Saturday, January 21, 2012

Understanding The Bard

Photo courtesy of goXunuReviews | CC licensed at Flickr

I read The Tempest entirely on my Kindle. I found I was still able to understand much of the play this way, because I could use the scroll to get to words and have them defined. Occasionally, there was not a definition for a word I wanted defined but I did my best with contextual clues.

However, when tackling a text like Henry V, I felt I needed a little more help. I am sort of an annotation addict so I grabbed a paper copy of Henry V by the Folgers Shakespeare library and read the entire play via that text. It was super helpful! I felt like I got a much better understanding of the play this way.

This, I feel, is one of the limitations of ebooks - annotations - at least in my experience. I've read a few texts with awesome linked annotations but these were on my laptop, and not in the lovely, easy-to-hold (even while nursing) format that Kindle allows. I'm sure in the future we'll overcome some of these setbacks, but for the next play, I think I'll use my Kindle and an annotated hard copy for reference when the reading gets tough. I just can't let my paper go. :)

3 comments:

  1. I was thinking the same thing --i dont have a kindle but was thinking about this when i was looking into buying one. But I think you can buy Kindle editions with annotations. I dont know how good they are but that would be something interesting to see

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  2. I hate my Kindle. I love my Kindle. I feel like every time I read from it I need to go pick a daisy and pluck its petals to see if I love it or I hate it.

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  3. Thanks for turning me on to the idea of Folgers Shakespeare. I picked it up for The Taming of the Shrew and I really like the structure because it doesn't overload you with information--just the essentials. :)

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