Wednesday, June 30, 2010

Reading the Bard

I have a lot of "eventually" goals. Eventually, I'd like my scrapbook photo albums to be current. Eventually, I'd like to go to England. Eventually, I'd like to read all of Shakespeare's plays.

The problem with "eventually" goals is that they must be turned into manageable pieces to actually become reality. My scrapbook albums are being completed a page at at time. If I can do a page a week, I'll be caught up by the time I'm, oh, 45 or so.


England just has to sit on the back-burner until after I finish graduate school. And after I find a job.

But I could be working on the Shakespeare goal more effectively right now. I'd love to read the plays that I haven't read. I'd like to re-read the plays that I frantically raced through during high-school and college English classes.


So here's the plan for turning "eventually" into reality. There are 37 Shakespeare plays. Every play is 5 acts long. The acts are fairly manageable pieces. My plan is to read 2 acts a week, and to complete a play every 2 and 1/2 weeks.

I'll chronicle the journey here to motivate myself to keep reading. Join me! Maybe I'll only make it partway to my "eventually" goal, reading one or two plays that I've never read. But maybe....just maybe...I can make it all the way.

Friday's goal: Act I of "All's Well that Ends Well."

What are some of your "eventually" goals? How do you plan to turn them into reality?

5 comments:

Sarah said...

Adams? I couldn't find a picture but I'm pretty sure I remember you! :-) Nice blog! Hope things are going well for you!

Anonymous said...

I have my summer reading list, so I believe that ''eventually'' I will make it by the end of August ;-)
good luck with Shakespeare, I read few plays and when I was reading A Midsummer Night's Dream, I laughed so much that I cried!!it was just fabulous!

Pauline Wiles said...

Yup, they do say that breaking goals down into smaller chunks is the only way to contemplate them.
Eventually, I'd like to go to New Zealand. That won't be happening any time soon. But I'm happily on track to read all Jane Austen's novels... not too hard, mind you, as there are only 6 of them.

Sarah said...

Eventually, I would love to go to Sydney, Australia. Unfortunately, I am going to have to wait a few years. I would love it if I made this goal by the time I am thirty.

Monica Jacobson said...

Er.... my eventually goal is to clean the bathroom and iron a few of Marty's shirts. ;-) Literally.

Actually, I just saw these posts. So, I'll enjoy them at my leisure, and maybe you'll even inspire me to pick up Shakespeare again. I've been meaning to for a while, actually....