April 23rd has come and gone, but I’m still working on getting this thing together. I’m doing research and trying to figure out how I want this all to go. It will happen soon – a pile of plays is sitting here, silently judging me for hoarding and not reading them.
In the meantime, my reading slump isn’t totally over, but I have made some progress.
I recently finished re-reading Great Expectations. Well, I say re-reading, but honestly, as I read it, it felt less and less familiar. I have a very distinct memory of Pip and the convict in the graveyard, and Miss Havisham, of course. But a lot of it felt like unfamiliar territory. The last time I had to read it was for school – my freshman year of high school, by the way, which is just criminal. With no context about Dickens and his style and the time period he was writing in, none of it made sense to me. This go-round, I was audibly laughing at quite a few parts. Dickens is funny! We should be laughing! But when you’re, what, 14? It makes no sense. I HATED Dickens for a while, but then I read Hard Times for a class in college, and then A Christmas Carol, which I read in Gonzo’s voice the whole time (because the Muppet version is the best version, obviously). I understood the language more, the style, the jokes, and by then I had also read a lot about the Victorian era because I was slightly obsessed with Lewis Carroll. It also gave me an appreciation for seeing good movie adaptations before reading a book, or using them alongside the book. Sometimes a world is very strange until you can see a representation of it and hold that image in your mind. It’s like seeing Shakespeare performed – the delivery of the lines helps you understand what the unfamiliar words mean. I’m looking forward to conquering more of the Dickens on my TBR list/pile.
I also recently finished reading two Jane Austen novels, and I was reminded that she is the most fun to re-read. Reading the first time around is mostly about focusing on the characters and plot and navigating the language. The second (or third or fourth) time around, you really get to delight in the wordplay and the jokes and get to know the characters more and appreciate just how real they feel. I still haven’t read all of her books, so I feel like I have something to look forward to. And then I get to re-read them!
Mary Shelley is best known for Frankenstein, which I love, but did you know she wrote a lot more than that? Well, I knew she wrote other things, but I don’t think I fully realized just how much she wrote. I read two of her short stories for a class, and I really enjoyed them. I bought a few more of her novels as well, and I have been meaning to read The Last Man since it was about a massive plague and I was trying to read plague things while we were all supposed to be hiding out at home. It’s funny how it feels so long ago, but I also can’t believe it’s been three years.
Speaking of reading for class, I also read The Strange Case of Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde and The Island of Doctor Moreau for the first time. They’re two stories that we reference all the time in pop culture, and man, they were not totally what I expected. But I really liked them. I forget how much I like H. G. Wells until I read him, and then I get mad at myself for not reading more of his stuff. I’m working on it. The class, by the by, was the second gothic lit class taught by The Ghoul Guides through The Rosenbach. It was a lot of fun, and I hope maybe someday there will be a part three…
Anyway, there are more books to talk about, but I’m really trying to focus on the podcast and Shakespeare. I keep pushing back my start date for reason after reason, but I think I need to just bite the bullet and get started. It’s a lot of work, but I think once I get started, it’ll get easier. I’m trying to organize all my thoughts and put together something interesting. I don’t want to just be another person yammering on and on about Shakespeare on the internet. And this is going to turn into Shakespeare central for a bit, so I hope you’re all ready for that. And if he’s not your cup of tea, I’ll talk to you in a year(ish). Or, you could stick around and see if something I mention sounds fun and maybe find a way to get into a couple of his works. You don’t have to like all of them. You don’t have to read them, either – plays were meant to be performed, so go watch the movie version or go see one live. They’re a lot of fun, and I think that’s how most people find their way in.
I think I’ve rambled enough for one post… I plan on updating soon with either the beginnings of all things Shakespeare, or maybe just a list of some books I’ve enjoyed so far this year. Only time will tell… procrastination is a specialty of mine.
Lindsey Reads Things 