Random Friday: Shakespeare

Want to participate in Random Fridays? Just do the following: 

• Include the above image in your post and link back to my post.
• Blog about this week's topic.
• Add the link to your Random Friday at the bottom of this post.

I'm a bit of a Shakespeare geek. I don't know all the crazy fun facts about him or his plays or adaptations/performances of his plays. But I love Hamlet, and A Midsummer Night's Dream and As You Like It are pretty great. 

I've seen one of the First Folios:

My mom and I visited the Folger Shakespeare Library while we were in D.C. this summer, and I want to go back because we didn't have a chance to see their theater or the reading room. Sometime, I'd love to even sit in the reading room and page through all the books, articles, dissertations, and whatever else they have on Shakespeare.

I'm also a nerd for Shakespeare retellings. If you're looking for a quality web-series, "Nothing Much to Do" is the way to go (although, fair warning, there is some strong language).

If you're more of a book person, though, than here are my top picks:

~The Only Thing Worse Than Me Is You by Lily Anderson (a Much Ado About Nothing retelling with all the snark and fluff, and I gave it 5 stars, which is high praise considering how picky I am)

~Still Star-Crossed by Melinda Taub (what happens after Romeo and Juliet; I also think they're adapting it into a TV show to premiere this fall? I could be wrong, though)

~Something Rotten by Alan Gratz (Hamlet retelling from Horatio's POV)
~The Steep and Thorny Way by Cat Winters (genderbent loose Hamlet retelling)

~And I also have it on good authority that I'll probably love Speak Easy, Speak Love by McKelle George. It's a Much Ado About Nothing retelling set in the 1920s. 

Clearly the YA Shakespeare retellings shelf is still quite lacking. Here's hoping we get fewer fairytale retellings in the next few years and more Shakespeare retellings...