Nicolas Bentley's Tales from Shakespeare

If you are at all familiar with Shakespeare's plays, you MUST get this book. Even if you don't particularly care for his work. If you are a teenager being forced to read his work in school, you also should read this--it will not only help you understand the stuff, it will make you laugh your head off. This is one of the most hilarious books I have ever read--and I'm used to reading the likes of everyone from Tom Robbins and Douglas Adams to Al Franken and Dennis Miller. As a kid, I found a copy of it in my hometown library and over the years would check it out over and over again...while employed at a bookstore I learned that the book was out of print and realized with horror that if anything happened to the one copy at my local branch, I could forget ever reading it again. So the book was copied (not by me, but I have access to it), because I couldn't stand the thought of it being lost. This is not to advocate piracy; this is to advocate the preservation of great works (humour or otherwise). This book is essentially a summary of most of Shakespeare's most well-known plays (Romeo & Juliet, Hamlet, Taming of the Shrew, Macbeth), as well as some of the not-so-well known ones (All's Well That Ends Well, As You Like It, Measure For Measure). Sadly, not all are summarized, but I so wish that was the case. The writer was an English scholar who explained the plays in a dry, sarcastic, and thoroughly modern manner. If you want a good laugh, I strongly recommend you find this book by any means necessary.