What I was not able to mention in my previous blog post was that the thing that brought me back to book buying and readings was, finding this huge bargain of The Chronicles of Narnia books 1-7 at a Book Sale, for only 40 pesos per book! (Less than a dollar each.)
Inspired by my great find, I decided to once again comb the second hand book stores for even more bargains. But nothing came up except for Weekend by Christopher Pike, and The Horse Whisperer by Nicholas Evans, something that I haven't read and which I hope is good, because its not my normal genre of interest and I only got it to keep an open mind about books in general.
I have read up to Book 4, Prince Caspian, when I took a break and shifted back to Pikean horror. Narnia books are children's books.
It sort of reminded me of how kids would pretend to live in fairy worlds - at least kids back in our grandparents' times. Kids these days don't need to pretend; they just play computer games.I never could figure out of the stories contain religious / political symbolization. In The Lion, The Witch and the Wardrobe, though, I find the death and resurrection of Aslan similar to some Christian beliefs. Then again, what does that teach? Then maybe, it was no symbol at all. Maybe not all fairy book authors are like Philip Pullman, who is an atheist bent on destroying God in the minds of children. BTW, I loved Pullman's book, The Cockney Queen, which did not remind me of religion but which seemed to me like it was laced with political undertones.
All the same, I liked The Magician's Nephew and The Horse and His Boy. Too bad they made only the second book into a movie. I'm sure the first book being made into a movie would have been better. Then again, it wasn't as adventurous as the second one. I just thought that it was better written, that Polly and Diggory were better characterized.
Well, off to the rest of the books, then...
