I fully recommend Bill Bryson’s “Shakespeare: The World as Stage”. I don’t have a lot of interest in Shakespeare but I love Bryson and gave this book a chance. Like most of his books it is super fascinating and entertaining. We know so little about Shakespeare including the fact we don’t actually know what he looked like.
> don’t actually know what he looked like
His effigy was carved by a sculptor who lived around the corner from the Globe theater, so he probably got the likeness right. <https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Gheerart_Janssen_(sculptor)#Ni...>
That was great.
Absolute favourite of his is “one summer” about America in the 1920s. It’s a masterpiece.
And “A short history of nearly everything” should be considered required reading for anyone who is interested in anything.
Thanks for the reminder of “one summer”. I haven’t read that yet.
One summer is amazing. Who knew so many monumental things happened that year?