Reading the Bard -- Schedule & Requests

[Katy, Quarterly Long Reads]

Several of us have discussed reading more William Shakespeare in The Merchant of Venice thread. Thought we could organize a bit more here and get a reading schedule so that we can read together.

Anyone up for some semi-organized Buddy Reads of his plays?

The Bard Himself Thread

Shakespeare Performances & Film

Shakespeare Group Reads

[Katy, Quarterly Long Reads]

Shakespeare Plays Buddy Reading Schedule

July 2018
Hamlet: Hamlet Buddy Read

January 2017
King Lear: KL Prior Group Read
The Winter's Tale: Winters Tale BR

April 2017
All's Well That Ends Well

[Katy, Quarterly Long Reads]

Shakespeare's Plays

The Comedies
The Comedy of Errors
The Taming of the Shrew
The Two Gentlemen of Verona
A Midsummer Night's Dream
Love's Labor's Lost
The Merchant of Venice: discussion thread MoV Group Read
As You Like It
Much Ado About Nothing: discussion thread Much Ado BR
Twelfth Night
The Merry Wives of Windsor
All's Well That Ends Well
Measure for Measure

The Histories
Henry VI, Part 1
King Henry VI, Part 2
Richard III
King John
Richard II
King Henry IV, Part 1
Henry IV, Part 2
Henry V
Henry VIII

The Tragedies
Titus Andronicus
Romeo and Juliet: discussion thread R&J Buddy Read
Julius Caesar
Hamlet: discussion thread Hamlet Buddy Read
Troilus and Cressida
Othello: discussion thread Othello BR, Othello, No spoilers, Othello, Spoilers
King Lear: discussion thread King Lear Group Read
Macbeth: discussion thread Macbeth Buddy Read
The Life of Timon of Athens
Anthony and Cleopatra
Coriolanus

The Romances
Pericles, Prince Of Tyre
Cymbeline
The Winter's Tale: discussion thread Winters Tale BR
The Tempest: discussion thread Tempest Buddy Read

List from The Complete Pelican Shakespeare

[Katy, Quarterly Long Reads]

The Non-dramatic Poetry

Venus and Adonis
The Rape of Lucrece
The Phoenix and the Turtle

There are also some poems of doubtful authenticity and Shakespeare's Sonnets

Poetry is available online on many sites. Here is a list and links to the poems at Poetry Foundation:

https://www.poetryfoundation.org/poem...

[Pink]

Thanks Kathy, I've been meaning to set up a dedicated Shakespeare thread all day!

Personally I'll be joining for Romeo and Juliet late Sep/early Oct. Then Othello in November, either as a group read or buddy read.

I'm up for reading one play every month or two continuing into 2017. I'd like to read a mix of his comedies/tragedies/histories and have lots to get through!

[Katy, Quarterly Long Reads]

Pink wrote: "Thanks Kathy, I've been meaning to set up a dedicated Shakespeare thread all day!

Personally I'll be joining for Romeo and Juliet late Sep/early Oct. Then Othello in November, either as a group r..."

Perfect. I'll put them on the schedule then and will definitely join you in reading.

Not sure if anyone is reading The Tempest or
Macbeth in September; I won't be ready to read those two until later.

[Katy, Quarterly Long Reads]

Pink wrote: "Thanks Kathy, I've been meaning to set up a dedicated Shakespeare thread all day!

Personally I'll be joining for Romeo and Juliet late Sep/early Oct. Then Othello in November, either as a group r..."

I'll add buddy read threads for those two also as we get into October and November.

[Leni]

I'm tempted to join the reading of Othello. Hopefully I'll find the time. I've also just started Twelfth Night (well, I'm still reading the introduction to be honest!), but it didn't occur to me to do it as a buddy read.

[Loretta]

Since I just recently read The Tempest, I'll pass on a re-read but will join in for the discussions. And even though I've read Romeo and Juliet more times than I'd care to share, I would be up for a re-read. I'd be up for Othello! And, I'd be up to just about any other one (ones?) that everyone else wants to read! :)

[Susan O]

Great Idea. I'll definitely be reading Othello in November and am up for others as well. In addition to the Merchant of Venice, I recently read A Midsummer Night's Dream and plan on Much Ado About Nothing and King Lear in the near future.

[Brina]

I'm in for Othello. I recently read Macbeth and can lead discussions of it if anyone interested. Also I am interested in other histories eg Richard I and III.

[Loretta]

I don't think a "leader" is really necessary, is it? We're all here because we're all interested in reading more Shakespeare. I don't think it should be so structured that we need a "leader" to have a discussion. Just my opinion of course.

[Brina]

I don't need structure either but I just read Macbeth. The rest of the plays I am reading out of interest too :)

[Loretta]

Great! No leader, no structure! Let's just read the plays and have great discussions!

[Renee]

This sounds like a great idea! I haven't read Shakespeare since high school, and I only read Hamlet, Romeo & Juliet and Macbeth (which was my favourite). I will probably start The Merchant of Venice next week. Just a couple of questions if that's okay. Will we be reading one a month? How will the list be determined?

[James]

I recently read Hamlet and loved it. I first read the book on MIT's Shakespeare website here:
http://shakespeare.mit.edu/
Shakespeare is pretty easy to find online though so no real preference for this site.
After reading each scene I re-read through it again on SparkNotes's No Fear Shakespeare series here:
http://nfs.sparknotes.com/
Finally after finishing the whole thing I bought Arden's version of Hamlet; this one:
https://www.amazon.com/Hamlet-Revised...

The Arden series is amazing with a huge introduction, tons of notes, appendices, and just a wealth of information in understanding both what you are reading in the text and the significance of word choice (stuff from word choice in one scene paralleling/contrasting word choice in another scene or how Shakespeare is somehow referencing stuff going on in England at the time or really anything else). I can't recommend them enough. Pricey but worth it!

As I go through more Shakespeare I definitely plan to follow this same process. It's tedious as you are essentially reading each play three times but I've found I've gotten a billion percent more out of Shakespeare this way than how I read them in high school literature classes.

[Portia]

I'm in.

[Carolien]

I've read very little Shakepeare so would be interested in joining.

[Katy, Quarterly Long Reads]

Buddy reads are pretty informal in both discussion & selection. We only use one thread for each buddy read, so please do be award of spoilers and use spoiler tags as needed.

The idea discussed was one play a month. And that is my plan, but if others wish to read more, then you can buddy read faster -- please do have a buddy to read with.

I've been reading Shakespeare since HS and through University -- I've read most of the plays but it has been a few years. And I've seen several of the plays as we have a local Shakespeare Theatre during the summer months. Looking forward to reading with all of you.

[Katy, Quarterly Long Reads]

As we have 2 tragedies chosen for October & November may I suggest we read either a history or romance for December.

Richard III is a very accessible history, or if we would like a romance I'll suggest The Winter's Tale.

[Renee]

Kathy wrote: "Buddy reads are pretty informal in both discussion & selection. We only use one thread for each buddy read, so please do be award of spoilers and use spoiler tags as needed.

The idea discussed wa..."

Are the Folger Library books a good choice for Shakespeare? That's what my copy of Merchant of Venice is, but I haven't read it yet so am not sure what it's like. If they're good, I may order the next couple coming up. Everyone in this group seems very knowledgeable about books, so I thought I would ask you to hear everyone's opinion on them.

[Katy, Quarterly Long Reads]

Renee wrote: "...Are the Folger Library books a good choice for Shakespeare?..."

These are good editions. Notes on the left, text on the right side. Usually very user friendly and not very cluttered while still giving the reader notes. There is also generally enough white space in the margins for you to write your own notes.

Arden is another popular edition. Or you can read Shakespeare for free off the internet.

I use the Pelican edition which has footnotes instead of left & right. Of course I am still reading my copy from my university days, so maybe it is just that I am used to this edition. Of course I can't travel with my complete edition because it is a true behemoth.

[Janice (JG)]

I don't think I can do one every month, but I'd like to attempt Othello. Plus, I have wanted to read Twelfth Night for some time, so maybe that could be sandwiched in somewhere between heavier reads one of these months.

[Katy, Quarterly Long Reads]

And remember too -- you can always nominate Shakespeare for our monthly Short Story or Old School Classics group reads.

[Susie]

I will definitely jump in for some buddy reads...read All's Well That Ends Well earlier this year and enjoyed it...

[Loretta]

I'd love to do one a month! This is so fantastic! I'm really looking forward to it! :)

[Brina]

I had already scheduled Othello for November and am excited to be reading as part of a group.

[Pink]

Kathy wrote: "Shakespeare's Plays

The Comedies
The Comedy of Errors
The Taming of the Shrew
The Two Gentlemen of Verona
A Midsummer Night's Dream
[book:Love's ..."

Ooh, I didn't even know some of them were categorised as romance!

I'd especially like to try some of his earlier comedies next year.

[Melanti]

Kathy wrote: "Renee wrote: "...Are the Folger Library books a good choice for Shakespeare?..."

These are good editions. Notes on the left, text on the right side. Usually very user friendly and not very clutter..."

I second the Folger Library. Those are my favorite editions.
IMO, they strike a good balance between helping you to figure out the hardest portions and and letting you figure out what you can by yourself.

I've tried other versions and not liked them nearly as much - though I haven't tried either Arden or Pelican.

[Brina]

I agree that Folger library is accessible. And I also second Two Gentleman of Verona. I saw it on stage years ago and would be interested in reading it.

[Hailee]

I love Much Ado about Nothing and the Taming of the Shrew and did read them for my A-levels along with a few others. However in my case I can't appreciate reading them as much as I do actually seeing them performed. It just doesn't have the same impact unfortuately. It was watching the Kenneth Branagh performance after we had finished reading it in class that really made me fall in love with the play.

[Melanti]

I've read most of his more well known plays by now, so could at least talk about them.

I'd be interested in reading some of the lesser known ones that I haven't read yet.

I put The Merry Wives of Windsor and Cymbeline on my Old & New challenge this year, but as long as I read two of his plays that I've never read before, I'll be happy.

[Susan O]

Hailee wrote: "I love Much Ado about Nothing and the Taming of the Shrew and did read them for my A-levels along with a few others. However in my case I can't appreciate reading them as much as I do actually seei..."

I have the K Branagh/E Thompson version of Much Ado About Nothing and have watched it many times. I love it!

[Hailee]

Me too. I really want to see the David Tennant/Catherine Tate version but you can only buy it digitally so I was putting it off in the hope of a DVD release but I don't think I can wait much longer. Have you seen it?

[Melanti]

Much Ado About Nothing is my favorite of his comedies. I've seen it performed two or three times and seen some movie version of it a handful of times.

[Sue]

Thanks for doing this Kathy! I was hoping someone would.

I will be trying to participate in every one. I guess it's only Portia and I reading the The Tempest and Macbeth (with Loretta joining us?) in the remainder of Sept here. I'm only hurrying through these and hopefully A Midsummer Night's Dream because I'm afraid my Channels dowloads will disappear.

I plan to try and listen, read the original text & then the modern text. I got a lot out of doing it that way with The Merchant of Venice.

[Susan O]

No I haven't Hailee. You'll have to let me know if it's as good.

[Brina]

Let me know when you read Macbeth. I recently read and would like to jump in discussions. I'm really not a fan of the comedies.

[Hailee]

Susan wrote: "No I haven't Hailee. You'll have to let me know if it's as good."

Will do :-)

[Sue]

Brina wrote: "Let me know when you read Macbeth. I recently read and would like to jump in discussions. I'm really not a fan of the comedies."

Will do Brina!

[Brina]

Great. I'm in for Othello and the December choice but will have to pass on October. I'm too busy to read much of anything next month.

[Katy, Quarterly Long Reads]

Sue wrote: "Thanks for doing this Kathy! I was hoping someone would.

I will be trying to participate in every one. I guess it's only Portia and I reading the The Tempest and Macbeth ..."

Do you two want a buddy read thread for those 2 plays? Let me know & I'll set them up. Who knows someone else might join you.

[Sue]

That would be great Kathy. Plus, when other people get to them they can always use the threads then too. Thanks!

[Brina]

Is it possible to make a Shakespeare heading and then a thread for each play?

[Katy, Quarterly Long Reads]

Brina wrote: "Is it possible to make a Shakespeare heading and then a thread for each play?"

As moderators we are already considering this -- if only we could do folders within folders! Will let you know -- we are limited to the number of folders available in a group, so it can get tricky.

[Katy, Quarterly Long Reads]

Sue wrote: "That would be great Kathy. Plus, when other people get to them they can always use the threads then too. Thanks!"

The Tempest: Tempest Buddy Read
Macbeth: Macbeth Buddy Read

[Lilly]

It seems to me an amazing project to read all of Shakespeare in a very short time - almost scary.
I must admit I will not be able to do all those plays within 2017 or something like that. But I'll be glad to join your discussions for various plays. :)
I haven't done so well for the Merchant so far - but then it's one of those plays I've never really been interested in.
If I can manage I'll join in for the Tempest, maybe also Othello.
And Winter's Tale has been on my tbr list for quite a while.

[Christine]

I'd love to join in on this, but I probably won't be able to keep up the pace. But I will try to trail along behind you all and catch up as I can!

[Renee]

Christine wrote: "I'd love to join in on this, but I probably won't be able to keep up the pace. But I will try to trail along behind you all and catch up as I can!"

It does seem like a bit of a daunting task along with the other group reads doesn't it? I don't know if I'll be able to read them all, but I want to try and read as many as I can.

[Brina]

Same here. Text is only about 100 pages long plus background info. The more one reads the easier it is to follow.