Book Riot's Read Harder Challenge discussion

For this challenge, I read Bengal Tiger at the Baghdad Zoo, which was very well-written and an interesting take on a still-fresh incident in global history.

Read The Importance of Being Earnest by Oscar Wilde. It was alright. I don't enjoy reading plays. Love watching plays but not reading them. I guess this prompt did it's job because I definitely would not of read a play without the prompt.

There are a number of fully produced audio"book" plays available - I listened to some from LATheaterWorks, I think. If reading a play isn't your thing...

Chrissy, Is there an app for LATheaterWorks or do you listen to them online?

I just finished The Mountaintop I found the LA Theatreworks version on Hoopla, which is free through my library.

Description: On April 4th, 1968, Martin Luther King Jr. was assassinated outside of his room at the Lorraine Motel in Memphis. What happened inside room 306 on the evening of April 3rd is the subject of Katori Hall’s The Mountaintop. Hours after King’s final speech, punctuated by his immortal line, “I’ve been to the mountaintop,” the celebrated Reverend forms an unlikely friendship with a motel maid as they talk into the early hours of what will be his final day.

Hidden Figures

loved both the book and the movie of this true story of the computers at NASA

Hidden Figures is not a play. It was a fun movie though.

Hidden Figures is not a play. It was a fun movie though.

I am reading Topdog/Underdog by Suzan-Lori Parks. It's a two- person play that won the Pulitzer Prize for Drama in 2002.

just finished The White Card - excellent recommendation. I am going to listen to a few podcasts for clarity before I share an opinion, I came away a little confused (the ending?).

Like lots of you, I read The Importance of Being Earnest by Oscar Wilde for this. I saw it performed years ago, and thought it was hilarious, and I always meant to actually read the thing but never got around to it. Now I have, and it was every bit as enjoyable as I remember!

Octavia wrote: "Like lots of you, I read The Importance of Being Earnest by Oscar Wilde for this. I saw it performed years ago, and thought it was hilarious, and I always meant to actually read the th..."
Awesome pick! I love the wit and humor in this play.

I read We're Gonna Die. I have to say, I really don't like reading plays. They're meant to be performed, and I just never really get much out of reading them. This applies a lot to this one, it was meant to have a bunch of music that the description indicated was included, but was not. (it was a hoopla rental, maybe the description was just transcribed from the physical copy). It was already very short, and a good chunk of it was just repeating the same lyrics over and over, with stage directions describing how the band should be dancing at the moment.

I read Salomé by Oscar Wilde because I started The importance of being earnest and I could not get through it. I felt like I missed a lot of context and did not get it. I've seen plays and musicals before but it's just not my tning. This is definitly the hardest task to complete with books from the library.

So I read Fences, and my treat to myself was to watch the movie afterwards - but I couldn’t get through the movie. I could handle visualizing what happened in my head, but hearing Trey yell at his son on the screen - I just got so angry I had to turn it off.

Pamela wrote: "Chrissy, Is there an app for LATheaterWorks or do you listen to them online?"

I’ve borrowed their recordings from the library via hoopla, and I think audible or library.fm might carry them.

I read a book with two plays, Straight White Men and Untitled Feminist Show, both by Young Jean Lee. I enjoyed both, although I did feel like Untitled Feminist Show didn't deliver as much on the page as it would to see it performed.

I read a lot of plays.

I direct, produce and act in plays with a rural community theater in Upstate New York. (I'm producing one this weekend "Alabama Story.") I see a lot of plays, too.

The most disappointing play has one thing going for it: a full-length three- act play is about 90 pages long give or take. It'll take an hour or so to read it. There's usually lots of margins and blank space. This doesn't apply to Tony Kushner and his two 4 hour plays Millennium Approaches and Perestroika. He writes a lot. A playwright who writes delightful, hilarious and very short plays is David Ives. Some of his play collections are All in the Timing: Fourteen Plays and Time Flies and Other Short Plays.

EDIT: David Ives is a white straight guy. Tony Kushner is a gay white man. The play listed here is an AIDS play.

Anne wrote: "So I read Fences, and my treat to myself was to watch the movie afterwards - but I couldn’t get through the movie. I could handle visualizing what happened in my head, but hearing Trey yell at his ..."

I'm reading Fences, too. I forgot about the movie.

I read 8 - not great, but short.

Chrissy wrote: "There are a number of fully produced audio"book" plays available - I listened to some from LATheaterWorks, I think. If reading a play isn't your thing..."

Thanks! I came here explicitly for this. I'm working on grad school, and have very little time to sit down and read any non-audio stuff that isn't academic.

I'm bummed because the play I wanted to read was supposed to be published this month, but it got delayed till next year: The Thanksgiving Play. Instead, I requested a book containing 4 plays for kids that includes one by the same playwright.

Chrissy wrote: "I'm bummed because the play I wanted to read was supposed to be published this month, but it got delayed till next year: The Thanksgiving Play. Instead, I requested a book containin..."

I just ordered The Thanksgiving Play, and it's due to arrive Oct. 29.

The Thanksgiving Play is being produced this weekend as a staged reading by a professional theater company. Williamstown Theater Festival? I'll get back to you on this.

Williamstown Theater Festival? I'll get back to you on this.

Lots of companies did The Thanksgiving Play last year and the year before. This year, not so much. In December, Williamstown is doing Audible versions of new plays, with professional actors, not that one, but maybe there will be another there you want to hear?.

I got and read from my library system last year Joseph Bruchac's Pushing up the Sky: Seven Native American Plays for Children. He's Native. This is for elementary age kids.

I read Topdog/Underdog

Do y'all think it's cheating to see a play? I went to Angels in America before the pandemic shut everything down. As other folks have commented, reading plays just seems wrong. I'm pretty sure no playwright meant for their play to be widely consumed as a book, you know?

Sidenote: Shakespeare is thought of by historians to be bisexual. So folks could pretty easily consume a play of his for this category.

I am pretty sure the point of the challenge is to see it in text version just like there was a prompt to listen to a book of poetry. The experiences are so different. I have seen all 3 of the Angels plays. (Millennium and Perestroika several times each) and later read them and really enjoyed the exercise. Of course its your challenge to define.

I read The Laramie Project for this, as was recommended by several people. I wasn't terribly excited about the prompt, but ended up really enjoying the read! I think the last time I read a play was in high school over 20 years ago...

Elise wrote: "Do y'all think it's cheating to see a play? I went to Angels in America before the pandemic shut everything down. As other folks have commented, reading plays just seems wrong. I'm pretty sure no p..."

Absolutely not! I went to see a play. I hate reading plays, and there was an applicable play (The Louder We Get) that was running in my town last Feb. I think the challenge has always allowed for audio books over print, and in my opinion people don't get out to see plays enough, myself included, so this was a great prompt. But during COVID I don't know that you'd find a play, unless someone is doing it as a livestream.

I think the intention of the prompt is to read a play, but I agree with you Heather:

people don't get out to see plays enough.

I read two plays I didn't care much for Topdog/Underdog by Suzan-Lori Parks and The Amen Corner by James Baldwin.

Many theater companies are doing plays on the internet, or showing plays they recorded long ago. During the summer, drive- in movie theaters were doing live theater and filmed presentations.

I read The Importance of Being Earnest.