A lot of people have a hard time understanding when reading William Shakespeare’s works. There are many reasons, for example, some words and expressions are no longer used in the present day. Metaphors and symbolic expressions using those words are hard to understand, so there are books that interpret Shakespeare’s works into modern English. Moreover, in the time when Shakespeare wrote his sonnets and plays, there was no such thing as an illustration with literal works. Due to those reasons, people in the present day can “read” Shakespeare’s text, but it is hard for them to “truly understand” the meaning behind the text.

    For those who feel that Shakespeare’s work is hard to read, there is a well-written book that can break that kind of mental barrier. <Botanical Shakespear> is written by an American writer, editor, and actor, Gerit Quealy. This book kindly explains Shakespeare’s work by using plants and flowers that appear in his work. It is easy to understand because there are illustration works of mentioned plants, drawn by a graphic designer Sumie Hasegawa Collins. It would be interesting for a reader to find exact text and context through this book and figure out the hidden meaning of certain plants while reading the whole work.