Results of Ruminations

It took me months to read Shylock Is My Name.  When I finally sat down and read another in the Hogarth Shakespeare series, The Gap of Time , I knocked it out in two days. There were a couple of reasons for that. One, I started it on Thanksgiving, so I had time alone (recluse that I am, it isn't unusual for me to slip away at large family gatherings and keep my anxiety lower) to read it; and two, I am less familiar with The Winter's Tale  from which the book is pulled, so the reading felt a little fresher. But I'm not certain that's entirely the case, as I think about it. Perhaps it was the book was shorter, had more white space, or some other psychological trick. Additionally, the copy I purchased off of Amazon last year (instead of buying it, like a good boy, from the shelf of a bookstore--an independent one, if there were one close by) is actually an uncorrected proof (Not For Sale). This didn't really click in my head until I realized what I was holding: The ...

I don't read a lot of mainstream fiction. If I'm not reading for school (classics of different stripes), Milton, or Shakespeare, I'm going to be spending my time and energy reading and writing fantasy novels. I dabble in science fiction when I get the itch, though a lot of that is better for mein the video game section. But one thing that is a guaranteed "Shut up and take my money!" proposition is the Hogarth Press Shakespeare imprint and their plan to flood the world with modern novels that retell Shakespearean plays. I've already talked a bit about these books, but I finally finished the first one I've purchased, Shylock Is My Name , and I wanted to sound off on it for a little bit. First of all, I have to give credit to Howard Jacobson. As I said, I don't read a lot of mainstream fiction, so it's unusual for me to get "writerly" prose out of what I read. With the exception, perhaps, of Patrick Rothfuss, fantasy as a genre isn...