Beast much, much more and have read it three times now.   Now hooked on Henry James, I read The Pupil. Again, very, very good.

But I can't get The Beast in the Jungle out of my head. I have to thank the woman who mentioned Henry James to me. Thank you.