I'm reading a book by Bill Bryson entitled Shakespeare The World As Stage, and I've not gotten through much of it yet, but the little bit I've read so far has had its intriguing moments. I have to admit it is not a book that is hard to put down exactly, but I suppose I'm wondering what in the world he's going to be able to talk about for the next hundred pages or so, being that there is so little known about Shakespeare, and somehow that keeps me coming back to find out. I took a Shakespeare class with a fabulous professor, Dr. Brown, (if you're reading this, Dr. Brown, I suppose I'm about a decade late on collecting brownie points, huh?) and while I've always loved Shakespeare's writings, Dr. Brown really brought things to life and allowed us to jump into the stories in a way I hadn't before. I always like to walk by the "New Books" section at our library when I take Olivia & Benjamin, and rarely is there anything that just jumps out at me, but when I saw this one, I thought I'd give it a go.
One interesting tidbit of info that Bryson has already divulged is about this married couple who was bound and determined to try to discover more about Shakespeare, so they moved to England and spent about 18 hours each day pouring over public records between the years of 1906 and 1909. Charles and Hulda Wallace were their names, and he had been an English professor at the University of Nebraska and he truly became obsessed with trying to discover more information about Shakespeare. I love how Bryson says we might imagine the "muffled cry of joy" when in 1909 they finally found one mention of Shakespeare in a court case. The case was of little significance, but it was significant that it pinpointed his whereabouts at an important time in his life--something that had been theretofore mostly guessed about. The sad news is that this guy, Wallace, basically lost his mind. Probably spent 18 too many hours pouring over those public records, huh? But don't worry too much about that fella, because even in his less-than-sound mental state, he got a new hobby. He believed that he could tell whether a piece of land had oil on it, and he happened to guess right one time. He happened upon one of the most productive oil wells in history. He died a very wealthy man. Don't you wonder what dear Hulda did with all that cizash? We'll hope she took some of it and gave herself a little vacation.
3 comments:
OK, you were doing what? When does the mother of 2 toddlers have time to read a book. I have been knocked down to magazines!
Oh yeah, I am in the bed with the towels tonight. I am such a loser.
I do not claim to always be in the midst of something as academic as this, but I do like to keep several books running--sometimes they run for a long time! There are times when I'm able to read a lot, and then there are times when it feels like every time I go to pick it up that I get interrupted. The result in the last case is that I wind up re-reading the same paragraph 10 times before finally moving ahead! I just finished Lisa Welchel's (you know, Blair from The Facts of Life) book entitled Creative Correction, and I really enjoyed most of it. There were a few things that I just had to laugh at, but I gleaned a lot of helpful tips from her book. I would like to read a lot more than I do. Stan is a speed reader, and he zips through books like a weedeater in grass. Me, not so swift, but I do love a good read. I have to admit that I love the simple, pastoral, always-eventually-a-happy-ending writings of Jan Karon--the whole Mitford series, so I'm excited that she has "prequel" of sorts that has just come out.
And might I add, you're anything but a loser, my dear!
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