Scrounging through boxes containing remnants of my past life, I ran across some paperbacks. Most of them were mine, and I had read them long ago, but it seems that at some point my father's books overflowed into my old room before my mother packed up my things.
I found Steinbeck's Of Mice And Men in amongst the bad Piers Anthony novels (the Xanth series) and grabbed it along with Dune by Herbert, slipping them into my carry-on bag while I was packing.
OMAM made for quick reading on the flight from the east coast into Texas, probably about half the flight off and on. I was really impressed with this piece of inspired and skillful writing. The author uses enough description to get the bare mental picture established, which works great as I wind up filling in the details. It's a short, short novel, pushing through it was easy, and the payoff ending was foreseeable but still effective. Personally, I was absorbed enough that I didn't see it coming until the characters had made up their mind...
I need to grab some of his other works (after I work through more reading, I guess; I still have maybe a dozen books to finish).