quote: | Originally posted by Sushipunk
Yeah, actually. I enjoyed every one of them. Some were better than others, obviously, but I think I chose pretty well.
The down side is that I'm almost completely out of ideas on what to read now. |
No joke...if you've never read "East of Eden" by John Steinbeck, I cannot encourage you enough.
The front of the book contains this little epigraph (Pat is Pascal Covici, Steinbeck's long-time editor...
“Dear Pat,
You came upon me carving some kind of little figure out of wood and you said, ‘Why don’t you make something for me?’
I asked you what you wanted, and you said, ‘A box.’
‘What for?’
‘To put things in.’
‘What things?’
‘Whatever you have,’ you said.
Well, here’s your box. Nearly everything I have is in it, and it is not full. Pain and excitement are in it, and feeling good or bad and evil thoughts and good thoughts—the pleasures of design and some despair and the indescribable joy of creation.
And on top of these are all the gratitude and love I have for you.
And still the box is not full.
John”
This could not be a better, more true description of the novel. It is, for me, the best representation of the spectrum of "the human condition" that I have ever come across. In some form or another, it contains everything that it means to be human. I try to read it at least once a year.
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