Chronicles of Narnia

My summer activity list included reading all seven books in the Chronicles of Narnia series by C.S. Lewis. This was something I put on my 30 before 30. Since I grew up in the church, I think people were shocked to hear that I hadn't read the Chronicles of Narnia. I'm simply not into fantasy. But, I had seen movie The Lion, The Witch, and The Wardrobe and since I enjoyed it, I thought I would also enjoy the book series.
Wrong. One word sums up my 'attempt' to read The Chronicles of Narnia...FAIL. I couldn't do it. I started the series the first week of summer with the first book, The Magician's Nephew. It definitely started slow for me, but towards the end, I enjoyed it because of all the symbolism of creation and sin.

The Lion, The Witch, and The Wardrobe was probably my favorite read...most likely because I had seen the movie, knew the story line, and had an idea of where everything was going. There was tons of spiritual symbolism, and I loved the image of Aslan as God and Redeemer.

The third book, The Horse and His Boy, was just no good. I could not get into this book. I dreaded reading it. It took me a few weeks to make it all the way through. I think I had such a bad taste after this book, that it tampered my experience for the rest of the endeavor.

When I started reading Prince Caspian, I was glad to see the original characters reappear. I felt like I started to get back into the story...but that didn't seem to last long. I struggled through this book, and by the time I finished it, I was depressed that I still had three more books left in the series.

I am stubborn though, and I was determined to read all seven books because...well, I had said I wanted to read the series before I turned 30. So, I picked up The Voyage of the Dawn Treader, and started reading away. By this point, school was about to start back up, I was busy, and the time between readings began to become longer and longer. It took me close to a month to get through this book, which made it hard to get into.

Five down, two to go. I can do it. I started The Silver Chair, got about 50 pages in, and finally said, "I quit." I was so tired of dreading the book that I was reading. The whole point of my 30 Before 30 is to do things I'm excited about, and if I'm no longer excited about doing something on my list, then I shouldn't keep doing it.

The Chronicles of Narnia just wasn't for me. Too much fantasy and description. I'm too ADD to follow it. I did enjoy the spiritual symbolism, but not enough to read the last two books.

I have officially moved on and decided to go the classic route soon. I just bought two Jane Austin books (since reading some classics is on my list). But, before I tackle that, I'm going to spend some time reading a few books that I have been looking forward to reading for some time. I just started The Help and am loving it so far. It's great to read a book that I don't want to put down.