Not my cup of tea.I didn't find it that funny but the concept of it is brilliant. It is just not for me!Although this book is humongous, I flew through it. I finished it in an hour.This is a "Hamlet" adaptation but a very different experience. Here, you can choose which character you want to be. It also has illustrations.If you are familiar with Hamlet, you will enjoy it.

1. Upon discovering this review, you are offered your first choice.Would you rather be reading this:Witness this army of such mass and chargeLed by a delicate and tender prince,Whose spirit with divine ambition puff’dMakes mouths at the invisible event,Exposing what is mortal and unsureTo all that fortune, death, and danger dare,Even for an egg-shell. Rightly to be greatIs not to stir without great argument,But greatly to find quarrel in a strawWhen honour’s at the stake. How stand I then,That h...

I finished the book!How do I know I finished it, you ask. After all, it's quite chaotic, there are so many choices to make and how can I remember all of them? Well, this is how I know! That's right. That's 11 pages of notes and diagrams. Front AND back! After a certain point it almost felt like homework.Anyway, this was amazing, to say the least. It was the funniest thing I've ever had the pleasure of reading. Can't wait to read Romeo and/or Juliet. Seriously, stop what you're doing and go read...

I am writing a review of this book even though I have not finished it. Well, I have finished it multiple times, but I have not read every page of the book. I don't know how to get to the chess game!Welcome to To Be or Not to Be: A Chooseable-Path Adventure, Ryan North's amazingly brilliant interpretation of Hamlet. It is hard not to use hyperbole when describing this book, but it deserves it like Claudius deserves to die.At a social gathering, I often pull out the book and ask, "Who wants to pla...

I had high hopes for this book. A Choose Your Own Adventure story around Hamlet is a great premise. However the book is sophomoric and patronizing. I wouldn't be surprised if the author read the play via Cliff Notes. It is written by a politically correct frat boy who can't see beyond his own time. He spends his time mocking Shakespeare in the most juvenile and ignorant fashion, all the while writing literally how great he, the author, is and how amazing his story is. If you enjoy Shakespeare an...

RIP Shakespeare, you'd have hate it :3

I've played through several times, gotten a few grizzly deaths and even a couple of happy endings. Unlike the choose your own adventure books I read as a kid this seems to have inexhaustible options and endings to delight and amuse. I'm waiting for my physical book to arrive before going through everything because, though the ebooks are quality productions it's becoming a little tedious jumping around to find different endings. It's just going to be easier with real bookmarks.The book is hilario...

Featured in a grandma reads session.February's theme is Shakespeare, so we are doing our darnedest to embrace all we can find to read about - kid-level - Shakespeare-edness and so far have been rather successful! As for Mr. Ryan North's contribution to our endeavors - he is SPOT ON!We've found he only took on two of Shakespeare's plays, this one and Romeo/Juliet, and wish he'd do more, but if wishes were horses. . . .we might get a ride. . .anyway.These are choose-your-own-adventure books, tryin...

4.25 These books are so clever and make Shakespeare so much more accessible. I also have a feeling that Shakespeare might have really approved of their tone. There is no doubt that this book will raise student's interest and understanding of Shakespeare. The one drawback is that Shakespeare's perversions that are typically veiled from many in his language are front and center in this format. It is reflective of Shakespeare, but it might be a little much for some. I know this book makes me want t...

just one passage to sum it up :“The beauty of the world, the paragon of animals — and yet, to me, what is this quintessence of dust? Man delights not me —”You break off as Guildenstern interrupts you.“Gayyyyy,” he says.“I said man delights NOT me, idiot,” you say. “Nor woman neither, though you seem to think —”This time you’re interrupted by Rosencrantz.“Asexualllll,” he says.You look at your friends.“Anyway, whatever,” you say. “I’ve been depressed but it’s great to see you guys, homophobia and...

I'm not sure I gave this book a fair read through, but I did try a handful of stories. The concept is brilliant. I love the concept. The implementation was bad. North tries too hard to be amusing. His constant jokes and parody of Choose Your Own Adventure stories just fell flat (and obnoxious). I only tried 3-4 stories because North's writing was so off-putting it made the experience tedious.

Choose your own adventures aren’t normally my thing but I had a blast reading this (not quite as much as Romeo and/or Juliet but that’s my favorite Shakespeare play). Because Hamlet is such a recognizable story that so many people have read in school at some point, so everyone is able to at least know the main outline of the story before you choose for it to go completely off the rails. I think the thing that I loved most was the modern and sarcastic reimagining of classic lines from the story.

To Be or Not To Be is—well, it’s the question—but it is also a supremely clever book, a success both in the choose-your-own-adventure genre and in the Shakespeare adaptation genre. Author Ryan North first gives readers (interactors? Actors?) three character choices, and they’re the good ones: Hamlet, Ophelia, and the ghost. North covers the main character, the female character, and the supernatural character, all tempting options. Sure, someone will always have wanted to be Horatio or Claudius,

It was funny reading Hamlet in this way!!!and maybe I haven't got all the endings but I enjoyed reading it a lot!It's so good that you can choose your path in the book.

To Be Or Not To Be: a chooseable-path adventure by Ryan North is a fun read! Seriously, so many paths you could choose. You can play as Ophelia (clearly the favorite), Hamlet, or the ghost of Hamlet Sr. Once in the story, there are times you can portray other people. There’s even a book within a book (haha - play within a play). I loved playing as Ophelia because she has the best lines and plots. Hamlet’s adventure as a pirate was fun. Ryan North has a great sense of storytelling, creating so ma...

After joyfully frolicking through this hilarious book my only question is why the hell did it take someone so long to write a Shakespeare choose your own adventure?I know, I know, I know if there was one thing missing from your life it was the chance to determine the fate of Shakespeare's Hamlet for yourself all while enjoying illustrations from a wide variety of super talented cartoonists and artists! Me too!!! Well Ryan North has answered our collective pleas and to this I say I am but mad nor...

One of my friends and I endeavored to thoroughly read Ryan North's TO BE OR NOT TO BE: A Chooseable-Path Adventure over the weekend, and we were bemused to find that when we tried to make sensible decisions, TO BE OR NOT TO BE provided us with a very sensible ending (Hamlet Sr. didn't try to make his son into a murderer! Ophelia invents the barometer instead of dying!), which was great.But! Even when we tried to make not-sensible decisions (yes, let's have pirates!), TO BE OR NOT TO BE seemed re...

How do you write a review about a book that has SO MANY varying storylines and SO MANY choices? You don't really. You just tell everyone why it's awesome: 💀Every single varying plotline/choice is thoughtful and inventive. 💀 All the 'additions' to the original story are hilarious and somehow perfect. 💀It all allows you as the reader 'to fix' all the issues you saw in Hamlet when you read it in high school. (Seriously, I was so pissed at how dumb they all were) 💀 It's fun.

OMG, hilarious. HILARIOUS!My husband got this through the Kickstarter campaign and was sooo excited when it finally arrived. He's been reading it off and on for the last week or so, every now and then quoting parts at me, and I was kind of like, "Ha. That's amusing. Now back to whatever I was doing before you started reading this quote at me." Okay, not quite, but...I don't know. I wasn't totally convinced.But this afternoon he pushed it at me right before lying down for a nap, so I picked it up...

To Be or Not To Be / B00ECJN7T6How much do I like this book? I will tell you. I like this book so much that even though I participated in the Kickstarter for the book and got a paper copy AND an electronic copy in four different electronic formats, I still bought the Kindle version before writing this review just to make absolutely sure that this book will follow me around on my Kindle account for the rest of my life or until the heat death of the universe (whichever comes first). If you like th...