The Catcher and the Rye by JD Salinger

The Catcher and the Rye, by J.D. Salinger is an inspiring novel narrated by teenage boy Holden. The book takes us through his adventure -- seeing how he abides with certain challenges, absconds from his friends, family, and school, and the memories he can't seem to leave behind.
The beginning of the book takes place at his current boarding school, Pencey. This is one of the many boarding schools he has had to attend to because he had gotten kicked out of all the others. With no surprise, he has been expelled from this one too. Primarily, he was expelled for his lack of effort and failing nearly every single class. As soon as he heard of this news, he goes and visits his history teacher. From the way the author presents this teacher, we have the feeling that Holden is close to him. Although, once he visits the teacher, he tells Holden everything he doesn't want to hear; ergo, he decides to leave. Holden then writes a composition for his English teacher. The instructions were to write about something that intrigues you. He chose to write about his brother who had passed away, Allie. This makes him very sad and emotional. Allie was one of the only people who inspired him and he made a huge impact on his life. This was the last thing that he did for school and after, he fleeced.

He decided to go to New York in which he would begin his "rebellious" journey. There were a vast number of rebellious events that occurred to Holden. Most of these were caused out of loneliness. He was lonely so he hired a prostitute, he was lonely so he went to a bar alone, etc. He also finally has the courage to ask a girl, Sally to hang out. This backfires because he acts coldly towards her and is quite rude to her. After she leaves, he decides to call another girl, Jane, who doesn't even pick up. Then, he calls an old friend from one of the schools he had gotten expelled from. Lastly, he calls his English teacher who invites him to stay at his house. He also visits his little sister Phoebe and is delighted to see her. She begs him to stay, but he leaves again. Only to return to her school the following day to leave her the note. The book ends around here because Holden returns home and his "adventurous journey" comes to an end.

Tractatus Logico-Philosophicus / Philosophical Investigations

Reading Tractatus Logico-Philosophicus, Wittgenstein's first major philosophical work, I learnt that they don't tell you to not read books suggested by philosophy students for no reason. It was very confusing, and it ended up stealing a big part of my precious time during the summer vacation. Reading Wittgenstein: A Very Short Introduction, of which I will write in a separate post, proved to be very helpful in getting through this book.
This books becomes more and more interesting with understanding. In this book Wittgenstein talks of metaphysics and the connexion between language and the world, and uses this to explain in what way all traditional philosophical questions have no sense.
I would recommend this book to anyone who likes language and/or logic, but it's not your everyday reading book (I hope, for your mental well-being).

I have not yet finished reading Philosophical Investigations (in fact, I'm just a few dozen pages into it), but so far it promises to be much more thorough than the Tractatus. It covers a much wider range of topics, and in a way, it seems to spoon-feed its readers more than did the book formerly reviewed. I would almost say that Philosophical Investigations is a better starting point to understanding Wittgenstein, but it is essential that one read the Tractatus before picking this book up, as it builds upon the flaws noticed after the publication of the Tractatus.
Again, I would recommend this book, but it does not belong in an English classroom, despite being chiefly about language.

For a bit of humour related to this book:

Thus Spake Zarathustra

Reading this book, I fell in love with Nietzsche's style of writing. It's very "quotable": full of juicy, wise quotes and all. Wise, but definitely not practical, in my opinion. Everything in the book sounded convincing when I first read it, but upon further reflection I realised that it really would not work in real life. For this reason I value this book as a piece of literature, and not for its doctrine. 

Three Stories by Alan Bennett

Forbes: Greatest Business Stories of all time by Daniel gross

An Unsocial Socialist by Bernard Shaw

I am about to commence this book.

Far From the Madding Crowd by Thomas Hardy

The book is situated around the character, Bathsheba Everdene, who is described as beautiful but has no fortune. One night, she meets a young farmer named Gabriel and manages to safe his life. He then asks her to marry him and she declines on the grounds that she does not love him. She flees to the town of Weatherbury. Shortly after, Gabriel's sheep run away and he is forced to give up his farm. Coincidentally, he ends up in Weatherbury. He rescues a local farm from a fire, and it just happens to be Bathseaba's. Gabriel asks her is she needs a shepard and she agrees and hires him. She then becomes acquainted with her neighbor Mr. Boldwood, whom is rich and wealthy and admired by many woman. But, she refuses him too because she does not love him.
Shortly after, Bathsheba meets a handsome soldier, Sergeant Troy. He is very charming and quickly falls in love with Bathsheba, which angers Mr. Boldwood. Little did we know, that troy had just recently got a girl, Fanny pregnant. Gabriel, who has been her good friend throughout the whole novel does not approve of this engagement. Despite this, Troy still marries Bathsheba. Only a few weeks after, there is news the Fanny dies giving birth to her and Troy's child. Bathsheba finds out that Troy is the father and he runs away and is said to have drowned.
As the story comes to an end, it becomes more messed up. After Troy's departure, Mr. Boldwood becomes closer to Bathsheba and he proposes to her. Around the same time, Troy returns to town. When he comes to get Bathsheba back, she had just accepted Mr. Boldwood's proposal. Mr. Boldwood ended up shooting Troy and being sentenced to prison. Finally, Bathsheba marries Gabriel.