Shakespeare: The World as Stage by Bill Bryson

Or "Kickin' Off the New Year in True Nerd Glory."

Pat read this book. I was intrigued, and have intended to read it ever since. Well, ladies and gentlemen, this is the week that those intentions came true.

What a sweet after-dinner mint of factoids this little wisp of a book turned out to be! It's satisfactorily substantial without being dry, and leaps subjects, ideas, and times with the ease that Sarah Vowell wishes she could muster. And, best of all, it avoids any bullshit conjecture about Shakespeare's life and who he was and what he thought. Bryson is clear from start to end that, for all intents and purposes, we don't know a damn thing about Shakespeare.

Shakespeare: The World as Stage doses out some Elizabethan/Jacobean history, some literary scholarship, some peeks into the culture of 16th century England, some good ol' fashioned religion, and (my nerdfavorite of all) a thorough investigation the last four hundred years of Shakespeare scholarship. Which you'll dig, if you're into that sort of thing. I'm into it. I dug it. It's a lot of information, delightfully packaged, and breezy to read. My kind of history, indeed.