EVERYONE Has Read This but Me - The Catch-Up Book Club discussion

The Classics selection for May 2026 is Hamlet by William Shakespeare, nominated by Cynthia.

This discussion will be full of SPOILERS.

❧ Did you enjoy the play?
❧ Did it live up to your expectations?
❧ Hamlet is famous for his indecision—did you find yourself empathizing with him, or frustrated by this?
❧ We’re all familiar with at least a few lines from this play, but were you struck by any lines or scenes that you hadn’t known?
❧ What questions were you left with?

Here is my review: https://www.goodreads.com/review/show...

I enjoyed the play, but I enjoy the many movie versions I’ve seen even better, too. I am shocked at how accessible for modern understandings and applicable to modern dilemmas and dramas Shakespeare’s 17th-century stories are, despite the archaic language which admittably is better with a glossary or Google search.

The first time I read the play decades ago, I was surprised there was a ghost spurring Hamlet on. In my youth, I had always heard how Shakespeare was so high brow, and a ghost did not compute with high brow literature for me at the time. Actually, in this reading, I felt a little sad the ghost did not make an appearance in the final act, you know, like Star Wars.

😆

I’ve found that his play to be desiring of study, rather than a leisurely read.

The story does a great job of handling its plot in ways that don’t negate the spirit of the characters (for example, Hamlet testing the ghost’s claim instead of blindly going after his uncle). It is also a great example of how to handle realism and exaggeration in dialogue in order to best support the story being told.

However, due to the age of this play, a lot of the terms used have long since fallen into obscurity. Because of this, there is a barrier that makes it harder to fully understand than more modern books (19th century +). And had I not already studied the play in high school English, I wouldn’t have been able to navigate the work nearly as easily as I have.

TLDR: I found Hamlet to be a book for writers to learn from more than a book for readers.