I began reading Henry V and was just not feeling it, I mean, at all! I was trying to figure out what was going on because I haven’t had a “mood” issue for reading for years now. I was poking around and realized that I’ve been reading this Complete Shakespeare collection for 3 years now.
I started this journey with All’s Well That Ends Well in February of ’18 and the latest was Henry IV, Part II last month. I think I am just in need of a break from Shakespeare. It would seem that 3 years is about the longest I can deal with one ongoing “series” before I need a break. Armed with this info, I am going to be putting Ol’ Shakes on ice til ’22 when I will resume this quest to read all of the Bard’s works.
I am keeping this collection on my kindle so I don’t forget about it but am changing it’s name to “Hiatus til 22” so I don’t accidentally start again. I want a real break to recharge my batteries. I am glad this was an easy to figure out problem and I’ll be keeping it in mind for some of the other long running series I am currently going through.
Keep it cool Ol’ Shakes 👉 😎 😎 👈
Bookstooge's Reviews on the Road 
Not sure why you wourld persevere with a amateur like Shakespeare. Rocky IV is better than Henry V. Where are the giant lobsters? Nowehere. That’s your problem right there, chief.
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But I eat kosher, so I wouldn’t be eating lobsters anyway.
I’ve heard that Shakespeare gets better as one ages.
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I can totally understand this because that is a long time, and personally, I probably couldn’t survive more than one book at this time in my life. King Lear is still on my list though. Happy reading!
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Thanks 🙂
I will come back to it. Even keeping it on my ereader, just not until ’22.
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Great idea Cap, you’ll come back to the Bard all refreshed!
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I really hope so. It’s also a good test to see about other long series that I’m reading.
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At least ol Shakes is done with writing for a while now so there is no pressure to feel like ypu have to speed read to catch up to the next hyped up book by him…
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Hahahaa, good point! I hadn’t even thought of that 😀
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Thats why you good good friends like me🙂
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I can definitely understand needing a Shakespeare break! Even with my only reading two plays per year, they’re starting to feel a little formulaic and “samey”. I plan to try one of the histories next year, but I can see myself cutting him out of my annual classics before long. I doubt I’ll ever read all of them.
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For me, I’ve been wanting to say that I’ve read all of Shakespeare since my college days, so it’s one of those vanity things. It’ll happen, it’s just going to take longer than I thought 😀
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You seem to have made quite a lot of progress toward that goal already.
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I thought I had finally caught fire while reading The Gulag Archipelago. Then I hit a chapter called “The Kids” …
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Yeah, that was a pretty bad one…. if it’s the one I’m thinking of in volume II.
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I’m reading the Abridged version. That means some of the chapters aren’t in there. There’s just a summary. For example, “Trusties were prisoners who got themselves jobs that were soft by camp standards. They were despised by the other prisoners.” Unfortunately, the chapter about kids is not abridged … Anyway, due to its being the abridged version, it’s all in one volume. But yes, I am about halfway through, so I guess that’s Vol. II.
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Given that Shakespeare’s plays are formatted as plays/visual media…how about watching some of them instead of reading? I recall from the last time I was on a Shakespeare kick that Youtube had quite a few recorded theatre performances–which ought to be pretty true to the text, one would think…
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I’ve thought about “viewing” them, but considering how much of a bookish person I am I “have” to read them 🙂
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I applaud your perseverance despite several poopy stories. I hope whatever stories remain to be read will turn out to be good when you start again in 2022!
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Weeeeelllll, I think I’m only 30’ish percent done
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