WEEK TEN - 'HAMLET'

'Hamlet' by William Shakespeare

March 1 - 6, 174 pages

Shakespeare is one of those people who fascinates me. I love reading biographies and looking up lists of words and phrases that he coined. I mean, he's a genius, and reading this play just confirmed that to me once again. He does so much with his words; there are so many double meaning, play on words that go on in his plays that it is very hard to keep up. I'll be honest, reading lines like, 'To be or not to be: that is the question' and 'to thine own self be true' gave me shivers. Imagine being in the audience in 1601 listening to those words for the first time! I really want to read more Shakespeare. I didn't find it too hard - reading the notes at the bottom of each page certainly helped. All in all a wonderful play 'Of carnal, bloody, and unnatural acts, / Of accidental judgements, casual slaughters, / Of deaths put on by cunning and forced cause, / And, in this upshot, purposes mistook / fall'n on th' inventors' heads.'

You know what else got me really excited? Milton Glaser illustrated the cover of this edition. How extremely awesome. I was just reading an article about how he was the first ever graphic designer to win the National Medal of Arts. And the sticker on the front of this book (it's a 'Signet Classic' from 1963) says it costs 75c. Seventy-five cents for one of the best plays of all time with a cover illustration by one of the biggest design icons of all time?! Outrageous.