life often turns upon such small things as a flickering oil lamp

( O King of the Time and unique one of the Age and the Tide, I am thine handmaid, and these thousand nights and a night have I entertained thee with stories of folk gone before and admonitory instances of the men of yore. May I then make bold to crave a boon of thy Highness? )

[The mic crackles on. At first, her voice sounds incredibly nervous.]
This is a bet. Sort of. I'm not sure if it counts, if you're betting against the voice in your head, since it's not as though you can really lose or win anything you didn't already have. If you choose to turn this off right now, I wouldn't be offended...

[Beginning to pick up a lilting, almost hypnotic cadence, growing stronger with each word.]

...but if you choose to stay and to listen, I will tell you the tale of Aladdin and his wonderful lamp, and of Badr al-Budur, the sultan's beautiful daughter.

( the tale begins... )

I've had access to the forums for a while, I guess, but I just got my own computer so I thought I'd introduce myself. I'm Sherri, and I've had Scheherazade for about... a year and a half? It's easy to lose track of time. So, hi. I'm in New Orleans, I'd love to get to know anyone else around the area.

So that I don't look like a complete idiot if no one responds I found this, I bet a lot of people have already seen it but it's new to me, at least, and I thought it might be even more applicable here. The BBC thinks most people will only have read 6 out of these 100 books, how about you?

( The BBC Book Meme )

( Now he had two daughters... of whom the elder had perused the books, annals, and legends of preceding kings, and the stories, examples, and instances of bygone men and things. )