Ok, ok, fine, not everybody celebrates Christmas, yadda yadda yadda. I do, and it’s my blog. As the holidays approach, everybody’s got their gift guide. Gifts for Mom, Gifts for Dad, Gifts for Geeks, Gifts for CoWorkers. How about gifts for the Shakespeare lover? It’s easy to point at Shakespeare’s Den, and say “Go nuts.” But let’s talk details. You hoping for books, or movies? Or toys?
- I’ve got music – Shakespeare In Song, by William Clark. I’ve already got When Love Speaks, and like it.
- I’ve got books – Master of Verona, by David Blixt. I hear it’s good, and not just from the author who hangs out here :). I should be done with Interred With Their Bones by Christmas.
- I’ve even got an action figure hiding somewhere in the house – You know the one that started my kids down their long dark path to Shakespeare geekdom.
I don’t really have time to collect Shakespeare movies. A friend gave me Rosencrantz and Guildenstern Are Dead last year, and I’ve actually never even watched it. I know, bad me. I’ve read the actual script, just never seen the performance. What about you?
here’s my list:
1. Every Shakespeare book.
2. Shakespeare movies.
3. A biography of Shakespeare.
4. A shakespeare bookmark (I’ve never seen one).
5. I wanna get a xmas card (shakespeare theme..if there’s any–i’ve never seen one).
6. Round trip ticket to the UK with Shakespeare tour or just a ticket to the ticket to see a Shakespeare play.
^_^
How’s that? well dreaming is free and this is my comment..I think the author of this blog is the only one who can stop me..^_^
Ticket to the theater****
I’m hoping for Branagh’s Hamlet on DVD for Christmas.
I’m lucky in that my mom is taking me to Stratford-upon-Avon (and other places in England) next summer (birthday present).
PS- Duane- have you seen how the Beeb is going to film all-new versions of Shakespeare?
Why would I stop you? They sound like good ideas to me. What does “Every Shakespeare book” mean? The complete works are in the public domain, you can download them easily for free. Unless you mean “every book ever written about Shakespeare”, which would be a pretty tall order.
A few suggestions:
Shakespeare’s Songbook (comes with a cd, it explores every song and song reference in Shakespeare – lots of unexpected gems).
Dante University Press Edition of Romeo & Juliet – contains the play plus all the earlier versions of the story except Arthur Brooke’s awful retelling.
And if you don’t have the Asimov, folks, you are missing out. Asimov’s Guide to Shakespeare – simply the best book about Shakespeare ever.
Cheers,
DB
PS – thanks for the plug. Hope you get – and like – the book!
Hi Sonneta,
If I buy you a copy of Hamlet, can I have your trip to Stratford?? 🙂
I saw the thing about the new film versions, just couldn’t decide what angle to blog it. It’s not like we’ve got something to look at – they basically just announced their intention to do it, and it’s going to take 10 years.
Hi again David! Maybe I have to give the Asimov another shot. I picked it up once and it was just so….historically….detailed…. I was having trouble getting the big picture. I mean, sure, absolutely, you’ll know *more* about the plays, quantity-wise, then almost anything else I’ve ever read. But that really wasn’t what I was looking for at the time.
I don’t like downloading e-books or whatever…
every shakespeare book=all books written by shakespeare..
sorry bout the grammar..
You absolutely must watch the “Rosencrantz and Guildenstern are Dead.” I agree with Ron Rosenbaum that it has snippets of some of the best Hamlet scenes ever filmed. (Have you have read “The Shakespeare Wars”? Opinionated and a bit self-serving but I found it fun and interesting, maybe because I often agreed with Rosenbaum, though.) I also am a tremendous fan of Stoppard.
That’s a great summary of Shakespeare Wars! If that’s how it hits you, don’t bother trying to get through it–you probably won’t find it worthwhile. But I still recommend the Stoppard, even if its just for the few scenes of Hamlet.
Yeah, I have both R&G Are Dead and Shakespeare Wars. Honestly, I haven’t been able to get through either of them. I’m willing to give Stoppard the benefit of the doubt and sit through it one of these days, but as for Rosenbaum, although here and there he can turn a phrase that makes me stand up and point and yell “Yes yes yes, is anybody else listening? This guy gets me!!” I am having trouble going through chapter after chapter of “This old academic bald head things that Lear ends *this* way, but that academic baldhead thinks it ends *that* way, so I’ll write a book about it and use lots of war metaphors as they fire newsletter articles back and forth at each other.”
Oh, I’m learning a great deal re: Shakespeare Wars. The whole “How many Hamlets / Lears are there, and what does it mean to be Shakespearean” issue is great, I love it. I just think that he spends about 50 pages too much on each issue. I’m only interested in the issues, not in the “war” around them.