I'm sure a lot of us have heard about Shakespeare theories, was Shakespeare really Shakespeare, or was it a name a group of people used to write under (or other similar theories like this one). I was wondering how everyone felt about these theories. I personally really dislike them. We have a lot of historical evidence on who Shakespeare was, and some of the main 'evidence' used within these theories can easily be disproven with a bit of research like Shakespeare wasn't one person because he never spelt his name the same, but with some research we can see that was normal/typical for the time period. The website Folger Shakespeare library has a section called Shakespeare Documented which has "the largest and most authoritative collection of primary-source materials documenting the life of William Shakespeare (1564-1616), bringing together all known manuscript and print references to Shakespeare, his works, and additional references to his family, in his lifetime and shortly thereafter. Nearly 500 references, found in roughly 400 print and manuscript documents". So maybe it's the history major in me that makes me dislike these theories, not that they can't be thought-provoking at times, but I feel like we have so much evidence of Shakespeare instead of trying to prove/theorize that it was someone else, we could uplift writers of the past who might not have gotten the credit they deserve maybe due to being a woman or a person of color. But what does everyone else think of these Shakespeare theories?

Am I the only one who notices specific words throughout their reading? Not words you hate, just words you flag? For example, 'dais' seems to be used in almost every fantasy book. Or I always note when 'cerulean' is used regardless of genre.

In scientific writing I always notice the word 'paucity' because I had an advisor who used it in nearly every paper... So that one does lean a bit more towards hated words for me haha

I have a few triggers that, when they appear unprompted in books, can cause me to spiral a bit into an anxious or depressive episode- naturally making reading unappealing because, what if the next book upsets me too?

I have found YA/New Adult Romantasy and silly smutty books can pull me out of that mood - but what do you do when a book upsets you and makes you scared to read again?