Friends of Narnia?

[Andy Murray]

I just wondered if any members had read and had thoughts on the Narnia Chronicles.

I first read them 30 years ago and was enchanted.

I picked up a full set very cheap this week, and I've been re-reading them. I hadn't realised how allegorical they were when I first read them.

Nor did I know C.S. Lewis and J.R.R Tolkien were great friends too.

[inacan]

Yeah I read them a few years ago, several times over. Very good reading, don't have a copy of them now, but perhaps I should get a new one. I have yet to actually read a tolkien book (own 3) but I have a few other books to read first.

[YODA]

My daughter read the full set when she was 8 or 9 - it kinda sowed the seed for her love of Tolkien i think.

[BlackRaven]

I read them all when I was younger, and couldn't resist picking up the boxset for a couple of quid when I saw it at a car boot sale a few years ago.

[Anne]

The Chronicles of Narnia are my favourite children's books. I still reread them, and have read The Lion, The Witch and The Wardrobe more than a dozen times.

C.S. Lewis and Tolkien were great friends, but in one C.S. Lewis biography I read it said that Tolkien had told Lewis that the Chronicles were not fit to be published, and upon this advice, Lewis nearly scrapped the idea, but other colleagues pressed him to continue.

Lewis' Christianity is very evident especially in my favourite, the Lion, the Witch and the Wardrobe, as well as in another fictional series of three he wrote, Out of the Silent Planet, Perelandra and That Hideous Strength. However, I didn't put together the similarities of my favourite book and the story of Christ as a 6 year old, and when I was 10 or 11 reading a C.S. Lewis biography I realized that my favourite book was very similar to another story I had heard!

[Andy Murray]

Well I bought them pretending they're for my daughter, when actually they're for me.

She's a little too young to appreciate them, but I hope she will one day.

It's bizarre reading them now, as I get flashbacks to being a little boy reading under the covers with a torch when my parents thought I was sleeping.

Going to blow the dust off Ursula Le Guin's 'Earthsea Trilogy' next.

Wish I could write like these people.

[WhiteWizard]

I only wish there was a guy with the passion of Tolkien writing today to spend your whole life creating these sort of worlds is amazing i haven't read much of the Narnia stuff well i haven't actually read any but i did hear the lion the witch and the wordrobe on speaking tape when i was younger books mean so much more to me now that i have the time it always takes me longer cos of the sight thing but you get back out what you put in i suppose

[Kinjiro Tsukasa]

I haven't read The Chronicles of Narnia yet, but I would like to. (Andy, read those children's books proudly! No need to pretend they're for your kids!)

[booksie_girl]

I read them years ago, and liked them, but I've never been a person to re-read books. Why read a book you've already read when you can read one you haven't read? (primary exception: HP, I've read each of the books several times)

[KenpoDavid]

CS Lewis only wrote books about Christianity. the "Ransom series" (perelandra, etc) are some great science fiction, reminded me a lot of Phil Dick the way they deal more with the "science" of theology and the nature of reality.

Narnia covers some of the same themes with a more fantasy/ fairy story genre.. I read them more than once as a kid.

but my favorite CS Lewis books are The Great Divorce and The Screwtape Letters. Reading those books gave my new tools with which to think about my place in the universe. And that makes for a good novel!

[johndoch]

Ursula Le Guin's 'Earthsea Trilogy'. Wow now that's a blast from the past. I cant remember it that well but its ringing bells.

[YODA]

Anne McCaffrey's Pern series anyone?

[KenpoDavid]

I've been thinking a LOT about Pern, what with Mars getting so close and all... watch for threads!!!! I've found a cave I can hide in just in case.

[YODA]

Originally posted by KenpoDavid
I've been thinking a LOT about Pern, what with Mars getting so close and all... watch for threads!!!! I've found a cave I can hide in just in case.


Just gotta find some thread-eating dragons :D

[Knight_Errant]

Apparently the 'canals' on mars were made by carbon dioxide, not water (according to a new scientist article in the college library).
http://smilies.crowd9.com/contrib/edoom/sad2.gif

[aikiMac]

I read the Narnia books out of order when I was about 9. Didn't get much out of it, and didn't really like them, probably because I read them out of order.

I read the series in order two years ago, when I was 30. Wow. Wow. Most excellent.

These are books that need to be read cover to cover (in order!) every few years. Wow.

[khafra]

Yup, I just rediscovered the first of the Narnia books in amongst some others, and got flashbacks just like Yoda's.

And that's a great observation there, too, with the Philip K. Dick similarities. Their similar flair for epistemological fiction makes 'em favorites of mine.