r02 – Many Ways to Read Narnia
March 9, 2012
Listen to as PODCAST: LMR002-Reading Narnia
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How many orders can you read The Chronicles of Narnia in? Let me count the ways!
If you were alive in the 1950’s when the Narnia series by C.S. Lewis came out you practically had only one way to read them…in the order they were published. These days what’s known as the chronological order (the sequence the events happen) is the choice being promoted…at least by the publishing company.
Did you know you could also read them in at least three other ways? The written order, the final completion order and the alphabetical order! Confused yet?! If you are new to the Chronicles most suggest you begin with the published order…this puts The Magician’s Nephew next to last and The Lion, the Witch and The Wardrobe first. After completing all books this way you can then choose whatever order you want!
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Learn More:
- In What Order Should the Narnia Books Be Read? – Article from NarniaWeb.com
- Purchase The Chronicles of Narnia
5 Comments
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I am a firm “Wardrobian;” if you are reading the series for the first time, The Lion, the Witch, and the Wardrobe is without question the place to start! Yes, I know C. S. Lewis seemed to lean toward a chronological reading, but this is one of the few subjects on which we do not agree.
William, I highly enjoy both your posts and podcasts–very glad I found this blog!
To be pedantically mathematical, there are 7! permutations of ways to read the 7 books, or 5040 ways. If I assign numbers according to publication style it goes like this:
1234567: publication order
1234576
1234657
1234675
1234756
1234765
1234467
and so on. Only very few of these orders are likely to be simply justified in words.