Surprisingly, determining precisely what to read among Shakespeare’s works is not a simple matter. Among the experts, he’s claimed to have written 37 or 39 plays. And when you add in the plays that were believe collaborations or that are caught up in authorship controversies of one sort or another, the numbers go even higher.

For my reading project, I’ve gone with Marjorie Garber’s list of 39 plays, and I’m following her reading order. This makes it convenient to read along, chapter by chapter, in her useful book, Shakespeare After All (2004). And she puts the Henry plays in order, which I like.

Garber favors the Norton edition of Shakespeare (the one based on the Oxford edition and edited by Stephen Greenblatt; as an aside, I’m eager to read his Will in the World (2004) this year, too). I’ve got the Oxford edition and will be using that. I also have a lovely set of the Pelican Shakespeare. Each play is individually hard bound, and they are just a pleasure to read; holding them in my hand, they feel like a book should feel. So I’ll be using those editions, too, when the conflict between quarto and folio isn’t a big issue (I’m realizing I should research and write another whole post on editions and publishing history now!).

I certainly expect it to change, but here, below, is my reading list mapped month to month. I’ve picked months where I know I have time off work to assign myself five plays. On months (like right now) when I’m busier at work, I’ve dropped to three plays.

You’ll notice at the end that I’ve left August to read the poetry. I imagine myself riding down to Ashland next summer while breezing through the Sonnets again. I hope to be there.

If all goes well, I’ll add some of the other, pseudo-Shakespeare in the mix.

THE PLAYS

September 2013

• Two Gentlemen of Verona (1589-1591)
• The Taming of the Shrew (1590-1594)
• Titus Andronicus (1591–1592)

October 2013
• Henry VI, Part 1 (1591)
• Henry VI, Part 2 (1590–1591)
• Henry VI, Part 3 (1591)

November 2013
• Richard III (1592)
• The Comedy of Errors (1594)
• Love’s Labour’s Lost (1594–1595)
• Romeo and Juliet (1595)

December 2013
• A Midsummer Night’s Dream (1595)
• Richard II (1595)
• King John (1596)
• The Merchant of Venice (1596)
• Henry IV, Part 1 (1596–1597)
• Henry IV, Part 2 (1596–1597)

January 2014
• The Merry Wives of Windsor (1597–1598)
• Much Ado About Nothing (1598–1599)
• Henry V (1598–1599)

February 2014
• Julius Caesar(1599)
• As You Like It (1599–1600)
• Hamlet (1599–1601)

March 2014
• Twelfth Night (1601)
• Troilus and Cressida (1602)
• Measure for Measure (1603–1604)

April 2014
• Othello (1603–1604)
• All’s Well That Ends Well (1606–1607)
• Timon of Athens (1605–1606)

May 2014
• King Lear (1605–1606)
• Macbeth (1606)
• Antony and Cleopatra (1606)
• Pericles (1607)

June 2014
• Coriolanus (1608)
• The Winter’s Tale (1609–1610)
• Cymbeline (1610–1611)
• The Tempest (1610–1611)

July 2014
• Cardenio (1612–1613)
• Henry VIII, or All is True (1613)
• The Two Noble Kinsmen (1613)

THE POEMS

August 2014

• Venus and Adonis
• The Rape of Lucrece
• A Lover’s Complaint
• The Phoenix and the Turtle
• The Sonnets (154)