When I was a teenager, one of my good friends read this and mentioned it, and since then, I've always wondered what it was about. 
 I finally got a copy and started reading it, and was basically flabbergasted. I felt like I was back in high school, just as naive and unworldly as Charlie, but also back in college, trying out every kind of life. 
 It made me think a lot about my sheltered teenaged years, feeling that my classmates were dealing with the issues in this book, but they never came up for me until after I left school. It's the high school experience, I've always suspected others of having that never occurred for me. In that way, I feel as though I could understand my friends better, finally knowing what their lives were like back then. The friend who recommended this to me initially was going through a phase very similar to Charlie's, coming to grips with his sexuality, delving into literature, staying up all night to watch Adult Swim. As for the reaction, I myself identified with Charlie's existence on the fringes of life, but I was always too wracked with anxiety to go along with the flow. 
 this is getting a little disorganized. allow me to sum up by saying that I could identify very well with charlie, and his ways of perceiving, even if I cannot identify with the situations he was in, but I am happy that by reading this, I got a chance to experience those situations vicariously.