Here are the rules:

• Grab your current read
• Let the book fall open to a random page
• Share with us two (2) “teaser” sentences from somewhere on that page
• You also need to share the title of the book where you get your teaser from…that way people can have some great book recommendations if they like the teaser you’ve given
• Please avoid spoilers

This week’s teaser:

"He had not looked at her closely until now. And he saw true hatred in her eyes, unforgiving, murderous hatred." pg. 191 East of Eden by John Steinbeck

I’m going to admit something: I don’t remember reading anything by Steinbeck. It doesn’t mean I haven’t read anything by him (actually, I’m 99% sure I did, at least for one of my myriad Literature classes), I just don’t remember it. And lately I’ve been craving more substantial reads–books that make my mind dig deep and peer beneath the surface–and this book was just sitting on my shelf and I figured, allegory…that’ll make my mind start looking for a shovel.

Catherine is a gold-digger extraordinaire; Edgar is an ostrich (he knows what Catherine’s all about, but he chooses to stick his head in the sand); Heathcliff might be Satan’s spawn. Mix all of that together and what do you get? Wuthering Heights.

I might take some time to ink it, but I’m debating it. I like the effect of the pencil sketch—it gives it the feeling of 19th century drama, but I think a bit of color might make it pop a bit more.

Here are the rules:

• Grab your current read
• Let the book fall open to a random page
• Share with us two (2) “teaser” sentences from that page
• You also need to share the title and author of the book where you get your teaser from…that way people can have some great book recommendations if they like the teaser you’ve given
• Please avoid spoilers

This week’s teaser:

“He endeavoured to pronounce the name, but could not manage it; and compressing his mouth he held a silent combat with his inward agony, defying, meanwhile, my sympathy with an unflinching, ferocious stare. ‘How did she die?’ he resumed, at last—fain, notwithstanding his hardihood, to have a support behind him; for, after the struggle, he trembled, in spite of himself, to his very finger-ends.” pg. 98* Wuthering Heights by Emily Bronte

Thinking back to high school, I would have much preferred reading this to Jane Eyre. Don’t get me wrong, JE rocked, but Wuthering Heights…it’s like an eighteenth century soap opera with ghosts and betrayal and gold-digging and revenge that spans generations.

Every other page my eyes are bugging out and I’m saying WTF?!? in the back of my head. So far, everybody, save Mr. Lockwood and maybe Ellen Dean, is nuts. And by nuts, I mean dose-dive off a cliff CRAZY.

Right now I’m savoring as I read, so it’s slow going—I’m only about halfway through, and even though I’m anxious to realize the conclusion of this engrossing tale, I must pace myself.

* Although I linked to the Penguin Classics Deluxe Edition of the book (because I love that cover), I’m actually reading it from my Project Gutenberg printout—therefore, the page number may not correspond with any of the traditionally published volumes.

On another note, if you’d like my cleaned up & pre-formatted Word document to print a copy for yourself, just leave a comment and I’ll email it to you.