What was the first Narnia book you read?

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Spare Oom

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What was the first Narnia book you read, and what made you want to read it?

The first one I read was Prince Caspian, which I borrowed from the school library when I was nine. It was the picture of Caspian on the front cover, fleeing through the shadowy forest on his horse (1970s Puffin paperback edition), which caught my attention and made me want to read it. I felt the haunting, nostalgic quality of those first few chapters despite the fact that I hadn't read any of the other books and didn't know about the previous adventures of Peter, Susan, Edmund and Lucy. It was obvious that I had missed something and, once I'd finished Prince Caspian, I was eager to read more. The next book to come my way was The Silver Chair, so again I had the feeling of having missed something as Eustace explained to Jill about Narnia. A gripping story, The Silver Chair, with some good twists, eg. the three signs being more complex than they at first appear.

I read the rest of the series in the order in which I happened to stumble upon them, though fortunately I did read The Last Battle last.

Since then I've read the series in chronological order (beginning with The Magician's Nephew) about five times. Next time I intend to read them in order of publication (beginning with The Lion, the Witch and the Wardrobe), just to see if it makes any difference.
 
I think sometime back this question was posed, but it is a good one.

My first book was LWW, read to me by my elder brother while we were on vacation with our other five siblings and parents in the western U.S. At the time we read to book, we were staying at our great uncle's home at a curve in the Snake River in Wyoming. He had this neat little log cabin cottage on a huge ranch, and we sat in front of the fireplace as we read. Like you, Spare Oom, I was about 9, and though I could have read it myself, it was fun to be read to since my big brother was a great friend and put good drama into it. I remember we took a break to each Snickers bars, which he jokingly dubbed "Turkish Delight." I was hooked on the books, especially their grittiness amid all the maudlin stuff I had to wade through as a kid, but it took some time for me to pick up the others and finish them. Caspian was my favorite to beat LWW, but Dawn Treader, for me anyway, left them both behind.
 
*Moseley*princess*, hope you will read and re-read all seven books and get a lot of enjoyment from them. I still read them and I'm in my thirties!

Lovely to hear about your memories of The Lion, the Witch and the Wardrobe, Parthian King. I agree that Dawn Treader beats the rest - it really captures my imagination.
 
I've been familiar with Narnia ever since I can remember, because I grew up watching the BBC television series which began viewing when I was only 2. So I knew the story of LWW long before I read the book. Even so, it isn't the first Narnia book I read. My sister had the box set of the series and had read Horse and His Boy and I decided to read it too, when I was very young. I absolutely loved it, and since that time have read that book more than any other Narnia one - honestly at least 20 times.

After Horse and His Boy I read Magician's Nephew and then read the rest of the series in order, with The Last Battle being read last. I don't feel that reading the third book first changed the experience for me, because it's the most obscure of all C.S. Lewis's books in the Narnia series and doesn't fit as well into the scheme of things. I still loved it whole-heartedly though :D.
 
I read The Magicians Nephew first because after I saw the movie LWW (2005 Walden Media, of course!) I became really interested-----obsessed :D -----with Narnia and so ofcourse I would want to read its chronicles!!
I started with MN first because I thought, if thats how CS Lewis wanted it to be read....and he's the author of the chronicles.....then why shouldnt i read them in the correct order??
And yes I enjoyed them. I am now on The Last Battle.

Sofia
 
I read them in order of publishing...w/ the LWW first...that's the way C. S. Lewis wrote them so i figured that way it would make the most sense....and i like the way i did it...it just makes the magicians nephew that much more exciting when you come back to it....
 
well i was in the 3rd grade when my teacher read the whole series to my class (so i was 8 or so), and since then i've read the series 5 mor times, and i read them in order, but i don't read T.H.A.H.B. until i'm done with the whole series!
but i beleive (as i posted in other threads) that Prince Caspian is by far the best!
 
The first book I read is the Lion, the Witch, and the Wardrobe. :) And I hardly even remember if I did actually read it or not, because it was at school and I think we all had to read it, but maannnyyy years ago when I was tinier. ^.^

Anyways, I've only read the whole series earlier this month, and I'm in the middle of reading them again. :p The only reason I'm pretty sure I did read LWW before was that I remembered imagining giant Rumblebuffin (or...was it? I don't remember the name) hitting the gates of the Witch's castle.

My favourite has to be the Voyage of the Dawn Treader, I don't think any other of the books quite had the same wonder and magic and mystery of that one, it really made use of my imagination (which had been dormant for so long) and for some reason, it made me so happy. Last Battle would be a very close second if it didn't break my heart in the first half of the book. ;)
 
The first book I read was The Magician's Nephew...I was told afterwards that the order in which I read the books (allegedly chronological) was not the original one, but oh well, the Chronicles of Narnia is good in any order.
 
My first narnia book i read was The Lion, The Witch, and The Wardrobe :rolleyes: .


First when i was quite young i watched the animated LWW version :p , thats how i got introduced to narnia. So thats how i knew the story, i'd read the picture book, and then finally after a long while in grade 7 which was a few years ago i read the chapter book of LWW not the picture book, then i read Prince Caspian, and then Voyage of the dawn treader, and then The Silver Chair, and The The Horse and His boy, and then Magicians Nephew and last but not least The Last Battle i read all seven during the summer which is two months off from school.
I re-read the books many times during the years, not in order though, just one thatim in the mood to re-read again, Ive loved Narnia all my life, and LWW is without a doubt my favourite book of the seven.
I love the Last Battle, i love King Tirian<3 :). I dont know what my least fave would be i think it would have to Magicians Nephew. :cool:
 
the i read MN first cuz my mom got me the book and said that i might like it...and ya know wut..I love the books!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
 
I read first LWW; it was what started it all. But afterwards I read TMN, and then skipped to Horse and His Boy, and went on thus in chronological order, to keep in line with the history of Narnia and the events of the Chronicles.

LWW and TMN remain my most favorite stories. Caspian follows closely behind.
 
Lww

;) i read LWW even though i knew the chronological order of the books. my mom suggested i read them in the order Lewis wrote them...so i did. i actuall ylike that way better
 
Mine was The Voyage of the Dawn Treader. That's the first book ever given to me. And that's when I started loving Narnia. The first character I ever loved and knew was Edmund. Next was Lucy. I also grew to like Caspian. When I read the other books, I really loved Narnia! :)
 
Last Battle. the first character I ever loved was Jill.
It was such a tear-jearker :(
But once I read the other books, they so totally got me hooked! I really love Narnia no matter what book! :D
 
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