Bookish

I finished East of Eden tonight, and it was oddly unsatisfying. As I began the book, I kept commenting about how it was all bad, and just generally made me feel icky, but I kept reading anyway because that's just the kind of girl I am. And now, after finishing the book, I am no longer overcome with a general sense of ick, but I'm not really sure why it's a classic. Steinbeck got a bit preachy at times, and he left subtlety about 10 miles back, but aside from that, the story just kind of rambled and there wasn't a single damn character I was invested in.

And now I'm facing Christmas and freelance deadlines and more shopping and travel and working on my holiday cards, and I don't know if I'm going to pick up another book in earnest before it's all said and done. Either way, I'm choosing something written in the last 10 years -- after Dickens and Steinbeck, I need a refresher in the 21st century.