#2 - Shakespeare: The World as Stage by Bill Bryson (audio book)
Recommended by: My own love for Bill Bryson (who I first read in my book club last year)
Rented from: the Sacramento Library
Rating: 7 out of 10
Synopsis (edited from Amazon): William Shakespeare, the most celebrated poet in the English language, left behind nearly a million words of text, but his biography has long been a thicket of wild supposition arranged around scant facts. With a steady hand and his trademark wit, Bill Bryson sorts through this colorful muddle to reveal the man himself.
My Review: As an English major and general literature lover, I've been surrounded by Shakespeare for as long as I can remember. It's been a while, however, that I've interacted with anything directly related to the Bard (save the BBC's amazing Shakespeare Retold series). Of course, we use hundreds of words and phrases that Shakespeare coined, but I haven't read any of his works or any biographies in the last few years. Bryson's history is short (since we really know so little about Shakespeare), but it is engaging and very interesting. Bryson is also quite funny, which is something that is missing from most biographies. I think it's a great primer for anyone who really doesn't know a lot about the playwright. Bryson also does a good job explaining why we know so little about the man, and he goes into a lot of interesting information about the customs and idiosyncrases of the time. My favorite gem is that William Shakespeare never spelled his name as such. He was Willm Shackper, William Shakspear, Wm Shakspea, William Shackspere, Willm. Shakspere, and William Shakspeare on his six known signatures (spelling was a bit more colorful back then). Where we got "Shakespeare" as we currently spell it is anyone's guess. Bryson was the reader for this audio book, and his reading was kind of dry, and since he's sort of half American / half British, he generally sounds like an affected American. Which was a little annoying at first, but I got over it and enjoyed his history.
More information about my 2009 Reading Challenge can be found here.
Rented from: the Sacramento Library
Rating: 7 out of 10
Synopsis (edited from Amazon): William Shakespeare, the most celebrated poet in the English language, left behind nearly a million words of text, but his biography has long been a thicket of wild supposition arranged around scant facts. With a steady hand and his trademark wit, Bill Bryson sorts through this colorful muddle to reveal the man himself.
My Review: As an English major and general literature lover, I've been surrounded by Shakespeare for as long as I can remember. It's been a while, however, that I've interacted with anything directly related to the Bard (save the BBC's amazing Shakespeare Retold series). Of course, we use hundreds of words and phrases that Shakespeare coined, but I haven't read any of his works or any biographies in the last few years. Bryson's history is short (since we really know so little about Shakespeare), but it is engaging and very interesting. Bryson is also quite funny, which is something that is missing from most biographies. I think it's a great primer for anyone who really doesn't know a lot about the playwright. Bryson also does a good job explaining why we know so little about the man, and he goes into a lot of interesting information about the customs and idiosyncrases of the time. My favorite gem is that William Shakespeare never spelled his name as such. He was Willm Shackper, William Shakspear, Wm Shakspea, William Shackspere, Willm. Shakspere, and William Shakspeare on his six known signatures (spelling was a bit more colorful back then). Where we got "Shakespeare" as we currently spell it is anyone's guess. Bryson was the reader for this audio book, and his reading was kind of dry, and since he's sort of half American / half British, he generally sounds like an affected American. Which was a little annoying at first, but I got over it and enjoyed his history.
More information about my 2009 Reading Challenge can be found here.
Comments
That book really was quite good. My friend hiked the same trail and said copies of the book were in nearly every shelter.