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Daydreams of an Octopus & Other Stories
Like an expertly cut gemstone that catches the light, Daydreams of an Octopus & Other Stories is a dazzling homage to the teaching tales contained in the great treasury of A Thousand and One Nights.
Written to be appreciated in innumerable ways and on many levels, this elegant collection is designed to be read and reread - for only then will the volume's magic come alive.
Regarded as one of the foremost storytellers of the age, Tahir Shah believes that tales - whether ancient or contemporary - have the ability to help us perceive the world around us with new clarity and with fresh eyes.
The author of more than fifty books embracing fiction, fantasy, travel, and academic research, Shah is descended from a long line of storytellers. His father - the Sufi thinker Idries Shah - revealed life lessons to him through stories, explaining that folktales are a repository of ancient knowledge that forms an instruction manual to the world.
Written to be appreciated in innumerable ways and on many levels, this elegant collection is designed to be read and reread - for only then will the volume's magic come alive.
Regarded as one of the foremost storytellers of the age, Tahir Shah believes that tales - whether ancient or contemporary - have the ability to help us perceive the world around us with new clarity and with fresh eyes.
The author of more than fifty books embracing fiction, fantasy, travel, and academic research, Shah is descended from a long line of storytellers. His father - the Sufi thinker Idries Shah - revealed life lessons to him through stories, explaining that folktales are a repository of ancient knowledge that forms an instruction manual to the world.
242 pages, Kindle Edition
Published July 10, 2022
About the author
Tahir Shah
166 books638 followersTahir Shah was born in London, and raised primarily at the family’s home, Langton House, in the English countryside – where founder of the Boy Scouts, Lord Baden Powell was also brought up.
Along with his twin and elder sisters, Tahir was continually coaxed to regard the world around him through Oriental eyes. This included being exposed from early childhood to Eastern stories, and to the back-to-front humour of the wise fool, Nasrudin.
Having studied at a leading public school, Bryanston, Tahir took a degree in International Relations, his particular interest being in African dictatorships of the mid-1980s. His research in this area led him to travel alone through a wide number of failing African states, including Uganda, Sierra Leone, and Zaire.
After university, Tahir embarked on a plethora of widespread travels through the Indian subcontinent, Latin America, and Africa, drawing them together in his first travelogue, Beyond the Devil’s Teeth. In the years that followed, he published more than a dozen works of travel. These quests – for lost cities, treasure, Indian magic, and for the secrets of the so-called Birdmen of Peru – led to what is surely one of the most extraordinary bodies of travel work ever published.
In the early 2000s, with two small children, Tahir moved his young family from an apartment in London’s East End to a supposedly haunted mansion in the middle of a Casablanca shantytown. The tale of the adventure was published in his bestselling book, The Caliph’s House.
In recent years, Tahir Shah has released a cornucopia of work, embracing travel, fiction, and literary criticism. He has also made documentaries for National Geographic TV and the History Channel, and published hundreds of articles in leading magazines, newspapers, and journals. His oeuvre is regarded as exceptionally original and, as an author, he is considered as a champion of the new face of publishing.
www.tahirshah.com
www.twitter.com/humanstew
www.facebook.com/TahirShahAuthor
http://www.youtube.com/user/tahirshah999
www.pinterest.com/tahirshah
Along with his twin and elder sisters, Tahir was continually coaxed to regard the world around him through Oriental eyes. This included being exposed from early childhood to Eastern stories, and to the back-to-front humour of the wise fool, Nasrudin.
Having studied at a leading public school, Bryanston, Tahir took a degree in International Relations, his particular interest being in African dictatorships of the mid-1980s. His research in this area led him to travel alone through a wide number of failing African states, including Uganda, Sierra Leone, and Zaire.
After university, Tahir embarked on a plethora of widespread travels through the Indian subcontinent, Latin America, and Africa, drawing them together in his first travelogue, Beyond the Devil’s Teeth. In the years that followed, he published more than a dozen works of travel. These quests – for lost cities, treasure, Indian magic, and for the secrets of the so-called Birdmen of Peru – led to what is surely one of the most extraordinary bodies of travel work ever published.
In the early 2000s, with two small children, Tahir moved his young family from an apartment in London’s East End to a supposedly haunted mansion in the middle of a Casablanca shantytown. The tale of the adventure was published in his bestselling book, The Caliph’s House.
In recent years, Tahir Shah has released a cornucopia of work, embracing travel, fiction, and literary criticism. He has also made documentaries for National Geographic TV and the History Channel, and published hundreds of articles in leading magazines, newspapers, and journals. His oeuvre is regarded as exceptionally original and, as an author, he is considered as a champion of the new face of publishing.
www.tahirshah.com
www.twitter.com/humanstew
www.facebook.com/TahirShahAuthor
http://www.youtube.com/user/tahirshah999
www.pinterest.com/tahirshah
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Displaying 1 - 4 of 4 reviews
June 4, 2023
This book is a wonderful collection of a dozen teaching-stories by acclaimed world traveler and author Tahir Shah.
These are tales of magic, wonder, adventure, journeying, learning, and wisdom.
Shah’s flexible style enables him to zero in and present incredible detail almost effortlessly then zoom out to take us over vast spaces and periods of time.
My favourite is probably “The Old Wind,” which tells now a young breeze learns and grows.
The characters most often seem to be learning something, whether the wind in that story, or Mustapha Khan who learns both about honesty and taking initiative, or the Octopus in the title story. Some tales, like “The Paradise Tree,” seem cryptic. And Shah emphasizes the importance of the imagination. There is also at times a charming mixture of settings—events taking place both in far-off fantastical realms and in the present-day world, as in “Mouse House.”
Highly recommended. A fine read.
These are tales of magic, wonder, adventure, journeying, learning, and wisdom.
Shah’s flexible style enables him to zero in and present incredible detail almost effortlessly then zoom out to take us over vast spaces and periods of time.
My favourite is probably “The Old Wind,” which tells now a young breeze learns and grows.
The characters most often seem to be learning something, whether the wind in that story, or Mustapha Khan who learns both about honesty and taking initiative, or the Octopus in the title story. Some tales, like “The Paradise Tree,” seem cryptic. And Shah emphasizes the importance of the imagination. There is also at times a charming mixture of settings—events taking place both in far-off fantastical realms and in the present-day world, as in “Mouse House.”
Highly recommended. A fine read.
September 28, 2022
A school of life.
Very different from our actual lives.
The challenge: the never ending discovery of a different attitude towards what we encounter.
A great gift - and the incredible ability of Tahir Shah behind it.
It is not only the story - it is the message it transmits.
All my gratitude.
Very different from our actual lives.
The challenge: the never ending discovery of a different attitude towards what we encounter.
A great gift - and the incredible ability of Tahir Shah behind it.
It is not only the story - it is the message it transmits.
All my gratitude.
October 3, 2022
Exciting and imaginative stories in the spirit of One Thousand and One Nights.
These are wise stories filled with nourishment. About the actual, actual power of thought, about the power of song, about the sadness of having lost the ability to imagine. A self-help book. Excellent for parents to read aloud and for teachers who want to help children develop their imaginations. Hoopoes, octopuses, coral fish, lizards, robins, hot air balloons, jinns...Here is a veritable inspirational mine. I so wish the stories could be illustrated!
The cover image, Le Poulpe Colossal by Pierre Denys de Montfort, 1801 led me to https://www.originalmagicart.store/. No lack of magic and fantasy here!
Daydreams of an Octopus felt like it was written directly for me because just as I am sadly aware of my lack of imagination was the little coral fish Clarissa. Octavius the octopus gives her (and me) very good advice.
The Destiny Ring is a wonderful variation on Maaruf the Cobbler from One Thousand and One Nights. This story is all about the immense power of thought.
"Not until everything else had been taken away had he grasped that the limits of his imagination were infinite." page 19
These are wise stories filled with nourishment. About the actual, actual power of thought, about the power of song, about the sadness of having lost the ability to imagine. A self-help book. Excellent for parents to read aloud and for teachers who want to help children develop their imaginations. Hoopoes, octopuses, coral fish, lizards, robins, hot air balloons, jinns...Here is a veritable inspirational mine. I so wish the stories could be illustrated!
The cover image, Le Poulpe Colossal by Pierre Denys de Montfort, 1801 led me to https://www.originalmagicart.store/. No lack of magic and fantasy here!
Daydreams of an Octopus felt like it was written directly for me because just as I am sadly aware of my lack of imagination was the little coral fish Clarissa. Octavius the octopus gives her (and me) very good advice.
The Destiny Ring is a wonderful variation on Maaruf the Cobbler from One Thousand and One Nights. This story is all about the immense power of thought.
"Not until everything else had been taken away had he grasped that the limits of his imagination were infinite." page 19
August 28, 2023
96/100
5 stars - 90/100
4 stars - 80/100
3 stars - 70/100
2 stars - 60/100
1 star - 50/10
5 stars - 90/100
4 stars - 80/100
3 stars - 70/100
2 stars - 60/100
1 star - 50/10
Displaying 1 - 4 of 4 reviews