I've picked up my giant Narnia collection again. I've read the first two books a couple of times. I'm about to start The Horse and His Boy. I'm reading them in chronological order, not published order.
Just finished "The Horse and His Boy." On to "Prince Caspian." Reading them in chronological order is weird. I don't know if reading them in published order makes any more sense, but chronologically they jump around a bit and it's a little... I don't know. Confusing, I guess. My book does come with a handy dandy timeline to help me out, though, so that's nice.
I just finished Prince Caspian. I'm on to The Voyage of the Dawn Treader. I knew going into the Narnia series that had many allegories to God and Jesus and the Bible and all that good junk. So far, I think I've done well to gloss over all that (I'm an atheist) and just look at it as a fantasy series. The thing I'm most bothered by (besides the boys getting to fight and the girls sitting on the sidelines) is the characterization of Susan. I think it was wise of CS Lewis to have a hardcore skeptic amongst the four kids. But the way he writes her and the others reactions to her makes her out to be the bad guy a lot of the time. It's obvious that Lucy and Edmund are the real believers and they have a connection because of that. And in one passage, Lewis writes that Lucy is Peter's favorite sister. What kind of thing is that to say? So the three of them are a group and Susan is the metaphorical third wheel? I feel like Susan is going to be made into a pariah if/when she shows up in the last three books. I liked her characterization in the movies much better.
I'm currently reading more than one (I rarely read just one book at once) but the newest that I just started reading today is "The Hunger Games" by Suzanne Collins. It was great right from the beginning. I saw the movie and loved it so I have high hopes for the book.