A Live in Closet

I didn’t read much as a child. Actually I spent a great deal of time outdoors. I was actually was tan for most of the summer and early fall, if my friends can believe it. The time I did spend indoors was divided between TV (cartoons and PBS, don’t ask), Lego, and Transformers. Anyway, as a consequence, I missed reading many of the childhood books common during that time. Well I say common among the friends I made later in life. As it turns out one of the series I missed out on was the Narnia series by C. S. Lewis. After watching the movie, “The Chronicles of Narnia: The Lion, the Witch and the Wardrobe,” last year I decided it was time to correct that. I got an inexpensive book set at Sam’s and put it on my “To Read” stack. This week I got to that stack and I finished The Lion, the Witch, and the Wardrobe. I tried to decide if I wanted to review them one at a time or all at once. I chose to do the first separately, reserving the right to combine the following reviews. Now I’ll ramble on about the book as I drink my coffee with caramel and praline creamer and eat my gingerbread and macadamia nut biscotti. MMmmm.

After a conversation between friends I decided to read the books in the order they were published rather than the chronological order. Therefore I started with TLtWatW. When I bought the book set I was surprised at the size of each of the books. That is until I remembered they are children’s books. I guess wrestling with some of the 1000+ page behemoths I’ve read recently has biased me.

First of all I really like that way this book is written. I like the feel of being told the story by someone in the room with you. I also like that Lewis doesn’t talk down to the reader. He expects the reader to make certain logical leaps. It’s nice to see the book expecting children to think, and encouraging it. I agree that it is a wonderful book to encourage children to read, or even better read with their parents.

I was also surprised how well the movie was translated from the book. I’ve seen some awful translations from book to movie. Yes I am specifically looking at you Starship Troopers.