Hamlet Schmamlet

This play SUCKS!! Why all the hype for 500 years? Save yourself some time and energy and just go rent the movie with Mel Gibson, it's way better!!

Kidding! This was book #5 of the year for me. I know I have read this before but I can't recall whether it was high school AP Engligh or college. We all know the basics of the story, but the telling of it is worth experiencing over and over again. I'm sure I will read this play several more times yet in my life. As an English lit major, my knowledge of Shakespeare's work is actually pretty abysmal. Looking back, I'm shocked I wasn't required to read more of him in college. As part of my "100 books this year" campaign, I'm going to try to read one play a month. Get my Shakespeare on! Jigga what!That's right, you heard me. Booyah! (said while clenching my fist and thrusting it downard vertically, as I should according to urbandictionary.com when I say this word)

Uh, anyway, back to Hamlet. I need to get a better edition with more footnotes. The one I have is pretty basic, which is fine. But I'm sure there are so many nuances I am missing out on without more solid and complete reference material. The paperback I've had for years belonged to a Gwen Martin at some point, which I know because thise Gwen person thought it necessary to write her name all over the freakin' place, so I associate Hamlet with her, sadly. She also drew a lot of stick figures on the bottoms of pages. She was clearly not very riveted by this tragedy.