Hope no-one minds me reviving an older thread — I was just looking to see if anyone had started one before on books about Narnia, as I'd rather add to an existing one than create a new topic and end up doubling up.

I've read Live Like a Narnian too, Col Klink, but I recall that although it started well and I loved the premise, I didn't end up enjoying it. It just seemed a bit too shallow — stating the obvious a lot of the time and barely scratching the surface of what one can find in the books, or so I felt — and I also didn't agree with the author on the theme of gender roles. I remember, too, that he (Joe Rigney) ended up absolutely tying himself in knots over the fact that Emeth the Calormene gets into Aslan's country despite not having believed in Aslan during his earthly life, which obviously contradicted Rigney's particular brand of Christianity. I'm not completely familiar with Lewis's own views on the subject of heaven and hell myself, but I've always found it very telling that the final judgment in Narnia isn't based on what the creatures and other characters professed to believe, or on what they did in life, but simply on this: when they are brought before Aslan's face — before the embodiment of absolute goodness and divine love — do they respond with hatred, or with love?

I'd love to hear about any other books about Narnia that people here have found worth reading. Meanwhile, these are a few more that I've recently read and would highly recommend to anyone who's interested!

Devin Brown: Inside Narnia; Inside Prince Caspian; Inside The Voyage of the Dawn Treader — these were written some years ago to coincide with the three Walden films, but they're about the respective books and are really good explorations of each. Devin Brown has also written an essay that's available on this website and is really helpful in rebutting some of the attacks on the Narnia books from harsh critics: Are the Chronicles of Narnia sexist and racist?

Jonathan Rogers: The World According to Narnia — this one I bought just recently and ploughed through it within a day, as it's not very long and I couldn't put it down! The author devotes just one chapter to each Chronicle and doesn't go into every aspect of each story, but he brings out some of the most important themes in each and has some great insights that I certainly hadn't thought of before (and I've read and re-read the Chronicles over many years!).

Rowan Williams: The Lion's World — this is by the former Archbishop of Canterbury (who's a great scholar and speaker — I heard him give a wonderful address once on Dame Julian of Norwich, the medieval visionary, but that's another story!). It's fairly academic and not the easiest read, but he also has some wonderful deep insights into the Narnia stories and what they can teach us about the path of faith and our need for redemption.

Posted by: @courtenay

Rowan Williams: The Lion's World — this is by the former Archbishop of Canterbury (who's a great scholar and speaker — I heard him give a wonderful address once on Dame Julian of Norwich, the medieval visionary, but that's another story!). It's fairly academic and not the easiest read, but he also has some wonderful deep insights into the Narnia stories and what they can teach us about the path of faith and our need for redemption.

I was pleasantly surprised when during a visit to a bookstore I found this book translated into greek. I've never heard about the author but finding an essay about Narnia in greek, it is an unexpected event!

I totally agree that it is a difficult book with nice writing and deep thoughts.

I have also bought the following books which I hope to read one day :Ρ

-Companion to Narnia (Paul F. Ford)
-Narnia Beckons ( Theodore Baehr, James Bahr)
-The Land of Narnia (Brian Sibley)
-The Way into Narnia (Peter J. Schakel)

And I'm delighted in turn to hear that Archbishop Rowan has been translated into Greek! (As I mentioned above, I heard him give a talk in person once — not about Narnia, but about the medieval female mystic, Julian of Norwich — and he's a wonderful and very engaging speaker.)

I have Brian Sibley's The Land of Narnia (the first "Narnia companion" book I ever bought — or rather, Mum bought it for me when I was 7!) and Peter J. Schakel's The Way into Narnia, both of which I enjoyed. I did once have Paul Ford's Companion to Narnia, which seems to be a popular book among Narnia fans, but I'm sorry to say I didn't like it. He comes up with ideas about the Narnia books and characters that seem to be more like personal interpretations and opinions, not necessarily supported by anything in the books themselves (like an elaborate explanation of what and where the Wood Between the Worlds is) — that, and the whole tone of his writing, just put me off somehow. But that was just my own response to that particular book and I know plenty of other people enjoy it, so see for yourself what you think of it.  

I have a copy of Companion to Narnia so now I want to read the part about the Wood Between the Worlds.

I have a feeling it's either right at the end or somewhere else where Ford talks about the geography of Narnia (with diagrams) — I no longer have the book, so I'm sorry I can't give exact details. But it just seemed to me that in that section and others throughout the book, he was going on a lot of assumptions that aren't fully supported by what Lewis wrote, more like just his (Ford's) personal interpretation, and yet he writes as if everything he says is "canon" when it's not necessarily. I found that so often, in so many entries, that I ended up getting rid of the book. (I couldn't stand the illustrations, either, but that's just a matter of personal taste. I wouldn't have minded them so much if I'd liked the actual writing!)