The Bookening

The Bookening really enjoyed The Magician's Nephew. That's right, they liked it a ton. Did you know this was the last Narnia book that C. S. Lewis wrote? Even though it was the second to last published, and now some dumb publishers label it as the first book that kids should read? Well, it was. And you can tell, because it feels like C. S. Lewis has the kinks worked out, and is just chillaxed and ready to tell a great Narnia story. Which he does. And we really liked it. Because we do like C. S. Lewis from time to time. Actually lots of the time. Just listen. Thank you.

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Thanks, Patrons! The Bookening is returning to Narnia with The Horse and His Boy, a book that is a personal favorite of many a boy and girl. But will it be the personal favorite of The Bookening crew? Our heroes also provide their final thoughts and rankings for The Silver Chair. This could be a controversial episode, beware! But also a big, good, fun one. In our humble opinion. Listen right now.

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In this episode our heroes discuss Richard II. More specifically The Hollow Crown version, which they find to be absolutely delightful and awesome and, in a word, good.

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Our heroes take what they hope is a very short hiatus from Narnia, and begin discussing the Henriad by one William Shakespeare. They will be talking about Richard II, Henry IV, Parts 1 and 2, and Henry V, specifically keying off 'The Hollow Crown' production that the BBC did a few years ago. Onward and upward!

Our heroines (what???) review Little Women by Louisa May Alcott.

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Thank you to everyone who helped us continue our Narnia series. Now, our heroes talk about The Silver Chair. The heroic optimism (yeah, optimism) of Puddleglum, claustrophobia in stories about caves, Neo-platonism, the dumbness of Pascal's wager as it related to C. S. Lewis, and more.

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Jake really loves this book. Brandon does not as much. Thus disagreement stalks The Bookening crew in this episode, as Brandon goes on the attack against some of the more, shall we say, mystical elements of The Voyage of the Dawn Treader. And, after about 45 minutes, Jake goes on the defense, because he just really likes the boy's adventure of this book. All this and more.

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Our heroes discuss Prince Caspian, a novel that they really liked, except for some weird pagan stuff at the end. What was Lewis doing there and why? Our heroes have plenty to say about that. But first they talk about many of the great things about the book, which may not rank that highly among Narnia rankers, but our heroes agree is a good one. LISTEN NOW!

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Our heroes discuss The Lion, the Witch, and the Wardrobe, C. S. Lewis's 'supposal' theory of allegory, whether these books ARE allegory or not, what the book gets wrong and right about the resurrection, the importance of discipline in children's literature, which character Jake may or may not have named a kid after, and more ...

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In which our heroes try to clean up some mess regarding C. S. Lewis and some of his more interesting opinions. And then talk about the baggage they bring to Lewis and Narnia. And predict which Narnia books they will like the most, and which they will like the least this time around.