Tasha’s Reviews > The Chronicles of Narnia > Status Update

Okay, I’m serious. I’m gonna finish this. Each chapter is about seven pages long so I’ll read a chapter a day. That means I’ll finish by mid-August. I got this!

Just starting the fifth chapter of The Horse and His Boy and I’m struggling with this! I think it’s because it’s part of an omnibus collection. I think if I were reading it as a standalone book I would have been done by now. This seems to take place after the main events in the Lion, Witch, and the Wardrobe but before they returned to their own lands. I think it’s about to get interesting. Where’s Bree?

Finished The Lion, the Witch, and The Wardrobe. I think this story has become synonymous with the entire series. I mean people don’t usually talk about the other books, just this one. I actually liked Magician’s Nephew more. On to The Horse and His Boy.

Edmund’s a little snot.

Started the third chapter of The Lion, The Witch and the Wardrobe. This is a reread, but I remember nothing except something called Turkish Delight. And I didn’t read this in the sixth grade like I was supposed to, but when I was in my mid to late 20s. The goal is to finish the whole series by the end of the year so I can read His Dark Materials and The Wingfeather Saga.

It’s an origin story and origin stories work best if the base is already familiar to the audience. (One’s not going to care how the magical wardrobe came to be unless you already know the wardrobe exists.) If it was meant to be the first book of the series, the Lewis would have wrote it first. But he wrote it years after knowing that a lot of children already read the other books.

Magician’s Nephew complete! I enjoyed it a lot more than I thought I would. 3.5 star read. I pretty much had a big, stupid grin on my face every time Digory and Polly argued. When I started reading Narnia some years ago, I skipped this. Apparently I decided to read in publication order. My intuition tells me it still may be best to read as a side story after reading the others.