The Catcher in the Rye

Whilst I was reading "The Catcher in the Rye" by J.D. Salinger, I was delighted to find similarities to the protagonists' thinking and my thinking; however weird it may be that he is a sixteen year-old boy and I'm a girl in my twenties and the book was written in the 1940s. I have started to realize that what makes a book good to someone is that if you have similarities in your train of thought with the characters, or if they do something you would love to dare to do. When we can sympathize with the character then I believe we are much more likely to enjoy it.

Here are my favourite pieces from the book, the ones I can relate to:

I love this quote that Holden Caulfield, the protagonist, says in relation to watching a play:
"What I'll have to do is, I'll have to read that play. The trouble with me is, I always have to read that stuff by myself. If an actor acts it out, I hardly listen. I keep worrying about whether he's going to do something phony every minute."

This is a true statement:
"'Holden!' she said. It's marvelous to see you!' It's been ages.' She had one of these very loud, embarrassing voices when you met her somewhere. She got away with it because she was so damn good-looking, but it always gave me a pain in the ass."

This is a piece about when two characters bump into each other. The two had met each other previously, yet to Holden '...they probably met each other just once.":
"...Then he and old Sally started talking about a lot of people they both knew. It was the phoniest conversation you ever heard in your life. They both kept thinking of places as fast as they could, then they'd think of somebody that lived there and mention their name..."

The truth:
"The trouble with girls is, if they like a boy, no matter how big a bastard he is, they'll say he has an inferiority complex, and if they don't like him, no matter how nice a guy he is, or how big an inferiority complex he has, they'll say he's conceited. Even smart girls do it."

When Holden is having a drink with a guy he knows, they talk about the guy's girlfriend. It reminds me of the kind of non-important things that I am interested in knowing:
"'She happens to be from Shanghai.'
'No kidding! She Chinese, for Chrissake?'
'Obviously.'
'No kidding! Do you like that? Her being Chinese?'
'Obviously.'
'Why? I'd be interested to know - I really would.'"

Holden is telling someone about a time when his old teacher at the school, Pencey, is telling him and another student about the great time he had at the school as a student. The observation he makes is just what would heighten my annoyance in listening to something that I didn't want to listen to:
"...I don't know. Maybe it wouldn't have been so bad if he hadn't been all out of breath. He was all out of breath from just climbing up the stairs, and the whole time he was looking for his initials he keep breathing hard, with his nostrils all funny and sad, while he kept telling Stradlater and I to get all we could out of Pencey..."