The Catcher in the Rye (DNF)

It's true. I bailed halfway through The Catcher in the Rye. I was in high school and I just didn't care all that much about what boyish Holden Caulfield was up to. The book's on my "attempt again with fresh adult perspective" list and its failure to enthrall didn't put me off the rest of J.D. Salinger's work, especially his stories about the Glass children. I became interested in them after reading that Wes Anderson's loopy Tenenbaums in The Royal Tenenbaums bore the influences of the Glass family and Booth Tarkington's The Magnificent Ambersons. Stories about Seymour are often praised but of the Glass tales I've read I'd recommend Franny of Franny and Zooey. Probably because I bailed on Raise High the Roof Beam, Carpenters and Seymour: An Introduction too. Well, just the Seymour part. But Franny is good and I feel confident saying that since I've actually read its last sentence and all that comes before. The New York Times recently weighed in on the legacy of the Glass children.