I am still holding out hope that I will finish my Crazy Shakespeare Project by year's end, but it will take some determination. I have 4.7 plays and a couple of the longer poems to go.
I've been stuck on Coriolanus -- by far my least favorite of the plays I've read so far this year. The thing about Shakespeare is that you have to keep moving forward through the parts you don't like. They never last all that long, and if you set it aside to come back to it later, you have to retrace your steps through those parts so you can remember what was happening. This is a lesson I first learned in 2004 while reading Merry Wives of Windsor, which might be Item #1 on the List of Works Demonstrating That Sometimes Shakespeare Totally Phoned It In. Maybe not #1. But it surely did feel that way in 2004.
Anyway, I am plowing through Coriolanus. I am finding, as I had hoped, that Shakespeare becomes easier reading the more Shakespeare I read. Whether or not I finish the complete works this year, Coriolanus will be the dozenth play I've read in 2011. It was a fun idea, even if it takes me until 2012 to accomplish.
WOW, your dozenth play this year?! JUST WOW!
In any case, I don't recall the particular details of your Shakespeare project -- did you have an initial goal to finish after a certain period or do you just want to try to finish by the end of the year to be done with it?! (sorry about being sooooo nosy!)
I think it's a fascinating project/goal, though I'd hesitate to take on something so ambitious... sigh. :)
Posted by: Lilian | December 01, 2011 at 09:46 PM
P.S. and thankful Shakespeare for prompting a post in December by Jamie!! ;) (I haven't even posted today... in my stupid goal to post more this year than last year. At least I don't have to be watching the clock for midnight anymore!) ;)
Posted by: Lilian | December 01, 2011 at 09:48 PM
My plan was to finish the complete works by 12/31. More details at the link above if you're curious. :-)
I realized in the bathtub, while sloggity-slogging through Act II, that I actually have 5 more plays to read after Coriolanus, not 4. Not sure if it will happen or not, but I'll give it a whirl!
Posted by: Jamie | December 01, 2011 at 10:02 PM
Oh, Coriolanus is the WORST. Maybe tied with Titus Andronicus. Maybe reward yourself when you're done with Ralph Fiennes's new Coriolanus movie--it's supposed to be good, though bloody. And it's Ralph Fiennes!
Posted by: electriclady | December 02, 2011 at 11:49 AM
At least Titus Andronicus is interesting! Horrible and gory, but interesting.
Posted by: Jamie | December 02, 2011 at 12:06 PM