What do you guys think of Cannery Row. Ijust started and already love it

Glad you have so much of his stuff left to read user. Sweet Thursday is a great sequel. Would read Tortilla Flat after a few other books in between just to get a sense for how fucking comfy this trilogy is.

It took Steinbeck 5 years to write it (iirc it was his first book). I love this book, but no-one I have recommended to liked it. Probably 2pagan for them.

Steinbeck won me over with East of Eden. What a beautiful story.

He's an easy target since a lot of his works are given to students in high school which is a death sentence to Veeky Forums
1984, Brave New World, The Pearl, Of Mice and Men, The Old Man and the Sea-regardless of their quality of what they have offered to writing and literature, they will forever be meme'd on Veeky Forums due to their mandatory reading status.

That's too bad because I love Steinbeck

Yeah, me too. He's definitely overlooked since so many people consider him overrated without even going past his well known stuff.

Can't remember but but the guy with the phonograph was top comfy, even if the ending was not very comfy the scene is still clear in my mind

That book got me back into reading after a long hiatus. Friend of mine insisted I read it and I couldn't put it down. Just amazing.

>iirc it was his first book

Really not trying to be a dick but it would have taken you literally under a minute to check his wiki article and see that it was his second novel and fourth published work. This type of laziness combined with inaccuracy combines two major pet peeves of mine so I just couldn't help pointing this out.

With that out of the way . . .

I had to read it in high school like so many other Americans and 12 years later I am still reading works of his. That should be a testament both to how much I appreciate him and how much of his there is to read (granted I try not to read too much of one author in brief spans and so haven't read more than maybe two of his works in any given year).

Personally, I would recommend continuing with some of his more well-known works first, including Of Mice and Men, Tortilla Flat, and The Pearl before moving on to his masterpieces, Grapes of Wrath and East of Eden, and his lesser-known works like Travels with Charley and To a God Unknown, most of which I would argue are much better (i.e. I think more highly of elements like style, tone, manner in which he explores themes and applies motifs, etc. in these) than those found in typical high school curricula. To be clearer, I don't mean read Grapes of Wrath and East of Eden back to back. Not that you can't, but they are both so long and so much more intellectually rigorous (especially East of Eden) than anything else, so I would actually recommend breaking them up with a more casual and "fun" read like Travels with Charley.

Of course my recommendations are entirely based on my own perceptions and experiences of his works so I encourage you to conduct your own research into his bibliography and ultimately determine a schedule that suits you.

Tortilla Flat is perhaps the most comfy book I've ever read

OP here. I discovered Steinbeck early this year, having started with the Grapes of Wrath. This got me so hooked, I immediately went to East of Eden, which was even better. I then also tried to take a break from him, but could only read one thing and then ordered Travels with Charley.

Which leads me to the question, why are we even trying to have breaks from authors?

Just spilled a glass of water all over my copy of Sweet Thursday.. was gonna read it next but then I went to the book store with a gift card and bought memes instead.