Thinking ahead

The new semester starts much sooner than I'd like to contemplate (Jan. 10!).  I am teaching familiar courses, so I don't feel much pressure - yet - to finalize my syllabi.  I do wish the new edition of my American Lit texts would arrive . . . I'm going to have to make a few changes to the reading list.

Mostly, I am thinking ahead to Fall 2011, when I've agreed to teach a night Shakespeare course.  Shakespeare!  I've only ever taken a course in college, although I have some vague memory of grad school Shakespeare . . . perhaps just the sonnets.

My pal Ray just sent his annual invitation to a Shakespeare play - the Guthrie has The Winter's Tale this year.  (If you click on the play-title link, you'll go to SparkNotes, which I am going to use as a main text for my course next fall - why not use the resources that my students would turn to, anyway?  And SparkNotes has "No Fear Shakespeare," which has side-by-side translation into "modern" English.  Yay.)