đ I see an article entitled âFive People Suggest Five Booksâ in my Shakespeare feeds and I think, âOh cool, they walked up to people on the street, asked what theyâre reading, and at least somebody mentioned Shakespeare.â I like stuff like that. Ever better is that itâs not from New York or Cambridge or something, itâs from Des Moines. Iâm perfectly happy with the idea that you can wander down Main Street in some Iowa city, ask somebody what books theyâve read lately, and have them bust out a Shakespeare reference. Sure enough the first guy has Harold Bloom on his list. Impressive, although I think I was hoping for something a little bit more accessible. But then ⌠I read the bios. Their âfive people who live in the Des Moines metroâ are: the marketing manager for the public library, a book store owner, the librarian, a college professor, and .. the dude who recommended Shakespeare? Yeah, heâs the frickin director of the Iowa Shakespeare Experience. I swear, I cannot fathom how this article came to be written without somebody saying, âWell you know, random people on the street donât really know about books, so no problem, weâll just go and get people who work with books for a living.â Yeah, thatâs so very useful. Thanks for that.
