As Christmas approaches, I begin to scour the web for presents for my family, and being the bookworm I am, I tend to think of books. For me, nothing says "I care about you" quite like a carefully-chosen book. There is a nearly infinite variety of books on every conceivable topic and almost every conceivable combination of topics, and books last. I have books on my shelves that I've owned for about twenty years, and I can still tell you who gave them to me, and why.
This year, as a service to gift-giving readers around the world, I'm going to take a quick walk down Amazon's Top Sellers list to highlight a few books I think would make great Christmas presents.
The Chronicles Of Narnia should be found in every English-speaking home in the world. I have been in love with these books since I was a child. The first box set I owned, I read so many times that the covers fell off and the pages started to disintegrate. I have a new set now, order from Amazon a couple of years ago, and my own kids have been captivated by the books I've read to them so far.
The new movie, The Lion, the Witch, and the Wardrobe should ensnare new fans young and old, and the books go much farther than the movie will. Over seas, under the ground, and into the heart of enemy terroritory, all the way until the end of the world, C.S. Lewis tells interesting stories.
This box set, from Harper-Collins, gets the order of the books "wrong," by which I means simply that they don't follow the original order of publication, which is the order in which I first encountered the set. Lewis wrote them in this order: 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. Recent editions, including this one, have rearranged the books to match the chronological order of the stories as they take place in the mythical land of Narnia. I think that this is a mistake, as various textual references assume (as Lewis assumed) that they would be read in the order I first listed. Also, the movies (assuming there will be more than one) will be following the order of original publication. On my shelf, the books are numbered 2, 4, 5, 6, 3, 1, 7, and in that order they shall remain!
Article comments
1 - Eric Olsen
very nice picaresque and cullinary journey, PW, thanks!
2 - Phillip Winn
I aim to please, Captain EO!
I love these particular books intensely, and it seems to be easy to wax positive when that's the case.
3 - bhw
Recent editions, including this one, have rearranged the books to match the chronological order of the stories as they take place in the mythical land of Narnia.
ARGH! Thank you for pointing this out. My husband came home with The Lion/Witch/Wardrobe two nights ago for our son, only to open the book and see it labeled on the title page as Book 2. So they had to wait until last night for my husband to go back to the store and get The Magician's Nephew so they could start with the alleged Book 1.
We had no idea that publishers are resequencing the books and that my hubby and son could have just started with Lion. I'm going to show the hubby this article and see if they want to switch back, since they're only a handful of pages into Magician.
Thanks!
4 - Phillip Winn
Definitely switch! It's not too late!
LW&W plunges you right into the story, with four great human characters. MN came much, much later, and is basically the "back-story" for LW&W, detailing the creation of the world, basically. Since it was written so late, it assumes " though Lewis is clearly trying not to " that you already know all about Narnia.
Please, please, please, even if you read all of the rest in the current published order, start with LW&W and then Prince Caspian, which features the same four human characters from LW&W.
5 - Abraham Aamidor
This is a note from reporter Abe Aamidor of The Indianapolis Star, the daily newspaper in Indianapolis. The URL listed is my personal blog, not the newspaper's. The Star is doing a little feature on best books to give for the Christsmas holiday season and we'll be including C.S. Lewis' books, currently being reissued, and I was impressed by your statements about the original order of publication. I'm looking for a quick quote for publication (we'll be listing several books very rapid-fire, with not much room for commentary). Will the owner of this blog call me, toll-free, at [phone number removed]? Thanks.