This summer, my AP English reading assignment came, and one of the three books assigned was The Catcher in the Rye by J.D. Salinger, published in 1951. The letter read "a book about a prep-school boy tells of the days preceding his admittance to a mental institution," not what I was expecting to read that summer. Since I had never heard of the book, I saved it for last.
             When I began to read the book, by the first page I could already tell it was not at all like any other book I had read before, especially as a school assignment. I didn't put that book down until I had finished it a few hours later, in the middle of the night. Then I read it again, and again- a total of six times before going to school the first day.
             The book wasn't a book that in reading I just read and forgot about. I was actually pulled into Holden's mind, thinking like Holden, for a short time, becoming Holden. And in doing so, I learned a new perspective. When in places my own thoughts went along with Holden's, the book helped me realize how well my way of handling some of those thoughts actually was working out, for I wasn't in a mental ward, failing out of school, or walking mindlessly throughout NYC. Also, the differences between our thoughts gave me more realization in seeing how others may be feeling around me, and I could never really tell, because no one could ever realize what pain and trouble were inside Holden's mind.
             Holden helped me realize that not everyone does what I do, and that not everyone is truly capable of doing what I'm doing. In that, I realized that I need my own way to vent, otherwise I may end up just as Holden did. ...