<\/p>\n<\/p>\n
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I\u00e2\u20ac\u2122m not a true Shakespeare guy. I like a lot of individual bits and pieces within his plays, and I love how bawdy he gets at times.<\/p>\n
He can be really funny, and he sometimes says beautiful things. But I haven\u00e2\u20ac\u2122t read all his stuff, and I have no interest in doing so. It\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s an effort understanding what the hell he\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s talking about, though it\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s usually worth it.<\/p>\n
But I do own a one-volume collection of his complete works, and I have turned to it more than I might have guessed. There are all sorts of modern adaptations of his stuff out there, and I always want to compare it to the original. And every once in a while, I\u00e2\u20ac\u2122ll actually go see a production of something he wrote.<\/p>\n
But that single volume is big and heavy. I\u00e2\u20ac\u2122m never going to lie on a couch and read a whole play with that thing. Only when I\u00e2\u20ac\u2122m ready to be scholarly do I pull it out, lay it on a flat surface, and look up specifically what I want. And that\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s the wrong way to read Shakespeare. (Actually, I think that reading him is already wrong. It\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s not really good unless it\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s performed.)<\/p>\n