Hello and Welcome!

Hello, readers, my name is Natashya, and I'll be your blogger today. Brief summary of self? Yes. I am an English Major at BYU, minoring in the Humanities. I love Shakespeare because it is like reading another language, but in English. The delightful dance of nuance and meaning blend into a delicious festival of words just ready to be picked apart and inspected.

I have been considering some learning goals for the semester, and some interesting ideas have been coming to mind. Unfortunately, not all of these interesting ideas have been intelligent ones, so I shall see what I can do to fix that.

I will commence with Hamlet, which shall be read in a new and gloriously insightful way so that it is new to me once more. I shall use men to increase my understanding of this play. We shall see how this works.

I do believe that for the breadth requirement, I would enjoy reading at least one play from every genre that Shakespeare has written, maybe two depending on the genre. I will then watch every production of those plays that I can get my little hands on. I will also read some of his poems, both sonnets and non-sonnets. I am considering the following plays selected from a book of NECESSARY plays. How do you choose the more necessary part?

The Comedies:

• The Taming of the Shrew
• Twelfth Night; Or, What You Will
• Another one listed in the book

The Histories:

• I'm doing some research to see which one of these would be best. I have had the least amount of exposure to these plays than any other genre. Surprised? I'm not.

The Tragedies:

• Othello
• King Lear
• Macbeth

The Romances:

• The Tempest

The Poems:

• The Rape of Lucrece
• Selected Sonnets

That is what I'm looking at so far. Suggestions are highly encouraged, and would be appreciated with brownie points.