The Lion, The Witch & The Lampost...

No, don't worry, I haven't gone mad or changed the title of the famous and popular C.S.Lewis book. I have been enjoying a bit of late night musings.

A year ago we were in California visiting our friends and preparing for Thanksgiving. It was my first holiday where I had been able to take my kindle with about 200 books to choose from rather than the usual 3 or 4 paperbacks I was previously restricted to when travelling. Before going away I had downloaded a whole list of free downloads from authors I had always meant to read and never got around to doing so. Many of the stories had been made into films or portrayed in TV programs and so, the need to read them was somewhat diluted by knowing the  story and the characters already.

But there are some books which I really did still want to read. With the recent interest in Sherlock Holmes through the new films I reminded myself that I had never actually read a real Sherlock Holmes novel, How close to the character in the book was the character in the film? Would I now believe in the character in the book if it didn't match that portrayed in the film? While in California I decided I would read the first book written in the Sherlock Holmes series, A Study in Scarlet, and see how I got on with it. Over the next few nights I read several more of his short stories and before I knew it I'd read 10 stories.

Time for a change. Another set of free books that had downloaded were the Narnia Chronicles. I had seen various TV series and films of the C.S. Lewis books throughout my life, as well as reading the book of the Lion, the Witch and the Wardrobe while at school. I will be the first to admit that at the time of reading the book I had no idea it was part of a series and not a stand alone novel. The recent films had been the first time it had occurred to me that there were follow on adventures.

I decided I would read the series and although I knew the story well, I would start at the beginning with TLTW&TW.

Ha! I was absolutely stunned to find this is not the first book in the series. There is another book that fills that position, The Magician's Nephew - Never heard of it! And what's even more bizarre is that it is very much the equal of TLTW&TW as a story, infact I actually think it's better. It explains the wardrobe being magic, it explains the White Queen it even explains the lamp post. I loved it. Of all of the books it is my favourite.


Another book I needed to read was The Hobbit by J.R. Tolkein. Again, I knew the Lord of the Rings trilogy well from the films. I had the books on my shelf from Dad's collection. They were his favourite, most frequently read books along with The Hobbit, and I had not opened a single page in anyof them. He was always berating me for not having read them. I felt a duty to his memory to at least read The Hobbit. So, a while ago I finally downloaded The Hobbit to my kindle and read it. And yes Dad, you were right. I should have read it a long time ago, it is definitely my kind of story.


And this train of thought all started because I finished a book tonight. It's new, recently published by one of my favourite modern day authors, Cecelia Aherne. I enjoyed it, while not her best - P. S I Love will always be high on that list (and no, the film does not do it justice) along with A Place Called Here, to name but two.

And so I am at that place again, needing to choose my next book to read. 

I wonder what world I will choose to jump into this time.