The Laird Seconds Dr. X's Recommendation of: Will and the World

Mad, mad props to Dr. X for recommending and lending me Will and the World. I cannot recommend this book highly enough. After I finish (only half-way through, now) I'm going straight to my Riverside for and read it again for the first time.

Just in case you were wondering: this is not just a book for Shakespear-o-philes (many of whom, at least from the reader reviews on Amazon, seem to hate it because it's not fawning enough). Even if it weren't about Shakespeare, I would read it simply as fascinating study of the social history of the period. (Which I have, by the way, become obsessed with over the last couple of months.)