A couple Friday nights ago, Brent and I went to a fundraiser event for Clydehurst Christian Ranch. Clydehurst is a bible camp that I attended in middle school and high school. I always loved going for that one week each summer. A week of riding horses, hiking, swimming, and several other random activities. What teenager would not want to get away from home? It was also a place where I was able to develop a deeper relationship with Jesus. With this said, we were glad to attend this event to help them out.
There was an hour of hors d’oeuvres before the main event started. There was so much food that Brent and I did not have to eat dinner that night. Which is always a plus! This event was free with a donation offering at the end. The main event was a gentlemen, David Payne, that reenacted the interview “An Evening with C.S. Lewis.” Brent really likes C.S. Lewis so he wanted to go. I went in a little skeptical of a guy on a couch reenacting an interview. How interesting could this really be just listening to a man sitting on a chair? Well, it turned out to be amazing. I was awestruck at the performance. Who knew that C.S. Lewis was such a funny man? I was enthralled at interesting aspects of his life. Payne did such a good job that you would have never thought it was not Lewis if you did not know better.
As “Lewis” talked about his life, I couldn’t help but want to pick up reading. I tend to not ready very much unless someone gives me a book that I have to read. Usually, I cannot put the book down, but then I never pick up another one. He would talk a bit about some of the books that he wrote and also quote several other books from his colleagues such as J.R.R. Tolkien. It made me want to pick up those books and start reading them at that moment. That is why on Monday night last week as Brent and I were cleaning out one of the closets in our apartment I stumbled across on a few of C.S. Lewis’ books that Brent had. He has the Narnia series. I thought it would be a good place to start reading. Unfortunately, we could not find the series which is contained in one big book. For some reason, Brent has another copy of the first book of the series, The Magician’s Nephew. I decided I would read it while Brent was out that night.
I read half of the book that evening and then spent the rest of the week reading a few chapters here and there. I finished it in less than one week. This is probably the second or third book I have read all year. I finally know the beginning of Narnia! I have only ever seen “The Lion, the Witch and the Wardrobe” movies. I watched one of the cartoons as a kid but have enjoyed the recent ones as well. This series is not just for kids. I loved it. The unfortunate thing was that since I saw the movie, I could not get those images out of my head when reading. The creation of Narnia was not from my imagination, it was the portrayal from the new movie. Good thing that the beginning of the book did not take place there so I could let my imagination run. I think I need to let it run a little more often. Now to find the rest of the series… Or maybe I will read some Jane Austen books that I have always wanted to. There have always been books that I have wanted to read, but I just never go out and get them. We will see how the next few months turn out.