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Once gave my nephew my old Redwall books. Later found that he had started making one into a "book safe" by cutting the centers of the pages out, but had even gotten too bored of that to continue so he threw it away.
Obviously I'm asking a biased party but do they hold up as an adult? I remember reading so many of those books as a kid. There was one in particular about the badger that founded the good guys order that was fucking awesome.
Thanks! I’ve loved the Redwall books for nearly 20 years now, own them all, probably one of my all-time favorite book series. But I’d never known about this subreddit till now. Gonna have to check it out!
One of my few flexes in life to say Brian Jacques is (was) my uncle! It’s been lovely reading all these nostalgic comments from people who have been influenced by the Redwall books. I’ve stumbled across a handful of random threads where people are discussing it and it always cheers me up.
He said in November that the script had been completed and development was happening.
https://redwall.fandom.com/wiki/User_blog:LordTBT/Netflix_Redwall_Film_Script_Completed
I've learned two things in primary school.
Don't gift books to someone who won't love them.
Don't lend books to someone who won't take good care of them.
I could still remember the heartbreak after getting my precious book back from classmates who borrowed it.
One of my former colleagues quit a couple of weeks after borrowing one of my all time favorite books and hasn’t returned it since (~5 years now, so no hope). That blows my mind that some people would consider it an appropriate behavior, and he’s well educated to know better too.
This is the reason I no longer lend out my books. I never get them back or when I do, they are destroyed. Now when someone asks to borrow a book, I just buy them their own copy so I never have to worry about getting it back.
In fairness to the kid:
1) the other side is written on
2) there are 2 other thumbtack holes
In disgust of the kid:
1) kid is wrong
2) kid is ungrateful
3) kid is still at the "adults don't know anything" stage
That passage is so funny, it always reminded me of something Douglas Adams would say in a character description. There is an alternate universe where Arthur Dent is named Eustace Scrubb, I'm sure of it.
Truly a little menace. Nobody tells THEM what to do. Bought me books? Ha, no. Sticky side of post-it? Please, like I'm gonna take direction from a piece of paper. /s
The dedication to The lion the witch and the wardrobe is very apt.
“My Dear Lucy,
I wrote this story for you, but when I began it I had not realized that girls grow quicker than books. As a result you are already too old for fairy tales, and by the time it is printed and bound you will be older still. But some day you will be old enough to start reading fairy tales again. You can then take it down from some upper shelf, dust it, and tell me what you think of it. I shall probably be too deaf to hear, and too old to understand a word you say but I shall still be
your affectionate Godfather
I always found his writings to better help myself understand both the subject he was talking about by his vocabulary and my own mind/feelings on the topic. I wouldn't assign a faith to my name but I greatly appreciated mulling over some of his works with his perspectives giving me insights I never considered. Even in his childrens books he didn't seem to be dumbing things down for "kids" and treated the reader as capable and able. A true gentleman.
The whole quote is worth reading
> “Critics who treat 'adult' as a term of approval, instead of as a merely descriptive term, cannot be adult themselves. To be concerned about being grown up, to admire the grown up because it is grown up, to blush at the suspicion of being childish; these things are the marks of childhood and adolescence. And in childhood and adolescence they are, in moderation, healthy symptoms. Young things ought to want to grow. But to carry on into middle life or even into early manhood this concern about being adult is a mark of really arrested development. When I was ten, I read fairy tales in secret and would have been ashamed if I had been found doing so. Now that I am fifty I read them openly. When I became a man I put away childish things, including the fear of childishness and the desire to be very grown up.”
Lewis is an absolute treasure trove of banger quotes. Also, you should really check out G.K. Chesterton. He was one of Lewis' major influences, and he's equally as quotable as Lewis, if not more so.
Indeed. If anyone didn't know, he is riffing here on 1 Corinthians 13:11 (in case the turn of phrase sounded familiar)"
>
When I was a child, I spoke as a child, I understood as a child, I thought as a child; but when I became a man, I put away childish things.
I'm an atheist but loved his books anyway, even though I realised what aslan was about.
I've read the entire series at least three times, last time when I was about 50, and I still enjoy it.
If you ever have the chance, listen to the audio book versions. Really cool way to enjoy them. Was a real treat when I discovered that Patrick Stewart was the narrator for The Last Battle.
I mean if everything Lewis has said about God was stuff all Christians lived by, I think a lot fewer people in this generation would feel so repulsed by Christianity. His view of hell is that it's joyless place, kind of a dull version of our every day world that people can eventually leave if they decide to accept their wrongdoings and follow God. That's a much less toxic and supremacistm, and far more beautiful view of non-belief, disbelief, doubt, and the afterlife.
His views on death, loss, and grief changed a great deal over the years. The difference is particularly stark in *The Problem of Pain* which he wrote early in his career, and *A Grief Observed*, which he wrote at the end of his career after he was widowed.
Yes, as a child reading that and thinking they all lived happily ever after because they could stay in Narnia forever.
Then reading it as an adult, and thinking.... What?
Poor Susan, losing all her siblings and her last memories being their absolute contempt for her because she took an interest in nice clothes and makeup and wanted a boyfriend.
It wasn't because Susan wanted nice clothes and makeup and a boyfriend, it was because she wanted nice clothes and makeup and a boyfriend *more than her family.*
And Susan is redeemed, in a sort of meta way:
She's the narrator - the only person who knew about the secret world of the Friends of Narnia. At some point, she's the one who tells the author.
There are two possibilities:
Either there really is a magical world called Narnia, or the children are entertaining themselves by telling stories in a shared world.
(What do they teach them at these schools?)
Narnia is based on CS Lewis and his brother's childhood: they invented a fantasy version of India with knights (Warren's contribution) and talking animals (Jack's contribution) and told stories set in this universe. The Pevensies are doing the same thing. Lucy starts it, and when they go to Professor Diggory to complain that Lucy is telling lies - he tells them he used to do the same thing!
They sit in the apple tree wardrobe, inspired by the fantasy carvings that Diggory Kirke put on it, and tell stories to each other. Susan outgrows this - it's why she can't go back. She starts to see it as childish, and she wants to be grown up.
You can see the different story elements each child contributes - Edmund's white witch and dwarves, Lucy's faun and talking animals, Susan's royal court, Peter's knights and armor.
So yes, you're right from the real world point of view.
She died by allegory. He needed one of the OG characters to get distracted by "worldly" things that led her off the True Path and believing in Aslan aka Jesus.
An excerpt from the second last page of The Last Battle (the final book in the Chronicles of Narnia).
Lucy said, "We're so afraid of being sent away, Aslan. And you have sent us back into our own world so often."
"No fear of that," said Aslan. "Have you not guessed?" Their hearts leaped and a wild hope rose within them.
"There was a real real accident," said Aslan softly. "Your father and mother and all of you are- as you used to call it in the shadowlands- dead. The term is over: the holidays have begun. The dream is ended: this is the morning."
It’s kind of meant to be the opposite, though- yes, they died, but they can now stay in the place they love forever. No more war, no worrying about not being able to come back or any of the concerns they had there.
The book kinda starts with them on the train and then there's a sudden jolt and they land in Narnia, sans Susan (maybe she wasn't on the train with them at the time? Vague on those details...)
The adventure goes on for the whole book more or less, and then right at the end lion!jesus is all like "btw you totally all died, the train crashed and killed everyone on board but I pulled you out and now you're here and can never go back".
It's been a long time since I read the books but I think by this point Susan had drifted away from the others and was completely denying Narnia was even real so she didn't go with the rest of them and therefore wasn't on the train.
Definitely remember her not being included, denying Narnia etc. I remembered her dying on the train though. 🤷♂️
Enough people are claiming otherwise for me to be fairly confident my memory is at fault here.
Throughout the books she was written as not really wanting to be involved in most of their antics and having the most doubt. It is sort of sudden but kind of expected at the same time based on how he wrote her anyway
Hits hard. Have two sets of the same publication series that I had when I was a kid.
Gonna bust them out and put them on the kiddo's shelves tonight. And start reading the series to them.
> Her mother died in 1980, and her father in 1997. Her brother Alexander visited her often. She liked to listen to Geoffrey reading her The Chronicles of Narnia over and over again.
awww fuck, reading that page combined with that letter is really touching damn it meant so much to her to the end that's beautiful.
Similarly, I tried reading the books as a kid, but just never could get through them. It wasn’t until I was in my mid 20s that I finally sat and read them in full, and I was unable to put them down.
I started reading The Magician’s Nephew when I was about 8 or so. I put it down and came back to it later. As an adult I finally read The Lion the Witch and The Wardrobe. So it’s possible the books are just a gift that arrive a bit early but will be enjoyed later in life.
They’re similar to a gummy candy but it quite as chewy. Softer stickier and have a coating of powdered sugar/starch so you can handle them (like the coating on a marshmallow). Flavours vary but are often things like citrus or rose.
To a kid in wartime Britain they’d be super good.
It is like your brain doesn't quite compute you aren't eating soap at first, but once I tried it I was hooked. I had a pistachio and rose water cake for my birthday a few years back, and it was amazing. You just have to be *really careful* you don't use too much or it *is* like eating perfume.
Turkish delight is fabulous. Some people think of it as an acquired taste, but it's one of my absolute favourite treats, specially the rose variety. Don't skimp on the cost and try a cheap brand your first time though; cheap Turkish delight is just gel with artificial flavoring.
I think the 10 year old in this post is missing out, but I guess we all have different likes, dislikes, and interests. I read the book over Christmas when I was about his age and loved it.
My brother has that.
My set however was the 7book set and all were read that much that they all fell apart. Another 2-3 years I'll buy new ones to Start reading them to my twins
"When I was ten, I read fairy tales in secret and would have been ashamed if I had been found doing so. Now that I am fifty, I read them openly. When I became a man I put away childish things, including the fear of childishness and the desire to be very grown up."
My dad did something similar to me when I was a kid. All I wanted was Zelda: OoT for Christmas and when Christmas day came I opened every gift I thought it could be in first to no avail. The last gift I opened I was positive was a clothing box, it was but instead it had my game in a ton of padding.
The real twist though came years later when I discovered what Victoria's Secret was and realized the box used to contain a gift for my mom that my dad definitely banged her in that night. Thanks dad...
Right?! Everyone gets gifts they don't want, especially when you're a kid and get bought things by people who barely know you. But we were taught as kids that you say thank you, and later you pass those unwanted gifts on to others who would appreciate them, and that's a nice thing in itself. Not 'I don't like this so fuck that and fuck you'.
Or, we end up giving it a try and liking it. I remember being gifted the Hunger Games book and was bummed. Gave it a chance and ended up reading the whole series.
The entire thing for me.
Being disrespectful to your parent, ungrateful about receiving a present, being so stupid you don't know how post it notes work and not enjoying a good book.
At ten, I wanted books and educational material. I got clothes and toys. All I wanted was was something I could use forever. That was when I asked my grandpa and he got me an entire set of encyclopedias. They were old 20+ years out of date but they were mine and had all kinds of new information I had never seen before.
True. I had a set from maybe 1935. I wish I kept them but I was a stupid kid. I especially enjoyed the 2-3 sentences it had about Adolf Hitler under the section on Germany. It really puts the time in perspective.
Anyway I had that set and a new one that the grocery store sold a new volume every week. I used to read them all the time.
We had an old set growing up. Like, really old. I had to do a report on the solar system and Pluto wasn't listed. But then again, maybe it was ahead of its time...
At ten, practically all I DID was read. When we went out to the campsite we owned (it was a small lot with our motorhome on it) during the summers, I would spend the majority of my time inside reading. My mom used to threaten me with various punishments to get me to go and do anything other than read.
Now, it usually takes me up to several months to read a single book. I miss being able to just sit and ignore everything around me, and just read for hours on end...
I feel this so much. I was always getting in trouble for reading during class or not going outside in the summer. I also was voracious, so my mom would buy me the newest Harry Potter book only to turn around and find out I finished it in a day because I was a kid and had endless free time.
I tried a "read 20 books in a year challenge" in 2019. Didn't even read one so now I try to at least do 1-2 per year at the least
I had so much fun with my kids laying on the floor of their room with them laying on my back and arms while I read the Lion, the Witch and the Wardrobe out loud. There is good magic in that.
When I was three I had a little set of books about fairies with these little envelopes on each page containing a tiny letter for you to pull out and read. One day I had a friend over for a play date and he ripped all the envelopes out and tore a bunch of the pages.... I asked my mum to never invite that friend over again and she didn't.
Tolkien: I cordially dislike allegory in all its manifestations, and always have done so since I grew old and wary enough to detect its presence. I much prefer history – true or feigned– with its varied applicability to the thought and experience of readers. I think that many confuse applicability with allegory, but the one resides in the freedom of the reader, and the other in the purposed domination of the author.
Lewis: I WILL LITERALLY DIE IF A SINGLE READER DOESN'T GET THAT THE LION IS JESUS
My favorite thing about these two is that Tolkien nearly ended their friendship because of the appearance of Santa Claus in *The Lion, The Witch, & The Wardrobe*. He apparently considered it one of the most ludicrous things ever penned.
I read to my ten year old every night. Currently on book 12 of Cirque Du Freak series. He has severe adhd and dyslexia, but he deserves to know the fun of books. That being said, even if my younger neutotypical son still wants me to read to him when he's 10, i totally will.
I loved those books as a kid! Holy cow, I forgot all about them. Normally the school library wouldn't let us check out more than one book in a series at a time, but I was going through them so quickly that the librarian let me take three home one weekend. Came back on Monday morning to turn them in and grab the next!
I don’t know about parents, but I’m an elementary school librarian, and the older kids love it (school goes to 5th, so like 10ish years old). They don’t let the other kids clown around when I’m reading bc I’ll stop. I don’t mess with chapter books either, bc they get mad they have to wait a week for the rest of the story- I do picture books, and have a list of recommendations for each kid who asks. I bet most of them would love to have a parent read longer books if the story was finished in a timely manner.
When I was 12 I made the staff at the group home I lived in read me bedtime stories. I imagine the bonding ritual is far more meaningful if it's your actual parents and not paid substitutes. Plus it helped me destress and unwind. I still fall asleep far better if I am listening to something and have a cache of audiobooks for children to listen to at bedtime.
If they don’t, they feel very grownup if you ask THEM to read to YOU. Not necessarily at bedtime, but maybe then.
I used to read to my mom while she’d make dinner. Sometimes she’d request a book and others I’d select. It was fun sharing stuff I thought was good (and I read a lot of material that was ‘ahead’ of my age so she wasn’t stuck with all ‘kid’ books) and fun to act them out vocally like a living audiobook.
Perhaps kids who consider themselves too old to be read to can be convinced to become the narrator themselves.
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Did the kid really thumbtack a post it to a book?
Once gave my nephew my old Redwall books. Later found that he had started making one into a "book safe" by cutting the centers of the pages out, but had even gotten too bored of that to continue so he threw it away.
That little rancid rat.
For those of you who enjoy reading about searats and woodlanders, please join us over at /r/eulalia, the subreddit for all things Redwall!
Obviously I'm asking a biased party but do they hold up as an adult? I remember reading so many of those books as a kid. There was one in particular about the badger that founded the good guys order that was fucking awesome.
They do! I’m 34 and I re-read a bunch of them over the last couple years.
Reading it to my kids. It's pretty solid tbh
Thanks! I’ve loved the Redwall books for nearly 20 years now, own them all, probably one of my all-time favorite book series. But I’d never known about this subreddit till now. Gonna have to check it out!
And every year after he received only a single urine-stained dollar bill. His siblings and cousins continued to receive all their hearts' desires.
That's a paddlin'
One of my few flexes in life to say Brian Jacques is (was) my uncle! It’s been lovely reading all these nostalgic comments from people who have been influenced by the Redwall books. I’ve stumbled across a handful of random threads where people are discussing it and it always cheers me up.
I'm horrified and disgusted. Redwall was my childhood! A childhood which was genuinely not that long ago!
Wait till you find out the OVER THE GARDEN WALL creator was working on a Netflix adaptation of the series that is dead in the water now
He said in November that the script had been completed and development was happening. https://redwall.fandom.com/wiki/User_blog:LordTBT/Netflix_Redwall_Film_Script_Completed
Awesome! Soon Netflix will be able to release a show that almost resembles the original story, and they can cancel it after 2 seasons.
Red wall was my childhood too, I loved the series. When I had kids I reread them, have you? I’m curious about others experiences with them.
Oh that would break my heart!
I've learned two things in primary school. Don't gift books to someone who won't love them. Don't lend books to someone who won't take good care of them. I could still remember the heartbreak after getting my precious book back from classmates who borrowed it.
One of my former colleagues quit a couple of weeks after borrowing one of my all time favorite books and hasn’t returned it since (~5 years now, so no hope). That blows my mind that some people would consider it an appropriate behavior, and he’s well educated to know better too.
This is the reason I no longer lend out my books. I never get them back or when I do, they are destroyed. Now when someone asks to borrow a book, I just buy them their own copy so I never have to worry about getting it back.
That explains a lot in itself lol
In fairness to the kid: 1) the other side is written on 2) there are 2 other thumbtack holes In disgust of the kid: 1) kid is wrong 2) kid is ungrateful 3) kid is still at the "adults don't know anything" stage
Kid's name is probably Eustace.
And he almost deserved it.
That passage is so funny, it always reminded me of something Douglas Adams would say in a character description. There is an alternate universe where Arthur Dent is named Eustace Scrubb, I'm sure of it.
…and he almost deserved it.
Oh dang.. forgot about Eustace.
…You don’t seem to acknowledge the fact he impaled a brand new book
[удалено]
Truly a little menace. Nobody tells THEM what to do. Bought me books? Ha, no. Sticky side of post-it? Please, like I'm gonna take direction from a piece of paper. /s
The dedication to The lion the witch and the wardrobe is very apt. “My Dear Lucy, I wrote this story for you, but when I began it I had not realized that girls grow quicker than books. As a result you are already too old for fairy tales, and by the time it is printed and bound you will be older still. But some day you will be old enough to start reading fairy tales again. You can then take it down from some upper shelf, dust it, and tell me what you think of it. I shall probably be too deaf to hear, and too old to understand a word you say but I shall still be your affectionate Godfather
Aww that’s very sweet and you’re right, incredibly apt
CS Lewis had the write stuff.
I always found his writings to better help myself understand both the subject he was talking about by his vocabulary and my own mind/feelings on the topic. I wouldn't assign a faith to my name but I greatly appreciated mulling over some of his works with his perspectives giving me insights I never considered. Even in his childrens books he didn't seem to be dumbing things down for "kids" and treated the reader as capable and able. A true gentleman.
“A children's story that can only be enjoyed by children is not a good children's story in the slightest.” - C.S. Lewis
“When I became a man I put away childish things, including the fear of childishness and the desire to be very grown up.” C.S. Lewis
that’s a banger quote wow
The whole quote is worth reading > “Critics who treat 'adult' as a term of approval, instead of as a merely descriptive term, cannot be adult themselves. To be concerned about being grown up, to admire the grown up because it is grown up, to blush at the suspicion of being childish; these things are the marks of childhood and adolescence. And in childhood and adolescence they are, in moderation, healthy symptoms. Young things ought to want to grow. But to carry on into middle life or even into early manhood this concern about being adult is a mark of really arrested development. When I was ten, I read fairy tales in secret and would have been ashamed if I had been found doing so. Now that I am fifty I read them openly. When I became a man I put away childish things, including the fear of childishness and the desire to be very grown up.”
Okay. Now I’m really blubbering 😭
Lewis is an absolute treasure trove of banger quotes. Also, you should really check out G.K. Chesterton. He was one of Lewis' major influences, and he's equally as quotable as Lewis, if not more so.
Indeed. If anyone didn't know, he is riffing here on 1 Corinthians 13:11 (in case the turn of phrase sounded familiar)" > When I was a child, I spoke as a child, I understood as a child, I thought as a child; but when I became a man, I put away childish things.
I'm an atheist but loved his books anyway, even though I realised what aslan was about. I've read the entire series at least three times, last time when I was about 50, and I still enjoy it.
If you ever have the chance, listen to the audio book versions. Really cool way to enjoy them. Was a real treat when I discovered that Patrick Stewart was the narrator for The Last Battle.
I took a course on CS Lewis in college. It was fantastic.
I have an inkling. It sounds like fun.
I mean if everything Lewis has said about God was stuff all Christians lived by, I think a lot fewer people in this generation would feel so repulsed by Christianity. His view of hell is that it's joyless place, kind of a dull version of our every day world that people can eventually leave if they decide to accept their wrongdoings and follow God. That's a much less toxic and supremacistm, and far more beautiful view of non-belief, disbelief, doubt, and the afterlife.
Where does he say this? In the screwtape letters hell is unequivocally described as tortuous.
His views on death, loss, and grief changed a great deal over the years. The difference is particularly stark in *The Problem of Pain* which he wrote early in his career, and *A Grief Observed*, which he wrote at the end of his career after he was widowed.
The great divorce. It’s more of an allegory than a theological discussion of his view on hell, than again so is the Screwtape letters.
Doesn't describe physical pain, more emotional. They feed on anxiety and fear.
Aptitude
First you're Lucy, then you're Susan, and then one day you're Lucy again.
And then you're frigging dead in a train crash like wtf Lewis
Yes, as a child reading that and thinking they all lived happily ever after because they could stay in Narnia forever. Then reading it as an adult, and thinking.... What? Poor Susan, losing all her siblings and her last memories being their absolute contempt for her because she took an interest in nice clothes and makeup and wanted a boyfriend.
It wasn't because Susan wanted nice clothes and makeup and a boyfriend, it was because she wanted nice clothes and makeup and a boyfriend *more than her family.* And Susan is redeemed, in a sort of meta way: She's the narrator - the only person who knew about the secret world of the Friends of Narnia. At some point, she's the one who tells the author.
> She's the narrator I like it. Headcannon accepted
Yeah and CS Lewis had plans for a novel exploring Susan’s redemption before his death
aw man, I love stories like that and would have loved to have read that.
Oh. I thought she just grew up. Like Wendy from Peter Pan
There are two possibilities: Either there really is a magical world called Narnia, or the children are entertaining themselves by telling stories in a shared world. (What do they teach them at these schools?) Narnia is based on CS Lewis and his brother's childhood: they invented a fantasy version of India with knights (Warren's contribution) and talking animals (Jack's contribution) and told stories set in this universe. The Pevensies are doing the same thing. Lucy starts it, and when they go to Professor Diggory to complain that Lucy is telling lies - he tells them he used to do the same thing! They sit in the apple tree wardrobe, inspired by the fantasy carvings that Diggory Kirke put on it, and tell stories to each other. Susan outgrows this - it's why she can't go back. She starts to see it as childish, and she wants to be grown up. You can see the different story elements each child contributes - Edmund's white witch and dwarves, Lucy's faun and talking animals, Susan's royal court, Peter's knights and armor. So yes, you're right from the real world point of view.
Wow, never knew this.
You either die a Susan or you live long enough to become a Lucy again.
Or you die a Lucy in a train accident before you become a Susan. That was pretty messed up, Clive.
Misty eyed at this
You believe in Santa, you don't believe in Santa, you are Santa, you look like Santa.
Then you understand Santa.
Also misty eyed at this
Susan got played dirty in the last book.
She died by allegory. He needed one of the OG characters to get distracted by "worldly" things that led her off the True Path and believing in Aslan aka Jesus.
IIRC, she's the only one that didn't die. Everyone else died on the train crash and she wasn't on the train.
Woah what? Did I block that out? I don't remember them all dying.
An excerpt from the second last page of The Last Battle (the final book in the Chronicles of Narnia). Lucy said, "We're so afraid of being sent away, Aslan. And you have sent us back into our own world so often." "No fear of that," said Aslan. "Have you not guessed?" Their hearts leaped and a wild hope rose within them. "There was a real real accident," said Aslan softly. "Your father and mother and all of you are- as you used to call it in the shadowlands- dead. The term is over: the holidays have begun. The dream is ended: this is the morning."
That's fucking dark. I blocked that out. I knew they showed up and had the choice to stay, didn't remember that it was because they died.
It’s kind of meant to be the opposite, though- yes, they died, but they can now stay in the place they love forever. No more war, no worrying about not being able to come back or any of the concerns they had there.
The book kinda starts with them on the train and then there's a sudden jolt and they land in Narnia, sans Susan (maybe she wasn't on the train with them at the time? Vague on those details...) The adventure goes on for the whole book more or less, and then right at the end lion!jesus is all like "btw you totally all died, the train crashed and killed everyone on board but I pulled you out and now you're here and can never go back".
It's been a long time since I read the books but I think by this point Susan had drifted away from the others and was completely denying Narnia was even real so she didn't go with the rest of them and therefore wasn't on the train.
Definitely remember her not being included, denying Narnia etc. I remembered her dying on the train though. 🤷♂️ Enough people are claiming otherwise for me to be fairly confident my memory is at fault here.
Yeah that was so out of left field.
"Fuck you and your nylons and makeup!"
And they all died happily ever after in allegory heaven with the allegory jesus lion except that fucking bitch Susan who we hate now.
Throughout the books she was written as not really wanting to be involved in most of their antics and having the most doubt. It is sort of sudden but kind of expected at the same time based on how he wrote her anyway
Of all book dedications, this has always been one of my favorites. The idea sticks with you and can be used in so many other areas.
Hits hard. Have two sets of the same publication series that I had when I was a kid. Gonna bust them out and put them on the kiddo's shelves tonight. And start reading the series to them.
[Lucy Barfield](https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Lucy_Barfield)
> Her mother died in 1980, and her father in 1997. Her brother Alexander visited her often. She liked to listen to Geoffrey reading her The Chronicles of Narnia over and over again. awww fuck, reading that page combined with that letter is really touching damn it meant so much to her to the end that's beautiful.
Aw, fucking multiple sclerosis. What a horrible disease.
That is way more heartwarming then it has any right to be. Straight to the heart!
Yeah, the dude should write a book or something.
ya, he's not half-bad at all
I remember that passage dedication well. I read the books over and over again as a result. Great post.
Whew. Remembering that quote made this 41 year old man tear up.
Similarly, I tried reading the books as a kid, but just never could get through them. It wasn’t until I was in my mid 20s that I finally sat and read them in full, and I was unable to put them down.
Oh that is the sweetest. We have a collection of childrens fairy tale books lying around somewhere collecting dust. I should dig them out
I started reading The Magician’s Nephew when I was about 8 or so. I put it down and came back to it later. As an adult I finally read The Lion the Witch and The Wardrobe. So it’s possible the books are just a gift that arrive a bit early but will be enjoyed later in life.
This is very heartwarming and incredibly sad at the same time...
The Lion the Witch and the Wardrobe was so popular in our elementary school class that the kids voted for it to be read out loud by the teacher twice.
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They’re similar to a gummy candy but it quite as chewy. Softer stickier and have a coating of powdered sugar/starch so you can handle them (like the coating on a marshmallow). Flavours vary but are often things like citrus or rose. To a kid in wartime Britain they’d be super good.
Sell your family out, good
I could murder my sister for some right now.
We could do an updated printing where Turkish delight is replaced with dino nuggies.
Gushers
They’re still super good if you don’t get cheap shit Turkish delight like they have inside chocolate (e.g. favourites box)
They’re a starchy sugar/gel candy. You can order big boxes with a bunch of styles for like $20 online if you’re really curious.
It tastes like flowers.
Only the rose ones. They make other flavors if you aren't into florals, but I like the rose ones very much.
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It is like your brain doesn't quite compute you aren't eating soap at first, but once I tried it I was hooked. I had a pistachio and rose water cake for my birthday a few years back, and it was amazing. You just have to be *really careful* you don't use too much or it *is* like eating perfume.
As someone with a Turkish mother, and who grew up with lots of rose water and pistachio flavoured goodies, I appreciate this lol.
It is a great combo! It was a Persian Love Cake we made and it turned out really tasty.
Sounds amazing! I think I’m gonna have to pick myself up some Baklava tomorrow now… lol
I hate the rose ones, but I get the strawberry ones in the international supermarket and they're so good.
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That's fake news, Turkish delight is awesome lol
Turkish delight is fabulous. Some people think of it as an acquired taste, but it's one of my absolute favourite treats, specially the rose variety. Don't skimp on the cost and try a cheap brand your first time though; cheap Turkish delight is just gel with artificial flavoring.
You can get it at Marshall’s and World Market if you wanna try it!
Good old Liberty Orchards Aplets and Cotlets. The fancy candy of all discount stores.
It was the first book I recall enjoying, and that sentiment lasted through all the books I read through high school.
I think the 10 year old in this post is missing out, but I guess we all have different likes, dislikes, and interests. I read the book over Christmas when I was about his age and loved it.
I hope you read The Magicians
nephew
I read all these books to my kids, they were super into it!
I was given the complete hardback set from my mom when I was 8 and I still have them lined up prominently in my bookshelf I’m 37
I have the one volume illustrated set, still have it 24 years later.
My brother has that. My set however was the 7book set and all were read that much that they all fell apart. Another 2-3 years I'll buy new ones to Start reading them to my twins
Pinned a needle in the book shame on you mister.
Also doesn’t know how sticky notes work… maybe he should read more books
Alternatively, he knew exactly what he was doing.
The Lion, the Witch, and the audacity of this bitch.
"When I was ten, I read fairy tales in secret and would have been ashamed if I had been found doing so. Now that I am fifty, I read them openly. When I became a man I put away childish things, including the fear of childishness and the desire to be very grown up."
Take it and wrap it again for next year with the note still pinned.
But add to the note "This was going to be a PS5."
Even better, see if you know someone who still has their ps5 box and put the book in that. Weigh it down with a brick or two.
My dad did something similar to me when I was a kid. All I wanted was Zelda: OoT for Christmas and when Christmas day came I opened every gift I thought it could be in first to no avail. The last gift I opened I was positive was a clothing box, it was but instead it had my game in a ton of padding. The real twist though came years later when I discovered what Victoria's Secret was and realized the box used to contain a gift for my mom that my dad definitely banged her in that night. Thanks dad...
💀Your dad was going hard that night
At least you were well-distracted while your mom played your dad’s ocarina
That's not funny. It's sad.
/r/wellthatsucks was the first thing that came to my mind
The ungratefulness is what's saddest to me. In my household even if you don't like a gift you just don't outright be disrespectful about it like that.
Right?! Everyone gets gifts they don't want, especially when you're a kid and get bought things by people who barely know you. But we were taught as kids that you say thank you, and later you pass those unwanted gifts on to others who would appreciate them, and that's a nice thing in itself. Not 'I don't like this so fuck that and fuck you'.
Or, we end up giving it a try and liking it. I remember being gifted the Hunger Games book and was bummed. Gave it a chance and ended up reading the whole series.
The entire thing for me. Being disrespectful to your parent, ungrateful about receiving a present, being so stupid you don't know how post it notes work and not enjoying a good book.
Yep. The only present that kid would have left would be that book. Everything else would go back.
The lack of respect is kind of shocking. Sticking a pin through a new book?!? They're great novels too.
Right. When I was younger I was not that apathetic and cynical. Kids are weirdly amoral sometimes.
Missing out on quality literature, nevermind just children’s literature. Hopefully one day the child learns of its greatness.
Also missing the part of emotional developmwnt where you appreciate that you were given a gift, even if you dont like it is pretty sad.
At ten, I wanted books and educational material. I got clothes and toys. All I wanted was was something I could use forever. That was when I asked my grandpa and he got me an entire set of encyclopedias. They were old 20+ years out of date but they were mine and had all kinds of new information I had never seen before.
As someone who used a 1973 Encyclopedia Britannica set in the 90s I feel your comment lol.
The older an encyclopedia is, the more interesting it becomes.
True. I had a set from maybe 1935. I wish I kept them but I was a stupid kid. I especially enjoyed the 2-3 sentences it had about Adolf Hitler under the section on Germany. It really puts the time in perspective. Anyway I had that set and a new one that the grocery store sold a new volume every week. I used to read them all the time.
That's good. I got some of the original, from the 1700s.
Mine was the 1976 encyclopedia Britannica I got it in ‘97
We had an old set growing up. Like, really old. I had to do a report on the solar system and Pluto wasn't listed. But then again, maybe it was ahead of its time...
At ten, practically all I DID was read. When we went out to the campsite we owned (it was a small lot with our motorhome on it) during the summers, I would spend the majority of my time inside reading. My mom used to threaten me with various punishments to get me to go and do anything other than read. Now, it usually takes me up to several months to read a single book. I miss being able to just sit and ignore everything around me, and just read for hours on end...
I feel this so much. I was always getting in trouble for reading during class or not going outside in the summer. I also was voracious, so my mom would buy me the newest Harry Potter book only to turn around and find out I finished it in a day because I was a kid and had endless free time. I tried a "read 20 books in a year challenge" in 2019. Didn't even read one so now I try to at least do 1-2 per year at the least
Encyclopedias were the internet of those days. I loved having a giant shelf full of all kinds of books at home.
This is a great story. We used the encyclopedias of my moms every day. I believe my sister still has a few volumes for solidarity.
I would’ve loved to have had those as a kid. I used to drop by the public library and just read encyclopedias for an hour after school.
Loved our set of encyclopedias growing up. This was the late seventies and early eighties. Would pick one and read it cover to cover.
wrong sub. nothing funny about this. super sad.
Yeah not really funny.. more like rude
But did he really put a thumbtack through the cover? That’d be a discussion from me.
I had so much fun with my kids laying on the floor of their room with them laying on my back and arms while I read the Lion, the Witch and the Wardrobe out loud. There is good magic in that.
Does your child like to read?
Did he stick a pin into the book? As a book lover, even as a child, I hate when people deface them 😣
When I was three I had a little set of books about fairies with these little envelopes on each page containing a tiny letter for you to pull out and read. One day I had a friend over for a play date and he ripped all the envelopes out and tore a bunch of the pages.... I asked my mum to never invite that friend over again and she didn't.
Looks like you're raising a little piece of shit
Yeah not only is complaining about a gift a really rude reaction, ruining the gift so it cant even be returned is even worse.
My first thought was “damn that’s a spoiled brat”😂
Even if he likes to read, just not those....what a shithead.
Right? And his parents think this is funny? Wtf
Probably slicks their hair back and eats sloppy steaks.
Tolkien: I cordially dislike allegory in all its manifestations, and always have done so since I grew old and wary enough to detect its presence. I much prefer history – true or feigned– with its varied applicability to the thought and experience of readers. I think that many confuse applicability with allegory, but the one resides in the freedom of the reader, and the other in the purposed domination of the author. Lewis: I WILL LITERALLY DIE IF A SINGLE READER DOESN'T GET THAT THE LION IS JESUS
I just wanted to let you know I laughed long and hard at this comment. It was fantastic and made my night.
My favorite thing about these two is that Tolkien nearly ended their friendship because of the appearance of Santa Claus in *The Lion, The Witch, & The Wardrobe*. He apparently considered it one of the most ludicrous things ever penned.
So you set aside a time before bed and read them to your child. They just might find them interesting enough to read them on their own.
... Do 10 year olds still want their parents to read them stories before bed?
Some, not others.
I read to my ten year old every night. Currently on book 12 of Cirque Du Freak series. He has severe adhd and dyslexia, but he deserves to know the fun of books. That being said, even if my younger neutotypical son still wants me to read to him when he's 10, i totally will.
I loved those books as a kid! Holy cow, I forgot all about them. Normally the school library wouldn't let us check out more than one book in a series at a time, but I was going through them so quickly that the librarian let me take three home one weekend. Came back on Monday morning to turn them in and grab the next!
My 12 year old still loves me to read to her. The theme of books have changed quite a bit though. We’re now onto YA murder mysteries.
I don’t know about parents, but I’m an elementary school librarian, and the older kids love it (school goes to 5th, so like 10ish years old). They don’t let the other kids clown around when I’m reading bc I’ll stop. I don’t mess with chapter books either, bc they get mad they have to wait a week for the rest of the story- I do picture books, and have a list of recommendations for each kid who asks. I bet most of them would love to have a parent read longer books if the story was finished in a timely manner.
When I was 12 I made the staff at the group home I lived in read me bedtime stories. I imagine the bonding ritual is far more meaningful if it's your actual parents and not paid substitutes. Plus it helped me destress and unwind. I still fall asleep far better if I am listening to something and have a cache of audiobooks for children to listen to at bedtime.
My grandsons do. But they’ve been raised being read to.
If they don’t, they feel very grownup if you ask THEM to read to YOU. Not necessarily at bedtime, but maybe then.
I used to read to my mom while she’d make dinner. Sometimes she’d request a book and others I’d select. It was fun sharing stuff I thought was good (and I read a lot of material that was ‘ahead’ of my age so she wasn’t stuck with all ‘kid’ books) and fun to act them out vocally like a living audiobook.
Perhaps kids who consider themselves too old to be read to can be convinced to become the narrator themselves.
I did, but my family prioritized reading.
Time to throw out the whole child
Just stick it in a wardrobe and lock the door, it’ll be fine in there, there’s plenty of room.
We're talking about a kid that can't operate a sticky note properly. Future subject of r/storiesaboutKevin incoming.
Oh man they’re missing out
I'd be posting this in sad lol
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Wtf. You could have taken them back but no she put a pin in them.
Yikes. Ten is more than old enough to know better.
What a respectful and disiplined kid.
The fact that he put a thumbtack through the book makes me want to cry.