ladders and snakes and several guns if you got em

I read some of Rushdie's Art of Fiction interview in the latest Paris Review, and he said it took him five years to write Midnight. He also said he wrote "Children of Midnight" and "Midnight's Children" over and over for about two pages until he decided on Midnight's Children. Another thing: There was originally another Padma type character. Saleem sent the manuscript away to a reporter who was reading the written manuscript while Padma was listening in the room. The editor didn't like it, so he edited her out. Which I think was smart. Another thing: The whole concept of the book (special children being born on that night) was a few sentences in another book he had been writing for a year. He scrapped the year's work, and kept those sentences. Another thing: The first page is basically the way he wrote it the first time. Which book out of the following would you want to read next: Light in August, The Hamlet, The Sound and the Fury (WF) Delta Wedding, Losing Battles (EW)?