Reading Notes: Arabian Nights Part A

Hello World!!

 For this week's reading I chose to read Arabian Nights. This is a story that I felt that I had read before, but once I began to read it I realized that I had been told this story as a child! I remember reading the book once I got older as well! The stories do vary in this version a bit and there are some new stories present in this version as well. I even remember acting out these stories with some of my friends! It's crazy how little things can make us so incredibly nostalgic!

I really like how Scheherazade decides to tell the King a story! The first one is one that I remember incredibly well! In the version that I read. Scheherazade is forcibly married to the King, and instead of everyone telling each other a story her younger sister begs her to begin telling her bedtime stories to save her from the king. The stories keep going for a thousand nights and that is how she manages to keep herself from the king. I believe that at the end the king allows her to leave since he is so impressed with all of her stories. While this version has the same concept the stories, as I have mentioned before, are not the same. I really enjoy the addition of these new stories however! I found that some of them were quite interesting. The story of Aladdin was also not included in the version that I had been told as a child. That particular story actually ended up being told as an entire separate story. With the villain that Jafar ends up being I am glad that this story got its own space.

It is so incredible to see that these stories are in a place where the whole world can read them if they so choose! I adore that idea and I think that it's great to be able to know that there is a part of me that will be able to live on in my kids when I can pick up this story once again to retell it to them! I hope that you get the chance to read this story as well, and adore it as much as I do!

Schherazade, Source: Pinterest

All the information can be found at Arabian Nights.