Have you ever read a book with so many beautiful lines, lines that could have belonged to a poem (the way they build unique and memorable images and evoke sensory details)?

Here is a line from a book I'm reading, East of Eden. The author, Steinbeck, is very good with descriptions and some of his writing and use of sensory details is so good that it really could be lines in a poem.

Here is one example from East of Eden:

>A flight of sparrows dropped into the dust and scrabbled for bits of food and then flew off like a gray scarf twisting in the light.

Another passage:

>These [i.e. splashes of California poppies] too are of a burning color—not orange, not gold, but if pure gold were liquid and could raise a cream, that golden cream might be like the color of the poppies.

I quite enjoy reading lines like these that make me really visualize a scene in a unique way. Have you had similar experiences with other writers or books?