Well, friends, here we are again.
It’s been almost a year since I’ve written a post, and it’s been over four years since I started talking about reading all of Shakespeare. I had planned on starting in January of this year, and when that deadline whizzed by, I was hoping to get started on or around April 23, since that’s Shakespeare’s birthday, but that didn’t happen.
Things haven’t been going quite as I’d planned, but I suppose that’s life, isn’t it?
I realized earlier this year that I was slowly starting to crawl out of an almost-year-long depressive episode that I didn’t know I was in. I started taking an art class in January, and it was about halfway through that I realized it was the first time I’d been happy in a long time. Sure, I’ve done fun things and was happy in the moment, but the minute I was home alone, I’d sink back into my little pit of sadness. I don’t really do anything anymore because my dog (Truman) developed separation anxiety almost overnight after my other dog (Mojo) passed. It’s so bad that I can’t leave his eyeline, let alone run an errand or two. I have to have someone come sit with him or figure out a way to take him with me if I do anything. So I stopped doing things because it was easier. I felt like a massive burden to be around anyway.
To top it all off, Truman can’t go for walks longer than maybe half a block anymore, and that’s on a good day. Walking used to be the thing that kept me a bit sane – I could get out of the house and just let my mind wander while he sniffed everything in sight. It slightly made up for not being able to go anywhere. Now, he’s SO slow and can really only go short distances, and I end up having to carry him home. I got him a stroller so we can still go for walks, but he’s sensitive to heat and I hate summer anyway, so we’ve been hunkering down for the past few weeks in the lovely hot and humid mid-summer weather we’re so lucky to get in the northeastern part of the country.
All that to say: I’m struggling. I’ve been worse, and I will get better, but it’s an uphill battle. I’m still determined to do the Shakespeare project even if no one listens to it because I just want to prove to myself that I can do it at this point. I don’t know what – if anything – will come of it, so I may as well just do it for me.
In addition to all of that, work has been more taxing lately, summer saps what’s left of my will to do anything, and I’ve run into some technical hurdles, but I’m working on it. I’ve also been trying to get things sorted out at home; I thought cleaning my closet would be a good distraction after Mojo died… I’m still trying to get all of that cleaned up so my bedroom doesn’t look like a department store exploded in it. My advice to you is to not pull everything piece of clothing you have out of your closets, dressers, wardrobes, etc. unless you know FOR SURE that you have the time and willpower to get it all put away again in a short time period.
But you’re not here for me to yammer on about my life – at least, not completely. I have finally been reading more lately, which is a nice feeling, but I still feel overwhelmed when I walk into my library and see the piles and piles of books I have yet to read. I’m really hoping once I get on track with things, I’ll be able to just sit down with a book and enjoy myself.
Two of my favorite reads for the year so far have been The Silent Companions by Laura Purcell and Demon Copperhead by Barbara Kingsolver. I haven’t been able to stop thinking about them, but for completely different reasons. The Silent Companions was so delightfully creepy that I feel like it’s haunting me now. If you like creepy gothic books, you’ll enjoy it for sure. Demon Copperhead, on the other hand, was incredibly moving, and the characters have been living in my head since I’ve finished it. I read it alongside David Copperfield, which is what it’s based on, but I’m still working through Copperfield. It’s really good and the characters are quite fun, but it is harder to read because it’s Dickens. You definitely don’t need to read Copperfield before Copperhead, or even read it at all if long Victorian novels aren’t your thing… as much as I enjoy them, I totally get it. But it is fun to see how Kingsolver used the different characters and plot points to create a modern version of the story.
I re-read a few books, too – Dracula, because why not; we read The Bell Jar for book club, and I worry about how much I can still relate to a lot of it, but I also still love it; and The Hound of the Baskervilles, which I read before and mostly forgot, but I think I retained more than I could recall at first because I started to piece things together pretty early on and I don’t think I’m especially clever.
I don’t usually do audiobooks because I struggle to pay attention when my eyeballs aren’t actively engaged, but I have been enjoying the Anne of Green Gables podcast by Mary Kate Wiles. It’s more like a radio play than a straight audiobook, which is fun. I also just love Anne of Green Gables, so any excuse to squeeze her into my life is a good one. It’s perfect for when you want something bookish in your life but also need to put all your clothes away because you’ve made a terrible mess of things… something I know a lot about. Mary Kate Wiles is also part of Shipwrecked Comedy – they’ve done some really fun (and funny) literary series, and are one of my go-to comfort watches. You can find them on YouTube, if you’re interested. She also played Lydia in The Lizzie Bennett Diaries, which I also love and re-watch frequently.
I’ve started reading Weyward by Emilia Hart, too. My boss recommended it to me and I had already picked up a copy. Plus, there’s a note in the beginning about how the witches in Macbeth were originally called the weyward sisters, and it was later changed to weird sisters. I took the Shakespeare connection as a sign that it should be next up. I am also reading Shakespeare, obviously, and will post the list of plays in the order I plan on reading them in case anyone would like to read along.
I suppose that’s all for now. I hope you’re enjoying summer more than I am, and maybe reading on the beach somewhere. Until next time, happy reading!
Lindsey Reads Things 