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Reading The Narnia Chronicles |
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 Mar 28 2008, 07:36 PM
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A 'Sirius' Veil Whisperer
Posts: 6,358
Joined: 5:31pm August 30, 2006
Location: Siriusly Dreaming Somewhere
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As the books in the Narnia series are fairly short I thought we should discuss how we want to read the series. For anyone who wants some descriptions of the books, their history, illustrations and more this is a great site.
The books tell the story in this order:
Book 1, The Magician's Nephew
Book 2, The Lion, The Witch and The Wardrobe
Book 3, The Horse and His Boy
Book 4, Prince Caspian
Book 5, The Voyage of "The Dawn Treader"
Book 6, The Silver Chair
Book 7, The Last Battle
but they were published in this order
Book 2, The Lion, The Witch and The Wardrobe
Book 4, Prince Caspian
Book 5, The Voyage of "The Dawn Treader"
Book 6, The Silver Chair
Book 3, The Horse and His Boy
Book 1, The Magician's Nephew
Book 7, The Last Battle
As they're fairly short books we should also discuss whether we want to spend a month on each book or whether we should read two books at a time and then read the final book and have an overall discussion of themes acrosss the series (such as characters' journeys, good v evil, courage, etc) in a separarate month. The decision about whether we read them in the story order or published order will decide which books are paired together.
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Mar 31 2008, 08:07 PM
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Fortescue's Spoon Polisher
Posts: 3,624
Joined: 6:04pm November 6, 2005
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Well, as I was first to vote, I have no idea what anyone else thinks yet!
I would prefer to read them in the story order, rather than published order, as that just makes more sense to me - they story of Narnia follows on in story order, right? I haven't read this series for a VERY long time, so really can't remember!
Though I really wouldn't mind reading them in the published order, either - they were published in the order of the characters stories, right? (Well, at least the first 4?)
I was thinking it'd be good to discuss each book for just 2 weeks (before this thread was posted). I still think that may be best, as, if we discuss them in story order, then the 2 books we do together each month will each have different main characters. The only 2 that will have any of the same characters are Books 5 & 6 with Eustace, I think (I don't mean Narnia beings, just the main characters from our world). Then again, not everyone can get online as much as me, so if each Book Club was only open for 2 weeks, that wouldn't be fair to them.
Umm, I voted before I thought of the above, so maybe discussing them in published order would actually make more sense. I'm confused now 
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Apr 1 2008, 11:14 AM
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Neville's Personal Dietitian
Posts: 657
Joined: 2:20pm September 22, 2007
Location: Hiding in Ron Weasley's wardrobe, waiting to jump out at him and trying not to laugh too loudly =P
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I would definitely prefer to read them in the story order because I think it makes a lot more sense than the publishing order.
For the next point - I voted 'other' because I think that one month is a bit too long to spend on such short books, but I don't think they should be discussed in pairs, because not all of them go with another book. E.g. it wouldn't make a lot of sense to discuss The Magician's Nephew and The Lion, the Witch and the Wardrobe together in a pair because they have different characters and are generally completely different! But something like Prince Caspian and The Voyage of the Dawn Treader could be more easily discussed as a pair as they involve the same characters - then they could be compared, whereas TMN and TLTWATW couldn't be.
If that won't work out, then maybe (as I suggested in a previous poll) there could be a poll where everyone gets to choose their three favourite books to discuss. There could be a first choice, second choice and third choice as different parts of the poll and then each vote for the first part counts as 3 points, each vote vote for the second part counts as 2 points and each vote of the third part counts as 1 point. Then the total number of points for each book could be added up and then the three highest scoring books get picked to be discussed, in reading order.
Um, I'm not entirely sure that made any sense! But I guess it doesn't matter as that option would leave people disappointed if their favourite book didn't get picked.... 
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Apr 7 2008, 09:00 AM
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Junior Dishwasher at The Leaky Cauldron
Posts: 610
Joined: 6:51pm November 1, 2005
Location: The Rare Books section in the Hogwarts library
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I (who need to get my fingers on the right keys this morning  ) voted for reading them in the published order--i.e. THE LION, THE WITCH, AND THE WARDROBE first. I prefer that order because that is the way I first read them. I think it's only relatively recently that the publisher (at least in the United States) has started numbering and arranging them, in omnibus volumes, in story order. I myself think THE MAGICIAN'S NEPHEW is more interesting if you already know the "later" stories--so as you read it, you think "Aha! That's where the lamppost originated," for instance.
MuggleQueen has a point about the way the books are paired: for example, pairing THE LION... with THE MAGICIAN'S NEPHEW doesn't make a great deal of sense, whereas PRINCE CASPIAN and THE VOYAGE OF THE DAWN-TREADER (which show us Caspian at different ages and points in his life) would fit together better. Actually, I suggest pairing THE LION... with THE HORSE AND HIS BOY, which gives us a glimpse at Narnia during the adult reign of the characters who become kinds and queens as children in THE LION....
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