Book Club

No, NO, Narnia: Seeing the movie The Chronicles Of Narnia: The Lion, The Witch, And The Wardrobe has sparked my interest in the other Narnia books. So I've started reading the other ones. Interestingly enough before I started reading the subsequent books, I mentioned to someone at work that there are talking beavers in the first Narnia book; this guy I mentioned it to likes beavers. Someone else overheard me and said that The Lion, The Witch, And The Wardrobe was not the first book and he had just read all seven. He said that The Magician's Nephew was the first book. I knew that I had read somewhere it was the first book but I just listened and nodded. Then I got home and did some research; technically it IS the first book. It was written in 1950 whereas The Magician's Nephew was written in 1955. Jim heard a piece on NPR and it talked about how C.S. Lewis was friends with J.R.R. Tolkien and Tolkien encouraged Lewis to create backstory on the world of Narnia so The Magician's Nephew details how Narnia came to be. So in that respect it could be considered the first book. Reading the creation of Narnia is very similar to the passages in Genesis which talk about how the world was created; coincidence or not? I think not. Anyway, I guess in a way we were both right. The order of the books, as they were written is as follows: The Chronicles Of Narnia: The Lion, The Witch, And The Wardrobe, Prince Caspian, The Voyage Of The Dawn Treader, The Silver Chair, The Horse And His Boy, The Magician's Nephew, and The Last Battle.

Happy reading,

paul