Donde esta la bibiloteca, Pedro?

Just got back from the library, where I spent an hour browsing through the Shakespeare shelves--nonfiction, young adult nonfiction, books on tape, DVDs, juvenile fiction--you name it.  I was willing to try anything that might promote my personal Shakespeare literacy campaign.  Truthfully, I wanted a Shakespeare "craft" book more than anything.  I was really hoping for ideas like how to make quills, how to make a Hamlet costume out of paper grocery bags, suggestions for using fake blood in at-home theatrical performances--that sort of thing.  The closest I came was a Children's book that the library catalog listed as "on order."  Maybe I'll suck it up and buy the book online myself.  In any case, I came home with two DVDs (The Taming of the Shrew and Macbeth, which I hope to watch over the 3-day weekend), a Modern Scholar lecture series of Shakespeare's comedies on CD, and four great books.

I'm mostly excited about the books, so I'll give you a quick rundown of their titles and what I expect from them.

1. Shakespeare and Modern Culture, by Marjorie Garber

"The premise of this book is simple and direct: Shakespeare makes modern culture and modern culture makes Shakespeare."  Since her premise fit so nicely with my own idea of Shakespeare and the ideas we discussed in class, I had to pick it up.  She seems to use a natural, conversational tone which I appreciate, and it looks like she dissects a handful of the more famous plays and relates them to modern culture.

2. A Dictionary of Who, What, and Where in Shakespeare, by Sandra Clark

This one hardly needs an explanation, but I think it will be a nice asset as I try to incorporate elements of bibliography in my posts, and it will most likely help me reach further depths in analyze the works.

3. Essential Shakespeare Handbook, by Leslie Dunton-Doner and Alan Riding

Actually, I'm skeptical of anything that uses "Essential" in its title, including the textbook we bought for class.  After all, of course they think it's essential--they wrote the book.  In any case, it had some cool pictures and interesting brief synopses of the plays.

4. Tales from Shakespare, by Charles and Mary Lamb

I think this is the book I'm most excited about.  In fact, if you're interested, you can actually download this book for free with Google Reader--just click on the link above.  I've studied Charles Lamb before so this intrigued me, and when I opened it I realized that he (and his sister, Mary) actually took twenty Shakespearean plays and turned them into brief fictional stories.  This is ideal for someone like me who, while reading a play, has thought, "This would be a lot easier if it was a novel rather than a script."  

I'll post again as I begin implementing the books into my Shakespeare Literacy Campaign.