..."I've had many great, gripping experiences reading male writers who, like JD Salinger, put men down on the page with a kind of real, raw, naked specificity..."

i read that in an article once where the author describes the differences between male authors vs. women writers.

she ends it by thanking so many men writers who have 'opened my eyes to male inner lives.' i thought it was such an interesting concept:

"Being led, page by page, into the skin of the opposite sex puts my nerve endings on high alert. Reading becomes irresistibly sexy--and what more can a girl want, curled in bed way past midnight?"

when i read said article, i was ashamed i had never opened The Catcher in the Rye (or anything by J.D. Salinger for that matter). It was always on my to-read list and so on my last me date to my favorite used bookshop, there it was like a sign on the shelf under classics.

and i finished it in a day and a half. 

"I was half in love with her by the time we sat down.  That's the thing about girls.  Every time they do something pretty, even if they're not much to look at, or even if they're sort of stupid, you fall half in love with them, and then you never know where the hell you are.  Girls.  Jesus Christ.  They can drive you crazy.  They really can."

- J.D. Salinger