For the longest time, one of the goals on my “life list” has been to read all of William Shakespeare’s works. And this year, with it being the 400th anniversary of the Bard’s death, I figured it is as appropriate a time as ever to really hone in on this goal.

Here’s my progress so far.

Before I ever really even made it a goal of mine to read through all of Shakespeare’s works, I’d already read a few of them in high school. (Thanks, City Honors!)

Those titles included: Hamlet, Othello, Twelfth Night and The Merchant of Venice.

But honestly – those titles are only a very small portion of Shakespeare’s works, and I still had a looooooong way to go. So I began, slowly, one by one, and I’m working my way through.

Over the course of the past year or so, I’ve managed to devour eight additional works by Shakespeare, from Romeo and Juliet – which, shockingly enough, I’d somehow never read before – to The Comedy of Errors.

Other titles I’ve read recently: Measure for Measure, As You Like It, Much Ado About Nothing, A Midsummer Night’s Dream, Antony and Cleopatra, and Macbeth.

At the present time, I’m working my way through King Lear, then hoping to pick up The Taming of the Shrew and The Winter’s Tale.

The two latter titles are going to be the featured productions for this summer’s “Shakespeare in Delaware Park” series, a fantastic outdoor production here in Buffalo, just a stone’s throw from my apartment. I’m hoping I can get through those two works before going off to see the productions, which begin in June and run through August. My workplace also has a fantastic exhibit featuring some of Shakespeare’s original first folios which ties into this nicely!

Following that, I’ll continue to make my way through the rest of his works en route to eventually, someday, working through them all! (I will say: one thing I’m incredibly proud to have in my book collection is a beautiful version of his collected works, which I picked up at a library book sale in Pittsburgh many years ago. It’s definitely coming in handy now!)