Saturday, October 25, 2008

New worlds

Will Vaus, the author of The Professor of Narnia: The C.S. Lewis Story, describes how he became interested in C.S. Lewis:
...[M]y fourth grade public school teacher read The Lion, the Witch and the Wardrobe to our class. After that, I was hooked. I had to read the rest of the Narnia stories. Before that time I wasn't much of a reader, nor had I ever read any fantasy stories. The Narnia books opened up whole new worlds to me - fantasy worlds, and the world of reading in general.

As I got older I gradually read more of Lewis's other works. I didn't come to faith in Christ through reading Lewis, but Lewis kept me in the faith - he helped me to see that Christianity was intellectually credible, at a time when I was having many intellectual questions about ultimate reality.

I kept reading Lewis all through college, seminary, and into adult life. But it wasn't until many years later that I read any biography about Lewis. And then a few years after that I would say I became more of a student of his life and works and started writing about Lewis for myself. It has been a gradual life long process.
He describes the audience that he anticipates will be interested in the book:
I read this book aloud to my three boys as I was writing it. It is written at a middle school reading level. So I think people from middle school age on up will find something of interest in it. As I have mentioned already, it is written for those who have already read the Narnia stories who want to learn more about the author without having to read a longer, more technical and scholarly biography. I think many adults will enjoy the book as well. Though as I wrote the book I was writing it as though directly speaking to middle schoolers. .... (more)
Another of those books I will buy. Read it, but read Lewis first.

A Reasonable Imagination: The Professor of Narnia: The C.S. Lewis Story

2 comments:

  1. Thanks Jim for getting the word out about my new book. The adults who have read it so far have told me they think Professor of Narnia is a good, simple introduction to Lewis's life for adults. And there are young people in elementary school reading it as well. So I think the appeal will be broad.

    If any of your readers are interested in following my nationwide book tour they can do so by visiting my blog at http://willvaus.blogspot.com .

    ReplyDelete
  2. Glad to help. Hope the three or four who read my blog will find the book interesting.

    I get the RSS feed from your blog and enjoy keeping up.

    ReplyDelete

Comments are moderated. I will gladly approve any comment that responds directly and politely to what has been posted.