Monday, April 06, 2009

FREE Books! Sourcebooks Shakespeare Giveaway

I love it when I get to give away books!  This time my new friends at Sourcebooks Shakespeare (read my review here) have offered to give one of their books – your choice! – away to  *2*  ShakespeareGeek readers.  Their list of titles includes:  A Midsummer Night’s Dream, Othello, Hamlet, Romeo and Juliet, Much Ado About Nothing, The Tempest, Richard III, and Macbeth.  (Disclaimer : I am taking that list from Amazon, I do not know for certain that all of their titles are currently in print, perhaps Marie or someone else from Sourcebooks can chime in with additional info.  I reserve the right to update this post, including contest rules, in case I’ve said something that is not in line with my benefactor’s original expectations).

If you don’t feel like clicking over to my review, let me sum it up for you.  These books, while still containing a very well edited and formatted copy of the play, focus heavily on the play’s performance.  Over half the book is dedicated to images from the movies (as well as stage performances), detailed descriptions of various key scene interpretations, editor’s notes about what’s going on at that moment and why, plus the traditional glossary of terms (conveniently placed on each page right where you need it, and not in the back where you have to keep flipping for it).  That’s not even getting to the audio CD that accompanies each book.   First you read a scene from Hamlet, and then maybe you hear how Sir Derek Jacobi reads it? Hmm?  How’s that sound?  Sounds *awesome*, that’s how it sounds.

Since I met Marie on Twitter, we thought it would be fun to hold the giveaway that way as well.  And since a certain well-known playwright’s birthday is coming up later this month, we might as well make that the big giveaway day.

CONTEST RULES

1) Follow @ShakespeareGeek on Twitter.  I’ll need to be able to message you in case you win.  In case it wasn’t obvious, you have to be willing to provide a mailing address so we can actually send the book. 

2) As the saying goes, “retweet” this specific link, swapping in the name of the book you’d prefer if you win.  You don’t have to call it “my favorite play” or anything, I just need to keep track of who is voting for which books.  Please do not just RT the main blog post, my filters may not pick it up if you do that.

3) That’s it!  I’ll keep track of contest entries and then choose 2 randomly from those received by midnight (EST), April 22.  That meaning the midnight at the close of 4/22, before 4/23, lest there be any confusion.

4) Winners will be notified by Twitter direct message (DM) so please make sure you keep that channel open and check it regularly, at least until contest winners are announced on the blog.

PLEASE DO NOT FORGET STEP TWO!  It helps me separate folks who want to participate in the contest from those who are just becoming new followers.  If I add every new follower into the contest it drastically lowers your chances of winning.

2 comments:

wendy wallach said...

I am following on twitter as @madamerkf

Lee Pearson said...

Eeeeeeep! Free Shakespeare would be <3