Chronicles of Narnia, C.S. Lewis

[SammiT]

Just curious in what order other people read this series. I've read it both ways (chronologically in order published, or chronologically by story timeline,) and personally prefer to read it starting with The Magician's Nephew and ending with The Last Battle. I find reading it in story time order is difficult at first, because The Magician's Nephew is a bit of a slow, tedious read. Even so, I find that order is more engaging than reading them in the order published. Thoughts?

[kimmyschemy06]

Whoaa! I only read the first three books. I've been meaning to read The Magician's Nephew but I always end up reading something else. But now that you brought that up, I think I need to consider

[SammiT]

It took me so long to read Magician's Nephew, but it does have a lot of information that adds to the others, I hope you get to read it soon

[Chelcie]

I find that if you read the Magicians nephew it leads to a lot of answers to the 'hows' and 'whys' that may come up when reading the others! but I too prefer to read from magicians nephew - last battle! However I did find 'the silver chair' to be quite dragging

[Londera]

I read the Lion, Witch and the Wardrobe first as I had seen the movie before reading the books. After that I read them in chronological order. I honestly didn't know it was a series until I read the first book.

[Lysander99]

When i read the Chronicles of Narnia years ago i read it by order published and i had thoroughly enjoyed reading the series this traditional way. However now that you have brought it up it would be interesting to read a series that i have pretty much forgot at this point from chronological order. This would be a great test for any writer to determine if they can enhance the overall quality of their series if persons can read them in various orders and get different experiences.

[Strongbob25]

It makes more sense to read them in the order they were published. That's how they were originally read and originally imagined.

[jennyd2003]

I read them in story order as I had bought the boxed set for my oldest daughter. I need to find them and read them again with my youngest children now.

[akirov30]

I started with The Lion, The Witch and the Wardrobe first and didn't read The Magician's Nephew until some years later. With my kids, I started them off with the series the same way. Once they'd got into the series, they also dipped back and read The Magician's Nephew and had fun finding out the origins of the lamp post and who Jadis was and understood the significance of the events in the book. I don't think they'd have got into the series if they'd read TMN first. As you point you, SammieT, it's a slower read and for me, it comes across as aimed at a slighter older child whereas The Lion, Witch and the Wardrobe is suitable for a younger one, making it a good place to start younger readers off.

I loved the series as a kid though and still vividly remember A Horse and His Boy, Voyage of the Dawntreader and The Silver Chair. I think The Last Battle was my least favourite but by then I was older and the religious significance felt heavy-handed.

[oceana]

I started with The Lion the Witch and the Wardrobe and somewhere in the middle read the magicians nephew. Once I read it a lot of things made a lot more sense.

[PepperedPenelope]

I also started with The Lion the Witch and the Wardrobe, as you guys have pointed out, it just appealed more to me as a younger reader. A few years ago I challenged myself to read 100 books in a year and I wanted to focus on the books that I have always had but just never read - this series being one of them. I read them in chronological order and it was fascinating. The Magicians Nephew does give a lot of background. I think my favorite was Voyage of the Dawn Treader. I loved that they just ventured out without really knowing what they were going to find. It gets a bit slower after that, but I have to say... if you're going to read all of them, you need to prepare yourself before reading The Final Battle. It was really hard to read and I did cry a bit at the end!

[Letora]

I read them in chronological order. I agree that The Magicians Nephew was slow, but it does a good job setting up for the rest of the series. Thinking back on how the story flowed, I think I would have been confused reading them in publication order. And The Last Battle...I knew as soon as they neared the end what was happening. It broke heart, but I understand why the series ended as it did.

[sush_destiny]

I didnt read them in the correct order, but, it was only after reading the Magician's Nephew that the whole story fit like a jig saw puzzle.

[mam_reader]

I read it in the order it was published the first I read it, but, every time I reread it after that, I read it in the order of the timeline, which made much more sense.

[Magnify3]

I have not read all the books yet. I have read The Lion the witch and the wardrobe as well as Prince Caspian and The Silver Chair . I would like to read the rest of the series.