Sunday, January 6, 2013

The Top Ten Books Read in 2012, #7


I picked up #7 in Audible because frankly, I love William Shakespeare. I've read Shakespeare bios before, but this seemed so comprehensive. Peter Ackroyd's Shakespeare covers it all and not just with hearsay. You can tell by the documentary evidence that he researched well this man's life, a feat that is remarkable for there is little documentation on the world's greatest playwright. 

Ackroyd wrote in a style that was both easily accessible to the lay reader while still being for the scholar a good source of biographical material on the enigmatic writer. He makes a lot of references to the plays using them as fodder for his thought.

Because Ackroyd is so thorough the audiobook clocked in at about nineteen hours of listening time. Needless to say, that was a lot of rides in the car, but the narrator, Simon Vance, is one of my favorite, so I didn't mind.

If you enjoy Shakespeare, you would definitely enjoy this book. 

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