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[lillottezobel]

I read Romeo & Juliet, at age thirteen, in under thirty minutes. I love Shakespeare, I'll admit it. I see how it's been immortlized in the past 500 years: thick plots, Shakespeare's reputation as a playrite, and intense emotion help bring it into play. *If you read Shakespeare for a while, you don't have to look at footnotes all the time, which make up about half of the books*

[Beewulf]

I read Romeo & Juliet, at age thirteen, in under thirty minutes. I love Shakespeare, I'll admit it. I see how it's been immortlized in the past 500 years: thick plots, Shakespeare's reputation as a playrite, and intense emotion help bring it into play. *If you read Shakespeare for a while, you don't have to look at footnotes all the time, which make up about half of the books*

Although I'm not sure, I believe your point is not necessarily to trumpet your skill as a speed-reading but to suggest that Shakespeare is not as difficult to read as some people fear. That being said, reading Romeo and Juliet in thirty minutes is akin to moving through an art gallery at breakneck speed or watching a film on fast forward. Next time, try taking 30 minutes to read one scene, or even one speech. What you discover may astonish you.

[kelby_lake]

I read Romeo & Juliet, at age thirteen, in under thirty minutes. I love Shakespeare, I'll admit it. I see how it's been immortlized in the past 500 years: thick plots, Shakespeare's reputation as a playrite, and intense emotion help bring it into play. *If you read Shakespeare for a while, you don't have to look at footnotes all the time, which make up about half of the books*

I doubt you read it very fully. As it takes 4 or more times that to perform the play, I can't imagine you got much out of your reading.

I agree about the footnotes (although they never seem to have the terminology you want- one actually explained what 'I have done your mother' meant). The plays vary in complexity- Romeo and Juliet is probably the easiest to understand, linguistically and plot-wise but then you get ones like Timon of Athens, which nobody reads.

[Lokasenna]

Romeo and Juliet has, in its quarto version, 3,003 lines. That means you were reading around 100 lines a minute, or 865 words a minute if you prefer. Now, I'm a fast reader but that leaves me in the dust...

The others are right... Shakespeare should be savoured; I'll quite often take a Shakespeare play to bed with me, and spend anything from 2 to 4 hours enjoying it. Try reading aloud, or going back over favourite passages when you feel like it - I'm sure you'll find Shakespeare even more pleasurable that way!