OLD Friends and Shakespeare

I love our book club in Brigham City--Sharon Williams and me with a comfortable group of like-minded folk.  Each month we're loaned a different book on the theme for the year, and 2016 is SHAKESPEARE. 

Book #1  Bill Bryson doesn't take himself too seriously in this informative, funny account:                      "A little known fact about Shakespeare is that his father moved to Stratford-on-Avon from a nearby village shortly before his son's birth.  Had he not done so, the Bard of Avon would instead be known as the rather less ringing Bard of Snitterfield." 



Book #2  By Greenblatt, an editor of textbooks such as the Norton Anthology of English Literature.   Our book read like a textbook at times but, like a textbook, was packed with details.

                 



Book #3  We read an excellent edition of Hamlet complete with illustrations and good notes.

The best outcome for me: In preparation I watched Hamlet 2000 set in NYC. Wow. Loved it.  "Don't be scared off.  Almereyda's Hamlet is a visual knockout that sets the Bard's words against striking images. 'To be or not to be' is spoken by this Hamlet in a video store." 

Best comment from our class discussion on Will's motivation:  "Everyone already knew the story.  He probably wrote it just to entertain. A soap opera."

Book # 4 Just got this one Thursday.  Can't wait. 







Suggestions:  You might like Bill Bryson's book, The World as Stage.  An entertaining yet informative overview of Shakespeare.
 
See the movie, Hamlet 2000, just for the clever filming, the images.  (I read a synopsis and reviewed the famous lines first.)