Hi guys, I'm Olivia from Olivia's Catastrophe and I'm here to announce the All the
World's a Page readathon. So I am a
co-host for this read-a-thon along with
Cara from Wilde Book Garden and Julia from
Shakespeare and Such. We are all huge
Shakespeare fans and if you've been on
this channel a while you know I am a
Shakespeare fan. And we're here to make a
read-a-thon based on the wonderful
Shakespeare. So it's not just gonna be
reading Shakespeare's plays. There's a
bit more to it than that and there are
three different rounds that you can do.
We've got a round for beginners, we've
got around for people who feel
comfortable with Shakespeare and then
we've got around for the die-hard fans
like us, essentially. And you can mix and
pick between these prompts. You could do
as little or as much as you like. It's
gonna be running from the 1st of July to
the 31st of July, so you've got a whole
month do these prompts. And we've also
got some bonus rounds. So I'm going to read
you all of the prompts here right now
and then I'll tell you my TBR. So first
of all we're gonna go with the beginner
around. So the first prompt for the
beginner round is to start a
Shakespeare play. You don't even have to
finish it. You can take your time if
you're out struggling with the language,
if you're struggling to understand and
you can just go as easy as you like. If
you're really struggling with the
Shakespeare play I recommend watching an
adaption at the same time and trying to
follow along in the book. It's kind of
like an audiobook that way and you get a
bit of a visual which can really help
you with understanding Shakespeare.
Second thing to do is to watch a
Shakespeare adaption. There are a lot of
cool film adaptions and we've also got a
Google doc with loads of adaption
recommendations. And then last but not
least your third prompt is to read any
Shakespeare retelling. And again in that
google doc we are gonna have a list of
man,  many Shakespeare retellings. We put
middle grade, we've got young adult, we've
got speculative, we've got literary, got
historical... We've got different authors,
different types and as many play
retellings as we can. And now moving on
to the three prompts for the
intermediate level. The first one is to
read a play, sonnet or narrative poem
that is unique to you, by Shakespeare. So
any Shakespeare play you haven't read
already. The next prompt is to reread
a Shakespeare play that is a favourite of
yours. And the third one is to read a
book that features Shakespeare as a
character or a book set during
Shakespeare's lifetime. And then we've
got the advanced category which is the
one I will be doing. The first prompt is
to read a Shakespeare play from one of
the genres you don't usually read.
Shakespeare's plays are often split into
three genre, you've got his history plays,
you've got his tragedies and his
comedies. Sometimes they're split
slightly differently but just to read
one from a grouping that you don't
usually read. Then your second one is to
read a historical or period-appropriate
Shakespeare retelling. And your third
prompt is to read a speculative fiction
retelling. So this can be fantasy, magical
realism or something like that. And we'll
have some ideas for you in the Google
Doc. And then we've also got our three
bonus challenges. You don't have to do
these, they're just for fun if you want
to take on some more. So the first one is
to read retellings of three different
plays, or to read in three different
genres. Then the fifth one is to read a
non-fiction or a critical analysis of
Shakespeare, Shakespeare's works or
something Shakespeare based. And the last
one is read something that can be
considered source material for
Shakespeare's plays. Shakespeare was very
inspired by different writers and
different classics so you can choose one
that has inspired him. Okay, so now I'm
gonna move on to my TBR for this
read-a-thon. And it was a bit challenging
for me because I tend to get something
Shakespeare related and read it straight
away. So most of my Shakespeare
retellings I've already read and I am
still on my buying ban, so I can't pull
in anything that's new Shakespeare. So I
just had to go with what I've got and do
my very best.
My aim for this read-a-thon is to read
four Shakespeare plays. I would like to
read four in total and I would also like
to watch four adaptions. And I feel like
that's gonna be the main challenge for
me because I'm not really good with
watching films. I get bored really
quickly or I just get distracted and I'm
just terrible at focusing on films. And,
you know, dedicating to two hours or
three hours of watch time. So I will just
challenge myself. Those are personal
challenges unrelated to the read-a-thon
for plays and for adaptions. Then moving
on to the prompts I'm doing the advanced
tier. The first one is
we play outside of your usual
Shakespeare genre and for that I'm
gonna be reading one of his history
plays. I'll just choose it when I get
around to it. I usually just open the
collection see what I haven't read
before and then choose one. And there'll
be plenty of history ones I haven't read
for me to choose from. Then to read a historical or period
appropriate retelling. I'm gonna be
reading Speak Easy Speak Love. I've had
this one on my Kindle for a while and I
think it's because it's on my Kindle and
eBook format is not my favourite format,
is the fact why this is one retelling I
haven't got to yet.
I know it's set in the 1920s so I'm
taking as a historical retelling of one
of his plays. And I believe it's of Much
Ado About Nothing which I recently read
and really enjoyed. And then lastly it is
to read a speculative retelling and for
this one I'm gonna reread Noughts and
Crosses. I didn't want to reread Noughts and Crosses too soon because I am doing
read it backwards. But by the time I get
through my read it backwards TBR and get
down to Noughts and Crosses
it'll have been probably more than a
year. So I don't mind rereading it now. This one is debatable. Malorie Blackman says
it is not a Romeo and Juliet retelling
but people who read it can definitely
see the Romeo and Juliet retelling vibe. So I'm just gonna go for it is a Romeo
and Juliet retelling for this readathon. And it's speculative because although it
is set in the contemporary world it's a
science fiction kind of contemporary
world, because the roles of oppression
have been switched. And the last but not
least, it's something that inspired Shakespeare and I'm gonna read Metamorphoses
by Ovid. This book. I have heard so much
about it because it has inspired
Shakespeare on so many occasions and
it's also inspired quite a few other
writers from his time period. And
I did a whole degree--not a whole degree.
I did not do a whole degree on Shakespeare. I
wish I did. -- A whole module on Shakespeare.
So I did one year of just studying
Shakespeare and the amount of times
Metamorphoses came up was mad. So I just
need to read it myself
so that I can stop just hearing about it
and not knowing. I need to know. So that's
my TBR for this read-a-thon and what I'm
planning to do. I'm also planning to have
some fun videos up. I'm hoping to do a
video on how I read Shakespeare which
was one that was actually asked for quite a while ago.
So I'll explain how I read Shakespeare
and how I process it and understand it.
And I will also be having a reading vlog
where I try and read all my books for
this read-a-thon within one week. As well
as watch the adaptions within one week.
We'll see how that goes. Please let me
know in the comment section down below
are you planning to join in with All the
World's a Page read-a-thon. And if not do
you like Shakespeare? Do you have a
favourite Shakespeare play? Do you know
who he is? Give this video a thumbs up if
you enjoyed it, hit the subscribe button
if you want to see more and don't you forget
to hit the notification bell to be updated
every time I have a new video. And you
know what they say: onwards and upwards.
Excelsior.
