Wow! I didn't expect to like this, which is why I had read a few of Shakespeare's tragedies (love them) and a couple of his comedies, but never any of his histories. For some inexplicable reason (I never even tried any of his histories) I had this idea in my head that Shakespeare's Histories would be boring and dry to read and I always avoided picking them up. I finally decided to start with Richard II as my first of his histories, and to my surprise, I couldn't put it down. This was too good! If the rest of Shakeapeare's histories are as enthralling and captivating as Richard II, they will be among my very favorites! I'm looking forward to Henry IV part 1 as I'll be reading the histories according to their chronological setting. The histories of Shakespeare are mostly fictional, but after reading Richard II, I'm also looking forward to read some nonfiction for the real events. This was brilliant! An excellent play for discussions. Also, I highly recommend the Folger Shakespeare Library Edition (Seen in the image above). The vocabulary side by side with the text and the longer notes in the back are very helpful and made the reading easier and faster. Also, for those of you who might want to read more, in these editions there is also information about Shakespeare's life, the theater during his time, as well as an interesting critical essay, "modern perspectives" for the particular play you're reading. The Arden editions are also excellent and from what I've heard more detailed and scholastic than the Folger. The Folger I would say is probably the in-between; it has enough academic information for the average reader and for the academic/general literature study reader, but probably you'll want the Arden editions if you were studying exclusively Shakespeare in depth or if you were studying Theater Arts. If you are like me and worry that you won't like Shakespeare's histories, give Richard II a try. It is worth it.