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Special_K

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I'm sure this question has been asked a thousand times...

But what is the best order to read the books?

I wanna read them in chronological order by year.

For example they first go 2 Narnia...then the 2nd time and so on.

What is the best order?

Thanks!

Kyle
 
If you have the box set, go from first to last. I have started with The Magaicians Nephew, then LWW etc.

Hope that helps?

x
 
Recomended reading order is MN THEN LWW, thats what it says in the book. but if its more of a surprise to read that then yeah.

x
 
Many of the books in the Chronicles of Narnia are meant to be read in order. I am talking about the storylines involving Caspian (if you read these particular books out of order, they won't make much sense, as they are referring to events chronologically). These books include: PRINCE CASPIAN, VOYAGE OF THE DAWN TREADER, and the SILVER CHAIR.

I would recommend reading the books as such:

--THE LION, THE WITCH, AND THE WARDROBE (though chronologically the second, this was written first and is the best introduction to Narnia).
--PRINCE CASPIAN
--THE VOYAGE OF THE DAWN TREADER
--THE SILVER CHAIR
--THE MAGICIAN'S NEPHEW (chronologically the first book, though better to read further into the series, as it was written much later than LWW. This book tells the beginning of Narnia.)
--THE LAST BATTLE (This book tells the end of Narnia.)

I have omitted THE HORSE AND HIS BOY from the list, as I feel that this book can be read at any point in the Chronicles after LWW and before THE LAST BATTLE, although it would be best, I think, to read it either before PRINCE CASPIAN or between THE SILVER CHAIR and THE MAGICIAN'S NEPHEW. That way, the Caspian storyline remains uninterrupted.

I hope this helps. Or at least, I hope it makes sense.
 
Special_K said:
I'm sure this question has been asked a thousand times...

But what is the best order to read the books?

I wanna read them in chronological order by year.

For example they first go 2 Narnia...then the 2nd time and so on.

What is the best order?

Thanks!

Kyle
Click to expand...


I'm sure it's confusing to you since you haven't read the books, this whole mess about chronological vs publishing order. You see, us that have had the books awhile, our books are numbered 1-7 in the order that they were published. That's the way we read them. LWW was published first, and is marked as book #1 in my set, followed by #2 Prince Caspian, #3 Dawn Treader, #4 Silver Chair, #5 Horse and His Boy, #6 Magician's Nephew, and finally #7 the last battle.

Somewhere along the line the publisher decided to re-number them and put them into chronological order, so the newer distributed sets are numbered differently. Thing is, when you read them in this order some things don't make sense because they aren't being read in the order that they were written. MN was written to be a flashback, so it doesn't make much since to read it first in my opinion.

I would definately say that LWW needs to be read first, it is the introduction to Narnia (though not the first trip into Narnia from our world). It describes the time difference which is important to understand while reading the other books. Like alot of people have already said, I think it's better to find out who Digory is later in the series than before reading LWW.

I think Prince Caspian and Dawn Treader should be read next...because they describe even better the time difference between the 2 worlds, and because you have alot of the same characters. The Silver Chair has to be read right after Dawn Treader (and it follows it in both publication order and chronological). As someone else said, Horse and His Boy can really be read whenever you want...it's a flashback to the Golden Age of Narnia that doesn't really have any information that is essential to any other book.

I think that basically the difference between reading them chronologically and in publication order is the difference in reading LWW first or MN. LWW is definately the better book to read first, if you read MN first then you have a much dimmer perspective of Narnia than you would if you had read LWW first, because of the whole mess with Jadis.

That's just my 2 cents, for what it's worth.
 
Hey, sounds like everyone's already stated their cool ideas, but I'll give mine anyway ;) I prefer LWW, PC, VDT, SC, HHB, MN, LBB just like C.S. Lewis wrote them, because he refers to parts of the other books in MN, HHB, and SC and it's best to recall these after you have already read them instead of wondering about them if you have not yet read them.
 
Daishi said:
I would go by publishing order, starting with the LWW, because it makes for more surprise when you get to the MN.
Click to expand...


My opinion start with the real published order. I love that order i cant stand reading the new order.
But its a good order aswell (the new order) because, then you can see how narnia all began and what not,


:rolleyes:
 
Well it has been about a month since I first made the post about how to read the books...

I decided I would go with the majority...

LWW, PC, VDT, SC, HAHB, MN, LB

I am almost done with VDT.

Thanks everyone!
 
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