Kate, I think that's exactly some of the appeal. One of the things I was really struck with was how Duncan allowed Tucker to see his work more distinctly even though Duncan himself was often so wrongheaded and off target on so many things generally.

I finished The Golden Compass audiobook not too long ago, and I have to say that it was a great "read" and an awesome audiobook production. It had a cast instead of a single narrator and they were great at doing the voices.

Film rights for Abraham Lincoln, Vampire Hunter sold: [link]

Every now and then, there's a perfect marriage of book material to reader (of books on CD). Joe Mantegna reading Robert B. Parker books is such perfection. There are a few; they are all excellent. The man deserves a Grammy for his work.

I fracking love the woman who does the vocal recordings for the Thursday Next series. She really works it nicely.

My Question for Shakesepare Fans:

I'm working on a list - just for my own literary amusement and edification - and request your input.

In Fay Weldon's book Letters to Alice on First Reading Jane Austen she opens with a chapter titled the City of Invention, which she evokes as a series of metaphors for various genres and authors. Dominating the City of Invention is the Castle Shakespeare, which looms over and influences all the writers in the English language.

So I'm interested in a list of works that reflect the Castle Shakespeare. Books and songs and movies and comics which live in the shadow of Shakespeare's work, reflecting it, commenting on it. Directly - not just an allusion or quote or two.

Some examples would include:

• The TV show Slings and Arrows

• Robertson Davies novel Tempest-Tost

• Fritz Leiber's short story "Four Ghosts in Hamlet"

• Shakespeare in Love

I'm also a curious about particular performances of Shakespeare which themselves become part of the Castle Shakeseparean. Here I'm not just looking for "Kate Winslet was the best Ophelia!" so much as how Richard Burton's performance as Hamlet becomes its own reference point in theatrical lore.

But mostly I just want a bigger list of creative outpourings that concern themselves directly with Shakespeare, or his works. (Less critical appraisals, though I think there are probably instances of criticism so important to our sense of Shakespeare that they also become part of the castle.)

So what are your favorite works that live in the shadow of Castle Shakespeare?

The first play I was ever in: Ann-Marie McDonald's Goodnight Desdemona (Good Morning Juliet).

Also, of course, Rosencrantz and Guildenstern Are Dead.

Also, let's say The Lion King.

Rosencranz and Guildenstern are Dead.

t edit Of course P-C and I cross-post. Heh.

Those Kurosawa movies that remake Macbeth and possibly another one I can't remember.

Well, there's West Side Story, of course.

And I'm extremely partial to Stage Beauty.