Shopping for Shakespeare

This blog has been a little neglected of late, partly due to the fact that I was assignmenting it up and partly due to the fact that I went away to Central Australia for a week and a bit. I wasn't idle during that time however, and read three books and numerous newspapers on the trip. One book I do recommend is The Other Queen, the latest release from Philippa Gregory about the show down between Elizabeth I and Mary, Queen of Scots. It dragged on for a bit and I became increasingly infuriated by the fact that nothing seemed to be happening with Mary, or Marie as she refers to herself in the novel, but that was how her life went I'm afraid. Or at least that's the impression I received.

The first paragraph was rather off putting and as I made comment to my travel companion 'most unfeminist,' but she pointed out that the context of the novel was 1568, so I just shut up and read. And I wasn't disappointed, for the feminist revionism of Bess of Hardwick potrays her as a strong female character, rather than the greedy woman she has been made out to be in prior schools of thought. While some may be confused by the similar title in The Other Boleyn Girl one of Gregory's early novels and the basis for the new film starring Scarlett Johansson, the tales really aren't all that different- indeed Mary, Queen of Scots' fate echoes Anne Boleyn's, only I found the beheading scene in The Other Boleyn Girk to be more heart wrenching. In any case, read both, for while they have their similarities, both texts also have their differences.

Umm, what else? Yes, I went shopping for Shakespeare today! I'm studying a Shakespeare unit as part of my course, so I hit the op-shops and second hand shops for the books I need and was successful in getting most of them for no more than $4. St. Vinnie's didn't have any Shakespeare, but they did have a copy of a Daphne du Maurier novel and I also succeeded in picking up a copy of the complete works of Sherlock Holmes for $3.50. The Brotherhood of St. Laurence offered Nancy Cato's
All the Rivers Run for $2, The Sonnets of Shakespeare for a dollar and a Penguin edition of Three Australian Plays. Goodness knows when I'm going to get time to read them all- this is my third second hand book splurge this year, and I'm no where near reaching the summit yet. Oh well, a rainy day will come one afternoon and I can say: "Oh, I did have a bag of books somewhere that I can read..."

And it will be magic.