What We're Reading: Tracy

The Magician's Book: a Skeptic's Adventures in Narnia, by Laura Miller.

As children, many of us fell in love with certain books, rereading them over and over again, feeling that these books were, in a sense, our friends. Many of us also share the experience of returning to these beloved books later in life, only to discover a peculiar, discomfited feeling, as if the books themselves have somehow changed, in ways that we do not like, becoming things that we no longer recognize. Of course, it isn't the books that have changed, but we the readers.
In this thoughtful work, Laura Miller describes her history with C.S. Lewis' Narnia books, and how she moved from a child's adoration through a teenager's skepticism to discover new meanings in the books as an adult. Serving simultaneously as a biography of C.S. Lewis, a literary critique of the Narnia stories, and a personal memoir of one reader's experience, this is a work that will resonate with all who feel passionately about books.