Haroun and the Sea of Stories

Book 6 of 2016 is Haroun and the Sea of Stories by Salman Rushdie.

A friend of mine came to see Salman Rushdie promote his latest book: Two Years Eight Months and Twenty-Eight Nights: A Novel. This is her favourite book and hearing all the people at Rushdie's reading raving about this book and asking when the movie will be made. That was enough to see me buy this book on my very next visit to my favourite book store.

There is absolutely nothing wrong with this book. It is for children and adults. It keeps you engaged the whole time and although words are wielded by the wizard that is Rushdie, it is easy to read.

In the style of Arabian Nights, the story is of a boy and his father saving the stories of the world. Everything is magical and fantastical. It is quite wonderful. Absolutely one of the best books I've read in a very long time. I wish I'd read this as a child.

5 happy endings out of 5.

Should I read this? Yes, you should. You should also read it to all the children you know or gift them this book.

What did I learn? Storytelling is alive and well. Literature is a good story.

The Wizard of Oz

Book 20 of 2014 is from the BFI Film Classics series and is a review by Salman Rushdie of the movie The Wizard of Oz. I'd call this an essay, more than a book but my only criteria to satisfy something is a book is if it looks like a book and quacks like a book.

In 69 pages, Salman Rushdie reviews the movie The Wizard of Oz in a way that has changed, ruined and enhanced my view of it.

He does this as the first part of a series of essays commissioned for a project by the National Film and Television Archive in the UK. This was before DVDs and IMDB and was a way of deconstructing and reviewing 360 classic movies by great minds of the time. When Rushdie looked through the list, he chose Oz as one of his favourite places as a child and decided to write about this movie.

Like anything you love that is deconstructed and discussed, some of the magic disappears but Rushdie's passion for the film and shared discovered facts compensate greatly.

The thing I did like the most was finding that this essay inspired Gregory Maguire's Wicked. I love the Oz world and Wicked continued for me, as this essay has extended it for me.

At the end of this essay, the author writes a fantastical story about the futuristic auctioning of the famous and obviously magical Ruby Slippers from the movie. There is a great quote that seems quite apt in this time...

"We, the public, are easily, lethally offended. We have come to think of taking offence as a fundamental right. We value very little more highly than our rage, which gives us, in our opinion, the moral high ground. From this high ground we can shoot down at our enemies and inflict heavy fatalities. We take pride in our short fuses. Our anger elevates, transcends. 

Salman Rushdie. At the auction of the ruby slippers. 
In: East, West. Vintage, 1995."

I give this a brain, a heart and some courage out of 5. Yes, that's a 3.5.

Should I read this? Read this if you love The Wizard of Oz movie. It would mean nothing otherwise.
What did I learn? Toto was female and her name was Terry.