[Borges]

Have you ever read any Salinger except catcher?

[Red Badger]

Once was enough.

My HS English teacher was ‘fresh out of college’ and made us read that trash novel. We had to get written permission from our parents to approve it because of ‘sex’ in the novel.

She fawned over it like it was the greatest piece of literature on earth. Why in hell she thought having a bunch of HS kids read a novel about a dumbass HS kid trying to get laid, was a good thing, I’ll never know.....................

As a BONUS, we had to read The Sun Also Rises by Hemmingway....................About a guy who can’t get laid......................

[Steely Tom]

I've read everything by Salinger I could get my hands on. I like his writing very much. I admire his talent. Like Barbra Streisand and Burt Bacharach, I don't align with them politically or personally, but I think they each have a fantastic level of talent, which I can enjoy outside the political context.

As for James Joyce, I too have tried twice to read Ulysses. To me, it is pretentious drivel. Perhaps that's because I'm not sophisticated enough.

I'm not sophisticated enough to enjoy John Coltrane's sax work either, but I do know he's the real thing. I can't say that about James Joyce.