Sunday, January 02, 2011

My Favorite Things: Narnia


Since I was a child, I have loved the Chronicles of Narnia, by C.S. Lewis. As a grown-up, I think I love them even more than I did then! The first year Jim and I were married, his parents gave us our own set of the Chronicles for Christmas. He had never read them (imagine!) . . . so I read them aloud to him during that winter. A couple years ago, we got them out and read through them again together. Every time I learn or notice something new, and books that were not my favorites as a kid (The Horse and His Boy, The Silver Chair) have become favorites now. I think my two favorite books out of the series are The Voyage of the Dawn Treader and The Last Battle, but all of them are wonderful, and there are certain beautiful scenes and imagery in each book that take my breath away, or literally bring me almost to tears. I think it is safe to say that no other books besides the Bible, make me long for Heaven like the Narnia books do.
Several years ago, Jim's brother Joe gave us The Magician's Nephew radio theatre production on CD. We listened to that over and over; it was especially nice for traveling. As Sam got older, he started enjoying it, too. Last summer, we decided to go ahead and get the whole radio theatre set of all the books on CD for a family present before our trip to Ohio. We didn't tell the kids ahead of time, but surprised them with it after we began our trip. They love these CDs so much. In fact, we rarely listen to anything else while in the car, now! They help the long drives to and from church to pass more quickly. These were produced by Focus on the Family and they are wonderful, high-quality entertainment. Way better than the new Narnia movies (although we have enjoyed those, too), as they stick very close to the books. And you absolutely cannot beat the price of this set on Amazon--under $20 for more than 20 hours of listening pleasure!


I recently stumbled upon another really neat Narnia resource that I wanted to tell you about. It's a big, thick book called Roar! A Christian Family Guide to Narnia. I found this book for .99 cents in CBD's "Before and After Christmas Sale." I ordered one for us, then after I got it I was so impressed with it that I ordered a couple more for gifts. I just wanted to let you know about this, as the sale only runs through tomorrow (January 3rd). This is a fantastic price--the book sells on Amazon for over $13! Shipping from CBD is very reasonable, only $3.99 up to $20 worth of merchandise, so obviously the more books you buy, the better the shipping rate is, but even if you only buy this one book, it's a steal compared to the regular price. So, if you're a fellow Narnia lover, check out this great book!

**Just a note--every time I link to something on Amazon, it's my personal affiliate link, which means that I'll earn a little money if you click through and buy the product. :) If you'd rather not use my link, feel free to go directly to Amazon instead!

2 comments:

Mary Ann said...

I recently started reading The Chronicles of Narnia myself! I was at my aunt & uncle's house on New Year's Day & saw a huge book on their shelf that has all 7 stories in it. They let me borrow it & I'm well into The Magician's Nephew already! So far I'm loving it!

Unknown said...

That is a STEAL for those audio cds! I will check into that asap. We've read through all the narnia books with Chloe already but I want to begin them again soon as she was too young to fully enjoy them. Thanks for the tip on the other narnia guide book. I don't usually like that type of book but I'll check it out because of your recommendation and the fabulous price at CBD.