[Shaun J. Russell]

Originally Posted by Curtis Gale Weeks

But I'm glad I did wait, for both. I've been working from a hypothesis, ever since, that both should be avoided until around the age of 35. This is only because I know that, for myself, knowing myself, way too much would have been misread or overlooked by me if I'd attempted either while in my 20s or younger.

Curtis, this comment really resonates with me. I'd read about half of Shakespeare's plays by the time I was 20 or so, and enjoyed them. Then this past year I was in a course on Shakespeare's tragedies, which required two close readings of each play. It's amazing how much deeper my understanding and appreciation of literally ALL of those plays is now that I'm 34. It also knocked Hamlet off of being my "favorite" Shakespeare play, with Coriolanus supplanting it (a play that many of my considerably younger classmates notably hated).