I saw this chart in a few places today and just had to blog about it. As Improbable Research explains, this was put together as research for a new play, The Complete Deaths, produced by Spymonkey, in which all 74 deaths in Shakespeare are re-enacted. I’m envisioning something like the Reduced Shakespeare Company, who are always hilarious, so I’m pretty sure I want to see this play. But I’m also thoroughly enjoying the above chart and trying to remember which plays which deaths belong to! Who doesn’t love the stage direction “Exit, pursued by a bear” from The Winter’s Tale?

In other fun stuff I’ve spotted today, Chris Brookmyre has written a Christmas-flavoured short-story prequel to his next Jack Parlabane novel called The Last Day of Christmas. I really like Brookmyre, especially his Jack Parlabane series, which exactly hits my black comedy funny bone.

The newest branch of Waterstones, in central London, has significantly one-upped the bookshop cafe. It has a bar and a pop-up cinema! No news yet what films they’re planning to show. Will they all be bookish?

In the future they could show the new film of Mervyn Peake’s Gormenghast, being adapted by none other than Neil Gaiman. Gaiman has a rich history of writing for the screen, from Neverwhere to Doctor Who. But if you prefer your Gaiman on the page, then you may prefer to learn that Dark Horse is publishing comic books of two of his short stories, with art by Gabriel Bá and Fábio Moon, and Colleen Doran.

What bookish fun/news have you spotted lately?