A Lenten Promise

I haven't given up anything for Lent in years, nor have I chosen to do anything special. This year I have felt a little differently, and so I embarked upon the idea of using Lent to explore areas that I would like to appreciate more--intellectual and spiritual awareness. That has translated into my Lenten Promise to read a book a week.

This week I decided I would learn something new, and so I began a biography of William Shakespeare, written by Bill Bryson. Bryson is an author I really appreciate, and while I usually forget to add him to my favorites list, I always enjoy reading his work. He writes clever and engaging nonfiction.

His book, Shakespeare: The World as Stage, spends more time explaining how little we actually know about the great playwright and debunking myths than it does informing the reader of details of Shakespeare's life. There are few definite facts known about the author; even his appearance is just the best guess of historians.

Clearly it is Shakespeare's work that has defined him and placed him atop of the literary totem pole, and it was details about his work that I found the most fascinating. Shakepeare's work included:

• 138,198 commas, 26,794 colons, and 15,785 question marks
• references by characters to love 2,259 times, but to hate just 183 times
• 884,647 words, made up of 31,959 speeches, spread over 118,406 lines.

(I'm quoting the book here... I have the time to figures these things out theoretically, but not the patience.)

It's amazing to me--the power of those numbers and the sheer brilliance contatined in those lines. Bryson points out that it wasn't the stories that made Shakespeare brilliant, as they were often copied from other tales of the times. It was the way he understood the human condition and conveyed it in those words. A solid source of envy for writers since.


Time: 60 minutes
Place: Pikesville
Weather: 30s, but very windy
Distance: 4 miles
Feeling: There are certainly pitfalls to groups. ARGH!
Overall grade: C-