NEW CHALLENGE STARTS TODAY

The new challenge starts today and goes for 365 days.
This challenges ends on December 31st - 2009.

You can read anything about or related to Shakespeare - fiction or non fiction, straight bio or authorship debate. You can read the plays and sonnets as well. AND you need to read 6 books within 12 months.

For those of you who are contributors, you can either post your review here, or post a review on your own blog and post a link to it here.


GOOD LUCK

NEW SHAKESPEARE CHALLENGE FOR 2009

I am going to host a new Shakespeare challenge using the exact same rules as the last challenge.

The rules are simple - you can read anything about or related to shakespeare - fiction or non fiction, straight bio or authorship debate - and you can read the plays and sonnets as well.

This time instead of 6 months, I'm going to make this one 12 months (a whole year) and you need to read 6 books instead of 4. That way you read an average of 1 book every 2 months. That shouldn't be too hard.

Starts January 1st 2009
Ends December 31st 2009

The reason I am doing this is...
1 - because I picked up a biography of Christopher Marlow in November and that got me reminiscing about Shakespeare, and
2 - I did not finish the last challenge and it was my own challenge. This time I have to finish it.

Also there are several bloggers names still listed as contributors.
If you want to do this challenge again, then just tell me and do nothing further until January 1st when it starts.
If you want your name to be removed, send me an email and tell me, and I will remove it.
And if you want to do this challenge and you did not do the last one - then send me an email and I will send you an invite.

Books I want to read for the 2009 Challenge

I was not able to complete the 2008 Shakespeare challenge. So I will be trying to read these books next year for the 2009 Challenge.

Shakespeare's Face - by Stephanie Nolen
Shakespeare & Co - by Stanley Wells
Alias Shakespeare - by John Sobran
History Play - by Rodney Bolt
A Year in the life of William Shakespeare - by James Shapiro
Shakespeare by Another Name - by Mark Anderson
Shakespeare the Biography - by Peter Ackroyd
The Great Shakespeare Fraud - by Patricia Pearce

Shakespeare Challenges ends today.

Today is the last day of the Shakespeare Challenge. Thank you all for joining and participating.

I personally did not finish my challenge. I had too many other things happening in my life, and probably too many other challenges as well. But I am glad that others made better progress than I did. If there is any interest, I might run this again next year, but we will see.

I have picked up a few more books on Shakespeare.
One is called Alias Shakespeare by John Sobran, who seems to support the theory that Edward de Vere (Oxford) was the true author of the sonnets and plays.
Another is Shakespeare the Biography by Peter Ackroyd.

Me and Shakespeare - Herman Gollob - Book Review

I read my first Shakespeare book for the Challenge. Me and Shakespeare.

Shakespeare Challenge now STARTED

A Reminder that the SHAKESPEARE Challenge has now started. It runs from today until June 31st. You need to read 4 (four) books about Shakespeare. This can include the plays and the sonnets.

Shakespeare Challenge Participants & new books

Here is the list of people (so far) who are planning to do this challenge.

3M
Ex-Libris
Shannan's Books
Callista
Susan
Naida
Historia

The 1599 book that someone mentioned is called "A Year in the Life of William Shakespeare, by James Shapiro, although my copy of the book has this cover.

And I just received from Harper Collins today, Bill Bryson's new book called Shakespeare - The World as Stage. It's not due to be released until next week (October 23rd) so I might read it early, just to help generate good sales.

Another good suggestion was left in the comments. One new book to try is "The Shakespeare Diaries: A Fictional Autobiography, by J. P Wearing." This is actually a mixture of fact and fiction with fascinating insights and conjectures. This also seems to be an English book, not North American. In Canada, (Toronto & Montreal) you might want to look for it at Nick Hoares.

Shakespeare Challenge

This challenge is about William Shakespeare. Your challenge (if you choose to accept it) is to read 4 (four) books about Shakespeare. Not just the plays but anything about him.

You can read fiction, non-fiction, anything that supports his being the author, anything that does not support him being the author. If you want to read the plays and/or the sonnets, that's fine too.

This challenge will run for 6 months, from January 1st to June 30th, 2008. Crossovers are acceptable.


If anyone wants to join this blog, please email Historia with your email address, and I will send you an invite.