Happy Wednesday, Geekly Gang! Kyra Kyle here. Today, our writers share what they’ve been reading over the past month. Feel free to share what you’ve been reading this past month, because we’re all a part of the Geekly Gang. I’ll start things off with what I’ve been reading this past month.
Kyra’s Fiction
The Comedy of Errors was a welcome change after Titus Andronicus. Slapstick comedy, mistaken identity, The Comedy of Errors has it all. This is another one of Shakespeare’s earliest plays, and while the puns don’t always land (you’ve gotta love how language can change over almost half a millennium), the situational comedy of two sets of twin brothers habitually getting confused for one another bridges most eras.
It also helps that The Comedy of Errors is one of Shakespeare’s shortest plays. It didn’t take long to finish; I half wondered if my anthology (which is over a decade old at this point) might have missed or omitted a portion of the play. Nope. The Comedy of Errors was that short of a read. If you’d rather begin with a light-hearted tale of Shakespeare’s, you can’t go wrong with The Comedy of Errors.
I also restarted Brandon Sanderson’s The Way of Kings in audiobook format. I’ll mention it here and again in my next segment, but audiobooks totally count as reading a book. The only issue I’ve found is stopping an audiobook and then returning to it can be difficult. More difficult than physically reading the book. That’s why this past month wasn’t the first time I began reading The Way of Kings. But that may be my problem and not everyone’s issue.
The narration of The Way of Kings switches between Kate Reading and Michael Kramer. Both narrators are a joy to listen to and bring extra pizazz to the text. Kramer is a long-time narrator for Brandon Sanderson’s books. He also narrated the Mistborn series. And I like how Reading and Kramer narrated different characters in the novel. Excellent. This eased my getting into the characters’ heads. I don’t know which one of the two stories I enjoy more. Sanderson does a good job of making both protagonists’ storylines unique and a page-turner.
I like listening to audiobooks as I walk, and I’ve gotten in a lot of walking. Thank you, Brandon Sanderson.
Kyra’s Poetry
I’m sticking with Shakespeare this month and going with an unconventional way of consuming The Bard. During the pandemic (2020), Patrick Stewart self-taped himself reading each one of Shakespeare’s sonnets. Here’s a link to Shakespeare Network’s playlist. I’ve heard Stewart has teamed up with a company to rerecord these with higher-quality audio, but I like Stewart’s original recordings. These recordings show Stewart in various rooms of his home and in his favorite reading spots. Simply magical.
Stewart’s performance elevates the sonnets. I love reading along with him, and typically, he gives some mild commentary with each poem. He even shares which sonnets are his favorites. Want to know? You’ll have to watch or listen. P.S. I count audiobooks as books I’ve read. People have shared stories long before they began writing them down. And listening to someone knowledgeable–and I would consider the Shakespearean-trained Sir Patrick Stewart knowledgeable of Shakespeare’s work–informs the listener of how the writer may have intended the written word to be perceived.
I could listen to Patrick Stewart for hours, and with this YouTube playlist, I can listen to Patrick Stewart for hours. Yay!
Kyra’s Nonfiction
I’ve been reading The Element Encyclopedia of Magical Creatures and figured I’d read its companion piece, The Element Encyclopedia of Fairies. I always thought of fairies as predominantly a European invention, and they are for the most part. But this encyclopedia shares fantastic creatures from around the world. Creatures from East Asia tend to be my favorites. Which ones are yours? Let us know in the comments.
That’s all I have for this month. Our other writers don’t have entries for this month. Hopefully, we’ll hear from them soon. Thank you for reading, and wherever you are, I hope you’re having a great day.
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