Lois & Clark Forums Forums General Discussion Off Topic Good books, good memories

I think I must have them in publication order -- the order he wrote them in.

TLTW&TW
Prince Caspian
The Voyage of the 'Dawntreader'
The Silver Chair
The Horse and His Boy
The Magician's Nephew
The Last Battle

My set was by Collier Books, printed in 1970 as far as I can tell, though that would have been a little bit early for me

I can see that TMN is the book set the earliest within the series -- and for some series, I think internal chronological order is important -- but that one just doesn't seem a good introduction.

Never saw TLTW&TW on BBC but I was in London 10-12 years ago, and there was a children's theater doing a live version And before we went home, they switched over to another one... don't recall which one... so we got to see that, too. It was fun <g> Plus, even though we had seats in the back, we had a great view, 'cause most of the other patrons were under 4ft tall

PJ

Well, I made said trip to said bookstore this afternoon. And thanks to this list and Loriel's suggestions I dropped just over 90,000 won on a *stack* of books - unfortunately I couldn't find most of the books or authors you had listed. Had decided that I really wanted to start with Anne McAffrey (oh dear, did I spell that right?) but only her latest Pern book was on the shelf, and I didn't want to start in the middle of a series. Looked at a bunch of other fantasy/sci-fi books, but couldn't decide which ones looked good enough, or they didn't have the first book of the series, etc. So finally settled on the first four Harry Potter books and the seven Narnia books. The Potter books are new to me, but I read the Narnia books as a kid. Repeatedly. Think I read 'The Lion, the Witch and the Wardrobe' at least twenty times! Yes, they are certainly sci-fi/fantasy, but my parents let me read them because CS Lewis was a Christian writer and they are Christian allegories. We were never allowed to read fiction when I was growing up, otherwise. I think finally I found some biblical fiction books that my parents let me read because after all, they were Bible stories. And then after I left home, I was very careful not to let them see my bookshelf. Until I moved back in with them this summer. And my dad had a fit. But I told him basically, 'Dad, I'm 34 - I don't give a flying flip what you think about my viewing or reading materials.' (I just made sure that I didn't subject him to anything he doesn't approve of, like me watching shows he doesn't approve of when he's downstairs working in his office.)

Anyway... If you like Biblical fiction, I love any of the books by Ellen Gunderson Traylor. Also, I really enjoyed the Zion Chronicals series by Bodie Thoene - these two series piqued my interest in the early State of Israel as well as WW II and the Holocaust, and Judaism, which I admit, I'm really *really* ignorant about...

I can't really name books anymore - I had a lot more books on my shelf before I was forced out of my apartment last Jan (2002). I had to dump a good 4/5ths of my books. Only kept my Star Trek books, some major music and education books, and a few novels. Mostly classics. I'm reduced to about three shelves now, and those are double-stacked. (Another shelf, also double-stacked, house my video collection, which I refused to do anything to!)

Hopefully these two sets I just got today will be a start to re-building what I'd lost...

Melisma (under her Rock, off to start in on Harry Potter and the Sorcerer's Stone - a new English-language book: Yippee!!! )

It's interesting just how many people here are keen on The Chronicles of Narnia. I also read them as a kid, and enjoyed them thoroughly. In fact, I gave a set to my nephew last summer. (They were supposed to be set aside as a Christmas present, but mum got confused when she took them over -- my brother lives abroad -- so the lucky kid ended up with a Christmas present, too!)

All the discussion about the chronology of the books intrigued me; I always thought that The Magician's Nephew came first, although I certainly didn't read it first. Anyway... So intrigued was I that I did a little websearch and... For anyone who is interested, you can find the result here .

Suffice to say, they weren't written or published in chronological order; Pam's list looks about right for the order they were written in. The author of the article linked to (above) seems to put forward a pretty good case for not reading them in chronological order, too, but points out that it really doesn't matter all that much.

Yes, the mentions of Narnia have stirred up some good memories, but I don't think they're quite up there on my most treasured book lists.

Oh, and whoever mentioned Shadow the Sheepdog? I'd forgotten entirely about that one, but I loved it when I was little. I also loved What Katy Did, What Katy Did At School and What Katy Did Next, plus the Laura Ingalls Wilder books.

I'm going to stop now, before I drown myself in nostalgia.

Chris

Pam,

Now that you've mentioned it, I seem to recall the publictaion order differing from 'suggested reading order'. The much older copy of TLTH&TW that I have, doesn't list MN in the inside cover, which struck as odd at the time, since, to my mind, it should be listed there if it was written first. I remember I had trouble trying to figure out which order I should read them in.

I was just discussing it with a friend, and she read

TLTW&TW
Prince Caspian
The Voyage of the 'Dawntreader'
The Silver Chair
The Last Battle

The Horse and His Boy was an 'additional story' for her and she's not read The Magician's Nephew.

It looks like its preference where in the series you read MN and The Horse and His Boy. For me tho, I much prefer to follow the chronological order of the story. (Tho, that theory got blown out the water with Star Wars - you can really only watch the new ones *after* you've seen the originals, IMO! )

Loriel

Chris,

You've listed more I enjoy! I was going to mention What Katy Did the first time, but they aren't in my 'all time favourites, tho I did enjoy them, so I thought my list was long enough. And you've reminded me of Little House on the Prairie as well, another series I really enjoyed!

Just been to read the link you posted, it was actually very enlightening. Thanks.

Loriel (who now wants to head home to read Narnia instead of going to see X-men 2 with friends!)

Ooh, what a wonderful thread! I have so many books that I love to read over and over that I don't know how I could possibly list them all... but I'll try.

Several other people said ones I love, but I'll still mention them.
Anne of Green Gables, by L.M. Montgomery, (and the other Anne books, but especially that one)
Emily of New Moon, by L.M. Montgomery, and all the other Emily books
Pride and Prejudice, by Jane Austen (also, to a lesser degree, Emma, Mansfield Park, and Northanger Abbey.
The Physician, by Noah Gordon.
Clan of the Cave Bear, by Jean M. Auel, as well as the others in the series.
Crooked House, by Agatha Christie.
Isle of View, by Piers Anthony, and the other Xanth books.
A Little Princess, by Frances Hodgson Burnett (did I get that name right?). Never really liked A Secret Garden, though. And never read it in French.
Arrows of the Queen, by Mercedes Lackey, and the other Valdemar books (but especially Talia's).
Fiddler Fair, by Mercedes Lackey.
Those are probably my biggest "comfort" books, books I reread and reread when I want the comfort of an old, familiar friend near me. The L.M. Montgomery, Jane Austen, Jean M. Auel books, as well as A Little Princess, are probably the biggest comfort books when I'm feeling down. Some of them also have movies, which, coincidentally, are some of my comfort movies as well (except for the Clan of the Cave Bear movie, which stunk).

Let's see. The whole listing of LMA's Little Women series is actually several series, but I've seen it listed as such. First is Little Women, then Little Men, then Jo's Boys. Eight Cousins and Rose In Bloom are part of another series. The other books all stand alone.

I've read the Narnia books both ways. To me, it makes more sense to read Magician's Nephew after Lion, because then you go "Oh, THAT'S who the Professor is!" Then again, it's a little easier to read chronologically, since Horse and His Boy takes place in the middle of Lion. I guess it depends on personal preference. I have to get new copies, as my current copies met a disastrous fate at the hands of terrible high school kids. I loved the live-action series, but its hard to find it on.

I've also read the Harry Potter series (forgot to add them since I've only had the books for a year and a half, read 3 times, and need to get them back from a friend ) and have pre-ordered the 5th one, but only a few weeks ago.

I'd completely forgotten about the Emily series. I'm going to have to get those now, because I don't think I have them. Also on my list of books to get are the Pollyanna series and the Little Colonel series. My grandmother has the older editions (turn of the century for the most part) and I would love to find similar copies. I might have to settle for paperback, though. I also have almost the whole Little House series, but I don't like them as much as I do LMA and LMM.

BTW, Elena, kudos for reading Crime and Punishment. I read it in 10th grade for a knowledge bowl, and thought that reading it *was* a crime and a punishment. It took me a whole month to read that book, when at that time I was reading a book that size in about 2-3 days. It just didn't hold my interest, so I would read a few pages, read another book, read a few pages, read a few other books..

Oh, I also want to add Stephen King's The Stand. Most of his books have a tendency to depress me within 2 chapters, but this is one that I keep coming to.. even though the author's extended version is a lil more disturbing than the first print.

I have read quite a few of the books mentioned in the thread. I have a particular fondness for Sherlock Holmes , and To Kill A Mockingbird.

My all-time favourite book? I have to say it is Norton Juster's The Phantom Tollbooth.

--meclone2--

[quote]Oh, I also want to add Stephen King's The Stand. Most of his books have a tendency to depress me within 2 chapters, but this is one that I keep coming to.. even though the author's extended version is a lil more disturbing than the first print.[quote/]

The King book I return to again and again is It. The characters are like old friends and I love them. Which also reminds me of another very battered and well-loved favourite, Dean Koontz's Watchers. Has me in tears every time.

Actually, I said on a thread a few months back that he'd begun to disappoint me as an author, but something weird happened lately. Bereft of anything new to read and without the funds to buy anything I started revisiting my bookshelves. And so far I've discovered that every Koontz book I've picked up thinking, 'Hmmmmmm...don't remember much about this except that I hated it' I've been throughly engrossed in and really enjoyed. To the point where I've resinstated him on my list of authors to add to my collection.

Going back to The Stand. Is there a lot of difference in the two versions? I keep meaning to buy the extended version, but I've never gotten around to it.

And, oooooooh - Phantom Tollbooth. Remember reading that as a kid and loving it.

LabRat

Well, the extended version had a lot of extra stuff in it, which really fleshed out the characters.. or just made them really weird. It's been a few years since I read either version, but I remember that the extended version has more about Trashy's trip from Gary to Las Vegas (Cibola!) and it has more of an epilogue. Maybe I should reread it.

I also love many of the McCaffrey Pern books, but the original trilogy remains my favorite. I think I "invested" the most in the original characters, and haven't gotten as involved with some of the later ones. In fact, I think I'm a couple of books behind...

The Anne of Green Gables series is, of course, wonderful. I haven't read these for years, but I introduced them to my 10-year-old son about a month ago. I was afraid that he would be unwilling to read books about a girl - I think only the fact that I have suggested a lot of other books that he has really liked is why he went along with it. And he's loving them, so I guess I'll have to reread them as well. It's probably time to try the Little House series next.

A series that I don't think anyone has mentioned yet is Diana Gabaldon's Outlander. I just checked with Amazon.com and see that a fifth book came out last year (which did NOT get a good review). I really enjoyed the first four, however: romance, time travel, great attention to detail (which I assume is accurate).

But, honestly, I haven't read a print novel in ages. Spending too much time online...

Kathy

Thanks, Karen - I really need to check it out.

I have to confess I've enjoyed each book in this series less than the previous one read. I adored the first one, really loved the second, I lost a little bit of interest when it moved from Scotland to the US <g> and I thought the fifth book - The Fiery Cross was absolutely appalling. My apologies to any die-hard Gabaldon fans. I think in that one, somewhere along the line, she forgot she was telling a story and just wanted to impress us with the historical research she'd done. It was hard work getting to the end and I'm not that keen to look out book six to be honest.

LabRat

This thread has set me off on a nostaglia trip on all the books I loved as a child. Among them the Carbonel books by Barbara Sleigh (about a magic cat and his adventures with some kids who save him from a witch).

I'm also remembering (though not very well, hence this post) a series of books about a boy and a dragon and their adventures. He had some kind of chant or spell that he used to summon the dragon to him. Yup, that's all I remember. Except that I have the idea that the author's first name was Rosemary. They'd have been written around the same time as the Carbonel and Madelaine L'Engle books.

I know I'll be extremely lucky if anyone recognises them from that - but thought it was worth a try as I'd love to rediscover them.

LabRat

Is "All of the above and then some" a valid answer? It's kind of exciting to see how similar some of my tastes in books are to the other people on theses boards. Yay!

I'll just do a quick run-back-through of the ones already listed that are on my favorites and then see what new ones I should add:

Lord of the Rings - really just read them for the first time back before the first movie came out, but I LOVED them.
The Chronicles of Narnia - count me in as another who loves them - although I guess I'm just a stickler for order, it makes me feel weird to read things in any order other than the way they are presented to me, so I read The Magician's Nephew first, and so on, as in the box set. Although I had seen the cartoon version of TLTW&TW already.
Where the Red Fern Grows - traumatizing as all heck for a 9 year old, but still a GREAT book!
Little Women oh, how I love this book!!! First time was 4th grade and I can't count the number of times since! I've read Little Men too and enjoyed it, but never went back to re-read it...
Janey Eyre and Wuthering Heights were really great too, but all my friends thought that I was stark raving looney-tunes to like them.
The Harry Potter Series yep, I'm another of the nuts! Knocked off the 4th book in about 3 days times. <g> And my roomie pre-ordered The Order of the Phoenix for me for my b-day - she's my new favorite friend in the whole wide world.

Ohmygoodness, I didn't think anyone else had read the Dark Is Rising series. I picked up the first book when I was about 14, and devoured the whole series. I now have all 5 books bound in 1. It's a great series, and I'm almost tempted to name my son Bran. But I have enough problems getting people to pronounce my internet name right, let alone trying to correct the pronounciation of Bran! (pronounced brahn, not braan like a muffin, if I remember correctly) It also taught me a bit about Welsh pronounciation. I still have to get the other book by her, Seaward.

I haven't read the Nancy Drew series in quite a few years. I have most of the original series in the yellow-bound covers, but they're still boxed up. I have to get a bigger bookshelf so I have room for all of our books.

I keep forgetting to add in authors and books. Another author I reread is Piers Anthony. I've read all of the Xanth novels out so far, the whole Apprentice Adept series, the whole Incarnations of Immortality series, and a few other random books of his.

Maybe I should buy stock in Barnes & Nobles or Amazon, since I give them so much money. ;-)

Hey, can I change my status from Cub Reporter to Bookworm? I think it'd fit me more.

Hm... Has anyone noticed that I've been pretty quiet on the boards the last couple hours? That's 'cause I've been reading Harry Potter for most of them. After I made my last post, I went upstairs, stayed up until 4am (got home about 10ish I think) reading, then got a little sleep. Woke up about 10am or so, started reading again, broke for some brunch, went back to reading, took a break, checked my email (but not the boards), read some more - and am just now (4pm-ish) checking the boards. And I've finished book one, and am halfway through book two. I'm really going to have to try to ration the 11 books I bought yesterday - 90,000 won is a heck of a lot to drop in one day, and I could easily finish all of them within a week, even with taking time to teach the 8 classes that I have this term, starting on Monday!

Melisma (under her Rock, completely sucked into HarryPotterLand )

Don't know why that reminded me, but it did. <g> Another King book that's a big favourite is The Green Mile. Wonderful movie too.

And another author in the same genre, Robert McCammon, keeps me enthralled with his Swan Song and The Wolf's Hour novels.

LabRat

Oh, yes "The Dark is Rising" is a great series Lloyd Alexander's Prydain series was great, too.

My brother was nutty about The Phantom Toll Booth, but I never went wild about it -- I preferred a different book, which was about an apartment building full of people who were all connected, in some way, with this reclusive old guy, and he set up an elaborate puzzle game for them to figure out where his money was; he set them up into teams of two, and the first ones who got there got to keep it... one of the main characters, as I recall, was an 11-yr old girl called Turtle <g> It was a very funny book, and there was lots of character development as they all re-evaluated how they interacted with other people. Haven't the slightest clue what it was called <sigh>

Thanks for the link to that Narnia essay, that was pretty cool

And add me to the list of Madeline L'Engle fans The first three plus a lot of the follow-ups, though at some point I lost track. Had a terrible time figuring out how to pronounce Dennys (? one of the twins). <g> The one I remember was about dolphins and marine biology -- A Ring of Endless Light, I think it was.

PJ

Everything and anything written by Kathleen E. Woodiwiss or Virginia Henley. They write historical romances. Okay, I admit it. It's my one guilty pleasure I just have to live with it. That may be why I love reading nfic so much.

And anything rewritten by H.P. Lovecraft. He's the gothic horror writer who inspired others, like Steven King. It's harder to find his stuff, but if you do, it's definitely worth reading. Just make sure it's a nice sunny day out and all the lights are on!

PAM!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! That's The Westing Game! I loved that book!!! Forgot all about it, thanks for reminding me!!!

Jill