23/05/15 - I am about half way through The Hobbit already! I am really enjoying it, finding it hard to put down to be honest. I'm really enjoying how closely the films stuck to the book. The story is so intricate and detailed that it would have been silly for the films to have strayed away from that. Cannot wait to read the rest of it.
05/05/15 - So, I finished the last book in the Narnia series tonight. I did not see the ending coming at all! I don't want to spoil it as I would really recommend that people go and read the series. They are brilliant... but the ending... WOW! I was nearly crying on the train home. As I've found with some of C. S. Lewis' installments in the series, the story takes a long time to get going. I mean, in 172 pages I'd say the first 90 are slow. There is a lot of setting the scene and explaining how events unfolded. It's all necessary but the pace is fairly perfunctory. However, I hit page 100 and literally couldn't put the book down until it was over.
For a children's series, I'd say there were parts that were a little dark, especially in the last book but I think that they are definitely books that young teenagers would cope with and should read! They are easy to read in the sense of vocab and print size. Contextually again, they are accessible. Lewis is a true genius at writing tales that have no deeper meaning if you don't want them too. But if you are obvservant enough, or of that inclination to see the deeper message in Lewis' writing.... it slaps you in the face in places. The last few chapters of The Last Battle especially. Anyone who's been to Sunday school will see the correlation and it is done beautifully. As a Christian, it was a really relevant portrayal of the coming of Christ and how He rules all. It was done so subtly and so softly that you don't feel overwhelmed but it is stunningly obvious what Lewis is trying to convey.
A brilliant piece of writing! I will definitely be holding onto the series to read to my children.
Now onto The Hobbit!
24/04/15 - I can't believe I haven't already put this on my blog. I'd sort of forgotten about it and then today, it just arrived in my head. It's another blog post that I can update and people can join in/follow my progress through the challenge.
The BBC has put together a list of 100 books.... well actually it's a few more than a hundred as some series count as 1. They reckon that the majority of people will only read 6 of the 100. So at the beginning of 2015 I set out to work my through the list.
I started with the Narnia series and then plan to move onto The Hobbit and The Lord of The Rings.
So far I have finished six of the seven books from The Chronicles of Narnia.
I finished the first two in the a few days after New Year. I just stayed at home and read, trying to avoid the rubbish weather before heading back to work for a new term.
It took me a long time to get through The Horse and His Boy but I really enjoyed it once the story picked up. It just took a while to keep going.
Loved this one! Zipped through it in a few days. I love re-reading these stories as an adult. The messages that come through them are so clear and speak in new ways reading them 10 years on from the first time I went through the series,
This is probably my favourite story in the whole series. The adventure at sea, discovery of new lands, finding the ends of the earth. It takes me in hook, line and sinker. Fantastic writing.
Just like The Horse and His Boy, I struggled with this one originally. It was such a strange concept and a lot of book seemed to have been read before any of the action really got going but the concept in the end was great and I liked how it started to tie all the characters in together before the culmination in the final book where they all reappear. I had not read this volume of the series before so it was a great discovery of a book I did not already have vague memories of.
I am still reading The Last Battle which is the final installment of C S Lewis' series. So far, it is really good. About half way through. Will update as and when I finish it.
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