We’ve all heard about or seen creative takes on classic Shakespearean plays (e.g. A Midsummer Night’s Dream set in the Roaring 20s), but these videos take that creative impulse one step further. This is Shakespeare like you’ve never seen it. Anakin Caesar: The climactic scene of the play Julius Caesar gains new inspiration when Star […]

A few weeks ago the online version of The Times ran an article describing a publishing company’s plans to release new editions of classic works of literature, minus a few hundred pages of prose. According to the Orion Group, publishers of the new Compact Editions series, classics such as Anna Karenina, David Copperfield, and Moby […]

A group of nonprofit organizations called 826 National, which currently has six chapters around the country, teaches writing skills to children. As a way of raising money to support their work, each chapter runs a specially themed storefront operation selling supplies for everyone from superheroes to pirates. (Read more about 826 National at Interesting Thing […]

As previously mentioned, Firefly is without any doubt the best thing ever to have been broadcast on TV. This outer-space western followed the exploits of Captain Mal Reynolds and the crew of the Firefly-class spaceship Serenity, and has attracted a rabid base of fans (or “Browncoats,” as we like to be called) far out of […]

The Welsh town of Hay-on-Wye (or Y Gelli in Welsh) was the starting point for the international “book towns” movement, now made up of about 20 towns around the world. Boasting 41 bookstores for only 1500 inhabitants (that’s about one bookstore for every 37 residents), Hay-on-Wye also plays host to the annual Hay Festival, a […]

Although the name William is very common, there does seem to be a preponderance of poets with that name, including many from my list of favorites. Did the parents of Blake, Wordsworth, and Yeats hope that their sons would grow up to be great poets in the same mold as their famous predecessor, William Shakespeare? […]

This is the fourth entry in our series of IKEA lists. I have great affection for the wonderful epithets Shakespeare coined for his plays; his linguistic dexterity and wit seem to shine most brightly when he is putting these put-downs in the mouths of his characters. There are too many to list from his plays […]

Fans of Inside the Actor’s Studio are familiar with James Lipton’s list of questions, which he poses to each of his guests at the end of an interview. Lipton always gives credit for this list to French talk show host Bernard Pivot, who hosted Apostrophes from 1975–1990 and Bouillon de Culture from 1990–2001; he often […]

In academic circles, the question of Shakespeare’s “real” identity has long been debated. Some scholars believe, for various reasons, that the historical person known as William Shakespeare was not the actual author of the works he is known for today. Entire books have been dedicated to the subject, on both sides of the issue. I […]

The following books with subject matter relating to the Holy Grail, Leonardo Da Vinci and/or the Templars all appeared on the April 9, 2006 New York Times Hardcover Fiction and Paperback Nonfiction Bestseller Lists: The Da Vinci Code by Dan Brown (Holy Grail, Da Vinci, Templars) (hardcover | paperback) The Templar Legacy by Steve Berry […]