applause...

...but getting back to the question , I too love reading Shakespeare, though I recognize many people could now feel it is like looking through several filters, and take on board the point about reading/performance. Lear is also my absolute favourite - oh, reason not the need, indeed!

To pick up on a suggestion made elsewhere, though, I do not agree about suspension of disbelief. This is true of when we watch a movie screen, a TV programme, or (heaven forfend) read a book - it is simply the terms of suspension (the frame of reference) that is different in each case.

Above all, I love Shakespeare because of his unbounded love of langauge - a gloating, rolling, rollicking, lick of sound in which he takes and communicates such a passion for life. It's the poetry.