East of Eden | 
(thru ch 6) I think this is the part of the program where I remind all of you that I'm just a random person reading a random book, and actually know nothing about this book or its cultural impact, so these will literally just be my opinions, not, like, insightful commentary from a literature professor haha
So, disclaimer out of the way - what do you all think? I feel like the first six chapters have literally just been introductions! I finally ⬇
Starting this today for #randomclassics I‘m a couple of chapters behind, I‘m hoping to catch up!
We should be finished with The Robe by the end of April, which gives us a fresh slate for starting East of Eden. I have a kind of love/hate relationship with Steinbeck's writing, so we'll see what happens 😂 Some of the chapters are long, but some are really short, so I think we're going to go with a chapter a day and hope it averages out. There are 55 chapters, so this one will carry into June. We may take a little break around Memorial Day if ⬇
1. HAL from 2001
2. Snape/Alan Rickman (I know…fight me 😜)
3. Cathy Ames from the tagged book
Fun question! #tlt @dabbe
pickI very much enjoyed this novel and wouldn‘t have picked it up (thanks to its reputation as a bit of a slog) if it weren‘t for #AuthoraMonth
There is some awkwardness, I won‘t lie - why does Steinbeck include anecdotes from his own family history, and why do I connect with them more than to the cyclical, “Biblical” Trask generational saga? - but there is some great food-for-thought in the prose, and I adore evil Cathy! I also can‘t ⬇️
#adventrecommends
Classics are classics for a reason. I read this a couple years ago as a Buddy read here on Litsy and I absolutely loved this tale of two brothers, a take on Cain and Abel, good versus evil. A sweeping story with great complicated characters. This is a story that will never get old and stands the test of time.
-East of Eden
- Jeffrey Eugenides
- Erin Brockovich
- Elvis Costello
- Estimated Prophet -Grateful Dead
@CBee #ManicMonday Letter E
#ManicMonday #LetterE
📚East of Eden
🖋George Eliot
📽Empire of the Sun 📺Ellen
🎸Elvis Costello
🎤Everybody Hurts R.E.M. Eton Rifles The Jam
#BookMoods #600 #600PlusPages
Being a restless & moody reader, #chunksters are not my favorites but I do have several books with #600+Pages that I‘ve read. The Harry Potter books more than once even. The last 600+ page book I read was the tagged, for a #buddyread
I love when my books arrive well read + notes. It‘s nice to see other perspectives. I‘m rereading East of Eden so I can discuss it with an old university friend. She‘s an editor, and I‘m a historian. This should be fun!
On a road trip with The Hubby. I finished my Masters program so we are headed to my graduation. 👩🏻🎓🙌🏼 This has been a wonderful part of the drive so far...
I forgot to post my July #bookspinbingo. I only got 1 bingo, but read through my whole library stack and almost my summer book club books. All set to do it again with a list of new books!
#springintoreading #siblings
I love old movies and East of Eden is one of them. James Dean played a great Cal. Sadly, I've never read the book and of course it's on my tbr.
Day 15 - #adventrecommends
Another one of my favorite classic books!
You are one of the rare people who can separate your observation from your preconception. You see what is, where most people see what they expect.
[He] fell right into the oldest conviction in the world-- that the girl you are in love with can't possibly be anything but true and honest.
What freedom men and women could have, were they not constantly tricked and trapped and enslaved and tortured by their sexuality! The only drawback in that freedom is that without it one would not be a human. One would be a monster.
Perhaps the best conversationalist in the world is the man who helps others to talk.
I wonder how many people I have looked at all my life and never really seen.
Sometimes, a lie is told in kindness. I don't believe it ever works kindly. The quick pain of truth can pass away, but the slow, eating agony of a lie is never lost.
You can boast about anything if it's all you have. Maybe the less you have, the more you are required to boast.
The church and the whorehouse arrived in the Far West simultaneously. And each would have been horrified to think it was a different facet of the same thing. But surely they were both intended to accomplish the same thing: the singing, the devotion, the poetry of the churches took a man out of his bleakness for a time, and so did the brothels.
Time interval is a strange and contradictory matter in the mind. It would be reasonable to suppose that a routine time or an eventless time would seem interminable. It should be so, but it is not. It is the dull eventless times that have no duration whatever. A time splashed with interest, wounded with tragedy, crevassed with joy - that's the time that seems long in the memory. And this is right when you think about it...
...underneath their topmost layers of frailty men want to be good and loved. Indeed, most of their vices are attempted shortcuts to love...We have only 1 story. All novels, all poetry, are built on the neverending contest in ourselves of good and evil. And it occurs to me that evil must constantly respawn, while good, while virtue is immortal. Vice has always a new fresh young face, while virtue is venerable as nothing else in the world is.
There are no ugly questions except those clothed in condescension.
This has been on my TBR for a long time and it's $1.99 ebook, so... Bought.
As always, Steinbeck's writing is beautiful and depressing. The entire (LONG) chapter recounting Adam's childhood, whew.
I don't know why, but I loved this ⬇ 6d
I feel like Steinbeck always presents religious people has being dour, repressed, hateful, etc. and it does annoy me. “Idleness was a sin ... she was suspicious of fun whether it involved dancing or singing or even laughter. She felt that people having a good time were wide open to the devil.“ I just... yes, many religious people are ⬇ 6d
So, let me know any of your thoughts!! I feel like we don't have much of a story yet, just lots of character sketches. Does anyone jump out at you? I honestly don't even know who the main character is supposed to be at this point haha And literally still have no idea what this book is ⬇ 6d
Also, is a chapter a day too much reading? Let me know if we need to cut back to five chapters a week instead.
#RandomClassics @BarbaraJean @BarkingMadRead @Bklover @Librarybelle @Read4life @SaceReads @SamAnne @TheBookHippie 6d
I'm interested to get into the story as we get out of “intro“ mode. 6d