Yay, Iowa? Wait, Never Mind

:(

I see an article entitled “Five People Suggest Five Books” in my Shakespeare feeds and I think, “Oh cool, they walked up to people on the street, asked what they’re reading, and at least somebody mentioned Shakespeare.”  I like stuff like that.  Ever better is that it’s not from New York or Cambridge or something, it’s from Des Moines.   I’m perfectly happy with the idea that you can wander down Main Street in some Iowa city, ask somebody what books they’ve read lately, and have them bust out a Shakespeare reference.

Sure enough the first guy has Harold Bloom on his list.  Impressive, although I think I was hoping for something a little bit more accessible.

But then … I read the bios.  Their “five people who live in the Des Moines metro” are: the marketing manager for the public library, a book store owner, the librarian, a college professor, and .. the dude who recommended Shakespeare?  Yeah, he’s the frickin director of the Iowa Shakespeare Experience.

I swear, I cannot fathom how this article came to be written without somebody saying, “Well you know, random people on the street don’t really know about books, so no problem, we’ll just go and get people who work with books for a living.” 

Yeah, that’s so very useful.  Thanks for that.