January 20, 2012
11:40-12
The Catcher in the Rye
Pages: 81-98

Holden takes a cab to go to the night club Earnie's and asks the cab driver about where the ducks go after the lake has frozen over. The can driver is very touchy and responds quite angrily at the question so Holden refrains from further conversation out of fear that the cab driver will drive the cab into a pole or something. The nightclub is crowded with college and Ivy League school kids and other people he thinks are jerks. He runs into a friend of his brother's who he's not too happy to have run into and decides to leave so that he doesn't have to talk with her anymore. He walks the whole way back to the hotel feeling depressed and reflects on himself and how he doesn't like fist fights or to hit people and stuff. When he gets on the elevater a guy there talks him into getting a prostitute. Holden agrees and starts thinking about virginity and sex and stuff but when the prostitute comes he doesn't want to do it anymore but still pays her for coming.

I found the following quote "I'm always saying 'Glad to've met you' to somebody I'm not at all glad I met. If you want to stay alive, you have to say that stuff though" incredibly true. Throughout the book Holden does this a lot and I've had to do that too many times as well. Also the quote "people are always ruining things for you" is also true. In the book, whenever Holden is having fun or something, someone else comes and says or does something and the happy moment is gone.

I read well today because I was focused on the book and I was able to concentrate.