Extra Reading Diary: Arabian Nights

This week was a tad bit crazy, so I wasn't able to finish the reading diaries for this week. So, I decided to go ahead and finish up Arabian Nights because I wanted to find out the fate of Scheherazade. I also was really interested in finishing up the story because the second half is all about Aladdin, a story I thought I was familiar with from the Disney adaptation. But, you weren't kidding when you said you were in for a treat if you had never heard the original!

(The Arabian Nights Entertainer by Milo Winter)

I was so surprised at how different Aladdin and the Wonderful Lamp was from the Disney adaptation. They are almost completely different stories! I also thought it was a really interesting choice that the author made to place the story in China. Like it was stated in the notes prior to the stories, it does give it a bit of a twist to Scheherazade's story. Because each "episode" this week was just a continuation of the same story, it made it a bit difficult to choose just which part of the story was my favorite. However, I thought it was really interesting that in part 2, Aladdin obtains the power of both the genie of the ring and the lamp. The one thing I didn't realize though until part 4 was that all of the favors that Aladdin was requesting were being granted by the genie in the lamp. I, however, thought both genie's were granting his wishes equally. This little detail was definitely pertinent to the story because since the genie from the ring could not grant these wishes, Aladdin was presented with a much bigger problem than he originally anticipated. I also thought it was creative that the genies were able to grant Aladdin an unlimited amount of wishes. Typically, in stories that feature genies, there is always the "3 wish rule". However, Aladdin was able to wish for anything he wanted, as many times as he wanted, as long as he was in possession of the lamp/ring.