A personal reflection on The Lion, the Witch and the Wardrobe — the first fantasy novel that sparked a lifelong love of reading, imagination, and adventure.
These were the covers that i had as a 12 y/o, and still have on one of my bookshelves. There was a Walden books down the street ( maybe a mile) that i would hit for fantasy sci-fi and history( mainly ww2) , of which i still own most of the books from that time. ( i did purge a couple thousand some time back...still have too many)
Holy moly - you PURGED a couple thousand! I am in awe. I thought my book collection was getting large. (btw - I can still envision the smell of walking into Walden Books - one of my most favorite smells in the world.)
Pretty crazy to think of Lewis and Tolkien writing their classics simultaneously. My friends and I cannot even come up with a date to get together to play Gloomhaven without difficulty. :
Yes! And that Lewis's Space Trilogy resulted from a pact/bet, in which both agreed to write a science fiction story. Lewis had to write about space travel, Tolkien about time travel. In true JRRT fashion, his time travel story was never completed and published, although its elements resulted in the story of the Fall of Numenor, an essential component of the LOTR mythology!
Oddly enough, it was The Hobbit. I saw the animated film when I was in elementary school but had no clue there was a book to go with it. One day I was walking through my high school library and found a book by the same name. It even had a thing in the front about now being an animated movie.
A day or two later, having finished The Hobbit, I asked the librarian if they had anything else by the same author and she walked me over to the shelf and handed me all three books of LOTR.
But it wasn't until my friend saw me reading LOTR and let me borrow his copies of the Dragonlance Chronicles that I truly fell in love with the genre though.
Love the memories, Jim, thank you for sharing! The Hobbit movie and book, Lord of the Rings, Dragonlance . . . you're an adventurer after my own heart!
Signum University has a series of "Publication Order" merchandise on their redbubble page. I'm glad I read them in the publication order, as I think reading Magician's Nephew first would have perhaps removed some of the wonder than I shared with the children as they discovered the magic wardrobe. It can work both ways- some mysteries begin with the crime (and identify the culprit), with the story being about how the detective connects the dots. In others, you don't get the reveal until the end. In this case, I know my preference...
Aha! So I did read them in Publication order. I didn't realize that. I was considering re-reading them in the order they come out in nowadays, but to your point, for new readers, it could really dampen the magic of the world and the connection readers have with the Pevensie children throughout the entire series. (I remember reading the later books after LWW and wondering, "When are Peter, Susan, Edmund & Lucy going to show up again?")
This has always been a great intro into the world of fantasy. My daughter has started reading it and is hooked. Not her first fantasy novel but first of the classics and she's now asked about The Hobbit.
It was Narnia for me too, the very set you have highlighted here, though they long ago fell to pieces and have been replaced. Funny story though: I read Narnia before owning them, and when I asked for a set (probably 5th grade) I was given the Chronicles of Prydain instead. I was so mad I didn’t open the set for months! Fortunately I got over it after a few months and read them, discovering another wonderful world to explore. But Narnia was first — it’s even the first line of my bio!
OMG that is hilarious, Stace! And get this - when I was looking up newer Amazon versions of The Chronicles of Narnia, guess what also showed up in the search? Yup, The Chronicles of Prydain.
For YEARS as a kid, I had The High King as part of my collection (from a Scholastic Bookfair), not realizing it was the last book of the series. So, I never read it. Scholastic never came back with the 1st book in the series, and eventually, years later, I let that book go.
Soooo, back to present day - seeing a boxed set of the Chronicles of Prydain show up on Amazon (at an amazing sale price) . . . that boxed set is now sitting on my desk. I'm actually quite a bit excited to start reading them.
I had Narnia and LOTR, but I think the series that really opened fantasy to me was the Lone Wolf gamebook series by Joe Dever. Growing up an only child, I certainly enjoyed D&D sessions with my buddies… but it was my solo adventures, in solitary with my character sheet, trying to live through the next conflict, playing my small part in a larger world, inspired me to enjoy fantasy in general. My father also had lots of sci-fi so I enjoyed a further exploration of sci-fi with books like Splinter in the Mind’s Eye, or Star Trek novels or Integral Trees (where I read my first sex scene!) were all foundational to understanding WORLDs were out there to be built, enjoyed and discovered. But yes, the artwork of those old Narnia books seemed to capture the simple oddness of another realm, the comical yet realistic contradictions that would walk there and the “otherness” that we seek in those worlds to both escape and understand our own mundane world. Long live fantasy!
Well said, Andy! And thank you for sharing some of your fantasy origin story. That's cool your father was a good influence on you for building a life-long appreciation for Imagination.
I'm not familiar with Integral Trees - but now for some reason I feel really interested!
These were the covers that i had as a 12 y/o, and still have on one of my bookshelves. There was a Walden books down the street ( maybe a mile) that i would hit for fantasy sci-fi and history( mainly ww2) , of which i still own most of the books from that time. ( i did purge a couple thousand some time back...still have too many)
Holy moly - you PURGED a couple thousand! I am in awe. I thought my book collection was getting large. (btw - I can still envision the smell of walking into Walden Books - one of my most favorite smells in the world.)
I still have my box set. I should just shrink wrap it now.
That might suffocate the Lion and the Witch, BD. (The Wardrobe should be ok, though.)
Pretty crazy to think of Lewis and Tolkien writing their classics simultaneously. My friends and I cannot even come up with a date to get together to play Gloomhaven without difficulty. :
Right?! It's also really cool that they knew and corresponded with each other.
Yes! And that Lewis's Space Trilogy resulted from a pact/bet, in which both agreed to write a science fiction story. Lewis had to write about space travel, Tolkien about time travel. In true JRRT fashion, his time travel story was never completed and published, although its elements resulted in the story of the Fall of Numenor, an essential component of the LOTR mythology!
I never knew that! Thanks for sharing, Peter! 🤯
Oddly enough, it was The Hobbit. I saw the animated film when I was in elementary school but had no clue there was a book to go with it. One day I was walking through my high school library and found a book by the same name. It even had a thing in the front about now being an animated movie.
A day or two later, having finished The Hobbit, I asked the librarian if they had anything else by the same author and she walked me over to the shelf and handed me all three books of LOTR.
But it wasn't until my friend saw me reading LOTR and let me borrow his copies of the Dragonlance Chronicles that I truly fell in love with the genre though.
Love the memories, Jim, thank you for sharing! The Hobbit movie and book, Lord of the Rings, Dragonlance . . . you're an adventurer after my own heart!
My introduction to The Hobbit, funny enough, was the text adventure computer game of the same name, which included a copy of the book! https://www.rediscoveredrealms.com/p/tolkien-reading-day-2023-a-software
The original order, the order in which Lewis wrote them, is the proper order.
I've been toying with the idea of reading them in that order the next time I crack open the books. Perhaps this is the time!
Signum University has a series of "Publication Order" merchandise on their redbubble page. I'm glad I read them in the publication order, as I think reading Magician's Nephew first would have perhaps removed some of the wonder than I shared with the children as they discovered the magic wardrobe. It can work both ways- some mysteries begin with the crime (and identify the culprit), with the story being about how the detective connects the dots. In others, you don't get the reveal until the end. In this case, I know my preference...
https://www.redbubble.com/i/sticker/Publication-Order-by-SignumStore/87955013.JCQM3
Aha! So I did read them in Publication order. I didn't realize that. I was considering re-reading them in the order they come out in nowadays, but to your point, for new readers, it could really dampen the magic of the world and the connection readers have with the Pevensie children throughout the entire series. (I remember reading the later books after LWW and wondering, "When are Peter, Susan, Edmund & Lucy going to show up again?")
This has always been a great intro into the world of fantasy. My daughter has started reading it and is hooked. Not her first fantasy novel but first of the classics and she's now asked about The Hobbit.
💪 That is so cool, Eric! You are raising your daughter right!
It was Narnia for me too, the very set you have highlighted here, though they long ago fell to pieces and have been replaced. Funny story though: I read Narnia before owning them, and when I asked for a set (probably 5th grade) I was given the Chronicles of Prydain instead. I was so mad I didn’t open the set for months! Fortunately I got over it after a few months and read them, discovering another wonderful world to explore. But Narnia was first — it’s even the first line of my bio!
OMG that is hilarious, Stace! And get this - when I was looking up newer Amazon versions of The Chronicles of Narnia, guess what also showed up in the search? Yup, The Chronicles of Prydain.
For YEARS as a kid, I had The High King as part of my collection (from a Scholastic Bookfair), not realizing it was the last book of the series. So, I never read it. Scholastic never came back with the 1st book in the series, and eventually, years later, I let that book go.
Soooo, back to present day - seeing a boxed set of the Chronicles of Prydain show up on Amazon (at an amazing sale price) . . . that boxed set is now sitting on my desk. I'm actually quite a bit excited to start reading them.
I had Narnia and LOTR, but I think the series that really opened fantasy to me was the Lone Wolf gamebook series by Joe Dever. Growing up an only child, I certainly enjoyed D&D sessions with my buddies… but it was my solo adventures, in solitary with my character sheet, trying to live through the next conflict, playing my small part in a larger world, inspired me to enjoy fantasy in general. My father also had lots of sci-fi so I enjoyed a further exploration of sci-fi with books like Splinter in the Mind’s Eye, or Star Trek novels or Integral Trees (where I read my first sex scene!) were all foundational to understanding WORLDs were out there to be built, enjoyed and discovered. But yes, the artwork of those old Narnia books seemed to capture the simple oddness of another realm, the comical yet realistic contradictions that would walk there and the “otherness” that we seek in those worlds to both escape and understand our own mundane world. Long live fantasy!
Well said, Andy! And thank you for sharing some of your fantasy origin story. That's cool your father was a good influence on you for building a life-long appreciation for Imagination.
I'm not familiar with Integral Trees - but now for some reason I feel really interested!
Totally. But now that I live in Colorado, I just have to open my front door instead of wardrobes to see some snowy woods. 😄