Comments on: Reading Shakespeare for Fun and Profit

By: The Promised Profit Post: Measure for Measure « BlogLily

The Promised Profit Post: Measure for Measure « BlogLily — Tue, 29 Apr 2008 05:22:15 +0000

[...] Post: Measure for Measure Posted April 28, 2008 Oh, so long ago, I said I’d be writing about reading Shakespeare for profit, and then life intervened and I went off on a long jag of Elizabeth Taylor reading, and a lot of [...]

By: beryl singleton bissell

beryl singleton bissell — Mon, 28 Apr 2008 15:11:07 +0000

Found you while reading another friend’s blog. What a fun post. I shall remember to take Shakespeare with me while riding the train. Now, if only there were a train to board. Mass transit, where are you?

By: bookfraud

bookfraud — Thu, 24 Apr 2008 01:40:55 +0000

wow, i take a few days off from reading blogs, and you go and change the layout on me. looks great, by the way.

By: TJ

TJ — Wed, 23 Apr 2008 14:57:09 +0000

Hello! Your site was highly recommended by a very good friend. I have poured over many of your recent posts and I can see why she loved coming here! I see I am late to respond to this post which was very fun to read. I look forward to part 2 (and I am trying to guess where you will go with the “for profit” part). Happy Shakespeare’s birthday to you! TJ

By: mari

mari — Sat, 19 Apr 2008 03:46:39 +0000

I think you’re going to need to lock your sons up and never let them out of the house. Girls will be chasing them, because they’re learning how to be polite, considerate and – yeowza! – chivalrous. The situation will be made worse when the girls’ parents will find out what charmers live in the casa de Bloglily.

By: patry

patry — Sat, 19 Apr 2008 02:19:32 +0000

This makes me feel like reading more Shakespeare and riding more trains. I hope the reading woman, and the charming young man make it into a novel.

By: gentle reader

gentle reader — Fri, 18 Apr 2008 15:28:17 +0000

LOL, I sound like my grandmother, I know, but “what’s up with this generation?” I’m of the female persuasion and I give up my seat whenever I see someone who obviously needs the seat more than I do. And I love to read Shakespeare aloud. My strategy is usually to try to see a play before reading it, if at all possible, even if that means renting a movie version of it. Gotta hear it aloud!

By: everythinginbetween

everythinginbetween — Fri, 18 Apr 2008 10:46:27 +0000

Oh, move to Pittsburgh! I’ve been given a seat by so many charming young college students it’s almost making me feel old, or perhaps that I look pregnant. Seriously, the manners on some of the young men are astounding.

I have another piece of advice on reading shakespeare – read it aloud! Even if you are by yourself (of course, perhaps not on the train) – I love reading shakespeare aloud. My dad once told me to follow the grammatical structure like I would any book and not get tripped up by the stanzas and verse, so for instance to pause when there is a comma, stop when there is a period, etc – read them as sentences. This was advice for me when I was very young but it might be applicable to any new reader of Shakespeare.

By: Litlove

Litlove — Fri, 18 Apr 2008 07:21:02 +0000

Hilarious! I love the bit about reading fast enough that you don’t forget what happened at the beginning. Husbands have extraordinary capacities sometimes, and I say husbands because you have to be married to someone a while before they start creeping out of the woodwork. Mine used to have a talent for preceding me through swing doors and letting them slap back in my face (actually this became clear quite early on). He was not brought up in a chivalrous environment when young. He does much better now and I wholeheartedly agree that men with manners are utterly irresistible. If you happen to be in the vicinity of the young male seat hogger again, drop the book on his head.

By: paisleyandplaid

paisleyandplaid — Fri, 18 Apr 2008 03:08:16 +0000

Nice post. I’ve read so many works with my kids and husband from Coleridge, their favorite, to Shakespeare. Good times.

I just did my first post on sonnet 130 at paisleyandplaid. It brought back a lot of memories of introducing Shakespeare to English students.

By: Emily Barton

Emily Barton — Fri, 18 Apr 2008 00:44:39 +0000

Oh, you just reminded me that ages ago I wanted to write a whole post over on What We Said about “being gentlemanly.” Although, you’ve done such a nice job here, maybe I don’t need to do it.

By: Tachikawa Hiyoko

Tachikawa Hiyoko — Thu, 17 Apr 2008 20:07:56 +0000

I just found this blog by chance, when logging into my WordPress account, and I’m amazed by your writing. Your sense of humor is great and the content of your posts, quite interesting. I’m gonna try to make some time to read more of your posts and to continue to visit your blog from now on, cause I think it’s really worth it.

As for Shakespeare, I agree with all of your points, even though I haven’t tried reading it while commuting to work/school. xD Mainly, because I work from my home, so I don’t really have to go anywhere anymore. ^_^U

Anyway, thanks for posting such interesting stuff. I’ll be sure to come back some other day. I added you to my blogroll.

Best regards and nice to meet you~

By: (un)relaxeddad

(un)relaxeddad — Thu, 17 Apr 2008 19:29:12 +0000

Let’s see – I’m so with you on the summary reading! Essential, especially if you’re off to actually see a production.

Jane Austen at one page a day!? That’s so endearing. It must be love – true love (sorry – Dudelet has a passion for Enchanted at the moment which is charming in a 4yo boy otherwise devoted to Spiderman).

Train etiquette – now that’s a complex matter in London. Basically, if you’re pregnant (and generally being ignored by the healthy young woman you’re standing directly in front of), you’ve got my seat. Even if I have to yell the length of the carriage. In fact, you’ve militantly got my seat. No-one stands up for people who are pregnant on the Tube and I won’t have it! Likewise if you’re old and unsteady, in a cast, with a small child…Where I start to get uneasy is who else I do and don’t offer my seat. Women my own age? Younger women in trainers carrying gym bags? Not likely! And worse – the occasions when <I’ve been offered an empty seat by someone younger who’s got there first. It’s wonderful that manners exist but…Seriously, I agonize about this…

Oh it’s complicated…

By: diamonsdsandrust

diamonsdsandrust — Thu, 17 Apr 2008 16:47:59 +0000

In England when I went to school, Shakespeare in every form was a must.I am very grateful to my teacher of English Literatur. We spent more time studying the play than we did reading it,and only then were we allowed to see one.I still love Shakespeare and if I were washed up on a deserted island and could have only one book I would have a hard time choosing between his complete works and the Bible.
Have women brought it upon themselves that the days of chivalry towards us have gone.I seem to get by quite well by playing helpless,men can’t resist having the upper hand. Shakespeare was definately the wrong book to be reading.

By: Matthew Abel

Matthew Abel — Thu, 17 Apr 2008 15:16:22 +0000

Bwaaaahaahaaaa.

I would have given up my seat.

I find the best way to read Shakespeare is all alone in a house so you can say everything out loud. People could be in the house if you are not easily embarrassed. I can’t even have the dog watch me.