Discussion #14: The Struggle of Reading Shakespeare

(Well, mainly because I ran out of queued posts, so I was like, why not?)

Well, if you're friends with me on Goodreads or go to school with me or something, you would know that I am currently reading Macbeth, by William Shakespeare.. As I'm typing this I'm waiting for the movie on Youtube to load so I can actually understand what the hell I just read in Act 4. This is my second Shakespearean reading, and actually my first independent Shakespeare reading-- (no way would I have been able to read Romeo and Juliet all on my own) without teacher guidance.

READING HIS BOOKS IS A REAL STRUGGLE. (And here I'm assuming that Shakespeare has actually written the works despite all the controversy going on and the movie Anonymous wHICH JUST SO HAPPENS TO STAR JAMIE CAMPBELL BOWER that says Shakespeare was too fucking poor to know of noble life and to write this amazingly well fuck it) I'm guessing that most of you are pretty familiar with Shakespeare and have read a couple (if not all) of his works. But those of you that haven't read Shakespeare yet, go ahead and read! Despite it being a struggle, I actually enjoy reading him. He's pretty unique. (I mean, what other books have crazy main characters that kill everybody in his damn way to become king? Don't forget the hallucinations. Don't.)

"What, you egg?" IV. iii. 94

I'm fucking dying. Best line in the entire book so far. Shakespeare is HILARIOUS. Well, he can be. As long as you understand him... Once you do that, you can totally laugh at all those not-so-hidden jokes. For a first time reader, you need a few resources. And I use all of these.

1. Youtube
Youtube is so important to me in reading this play. Because oh my god if I didn't have Youtube to give me a visual I would DIE. There are so many good videos on Youtube right now.

2. Sparknotes
Sparknotes is your friend. A really good analytic friend who helps you get through writing assignments.

3. Cliffsnotes
Cliff is also your friend. Not to mention hilarious.

I don't even want to mention taking notes as you go because I believe that is tedious. But different things work as you go.

4. Self Endurance
Don't DNF it. You'll never get anywhere. I know it gets tempting, especially if you're reading his stuff just for fun and not for a school assignment that you'll be graded on, but it's also super fun to actually know what's going on instead of "reading" the entire thing. Which I used to do with classics.

So, yeah. What about you? What other authors that you have come across are terribly challenging to read, but enjoyable?