I’ve been looking for a project, something substantial, that inspires me and maybe even is good for me. I’ve considered joining a Cross Fit gym. But, Shakespeare seemed more my speed.

It all started when my wife suggested we check out a local production of Hamlet. As a former English professor, I’ve been a bit jaded about productions of Shakespeare plays. There are lots of bad ones. And lots of bad Shakespeare movies, too. But this production turned out to be great.

And then I realized that I’ve been a bit afraid of Shakespeare. In all of my years of high school, college, and graduate school, I had read what was required of me, but I’d never really studied Shakespeare deeply. I’d read maybe 10 of the plays and a handful of sonnets. Really? And I was supposed to be an English professor?

I guess I felt Shakespeare was for the Shakespeare pros. I studied 19th century American literature. The Shakespeareans all seemed to have memorized every line of every play and to have mastered Latin and Greek and classics, too.

But this production we saw (by the Seattle Shakespeare Company) woke me up to how pleasureable Shakespeare could be. I could just sit down and read the plays, couldn’t I? I didn’t have to do anything special. Just read.

So I made a bargain with myself. I bought a nice edition (the hardcover Pelican edition — separate hardcover volumes for each plan) and some biographies. And I decided to read them all: all the plays, all the poems, and 2-3 of the biographies in one year. This wasn’t going to be another academic exercise. There was a reason I had walked away from academia (something I will write about later, I’m sure). Now, I would just enjoy the works as they came and write about the experience. And then I would see where he took me.

I’m not making concrete plans, beyond the reading and this blog. I’m going to let my Shakespeare year evolves. In a year, maybe, we’ll be planning a trip to Stratford. Or maybe we’ll go to Ashland in the summer of 2011. I’m just going to stay with it. Read the complete works and the poems. Write this blog. And see what happens to me.

Now, I’m starting with Peter Ackroyd’s Shakespeare biography. It seemed like a good idea to learn more about this man — take a way a bit of the intimidation factor if I know the dirt on him. So I’ll be posting about this biography first.