One of my worst Shakespeare-in-the-theatre experiences was seeing Hamlet and having the couple behind me exclaim at every fucking famous line in the play which is almost all of them, "OH! This is where that's from?"

My introduction to Hamlet was the musical version from Gilligan's Island. Actually, not a bad way to introduce a six-year-old to Shakespeare.

I got a library book for Em last summer that was some of the plays turned into a picture stories. It had The Tempest, R&J, Ado, Twelfth Night, Two Gentlemen ... I can't remember what other ones - maybe just those. But it was awesome.

I'm trying to get Em into Shakespeare - or at the very least, have a working knowledge of it so that it doesn't intimidate her to the point of disliking it intensely, like I went through. There's a whole Shakespeare for kids series that I think she's going to get for Christmas.

Sigh. Kirsten Miller was supposed to be in the my area of the book festival talking about her new book, The Eternal Ones, and then talking about Kiki Strike on the teen stage, but now she's only going to do the teen stage, so I won't be able to see her.

Man, I'm dying for a new Kiki Strike book.

Man, I'm dying for a new Kiki Strike book.

Oh man, me too! Oh Steph I got an email from my brother today saying that the new Skullduggery book was winging it's way to me. Now that the kids are in school I have a better chance of getting my hands on it first yay!

I got an email from my brother today saying that the new Skullduggery book was winging it's way to me.

I ordered it from Amazon UK, and it's on its way, but the e-mail said the estimated delivery date is Sept. 21. I'm DYING here! IIRC, when I ordered book 4, the estimated delivery date was 3 weeks but it got here in more like 10-14 days. So I'm keeping my fingers crossed.

For me, the thing that got me into really liking Shakespeare was actually performing it. I was the Apothecary (and a roving vendor in the opening scene) in R&J in high school, and fell in love with the language and plotline. In college, my freshman lit prof made it a point to have us read the plays out loud when we got to WS, assigning us our parts for the day (when we read Lear, all the girls were fighting for Regan and Goneril!).

I told my bro that I'd pay for overnight shipping but he'd already sent it.

Ginger, we were going to go to the festival but now we are not. Next year, though!

Casper has a classmate named Cassius. He does not look especially learn or hungry. Whether or not he thinks to much and is dangerous is yet to be seen.