This picture is courtesy of Fishpond.com.au
A few months ago, I had the opportunity to watch the movie, The Chronicles of Narnia: The Lion, The Witch and The Wardrobe when my younger brothers, Reece and Aaron, hired it out from the video shop. My sister and two brothers used to watch The Chronicles Of Narnia TV series back in the early 90's but I never did because I thought I wouldn't like it. After watching the later movie, I am now as hooked on The Chronicles Of Narnia series as I am with the Harry Potter series! My youngest brother, Aaron, is nine years old and he also watched the movie for the very first time.
After watching the movie, I instantly went onto the website of the local library to see if I could hire out some of the Narnia books by C. S. Lewis and I was able to get hold of two or three of the Narnia books. While browsing the the library web site, I also saw some Narnia audiobooks! Beside the ones I saw, it said "Performed by a full cast", which made me think it was the people who played in the movie doing the audiobooks as well, so I also requested some of those audiobooks! Being legally blind, I sometimes find it easier to listen to stories rather than reading them! I started reading The Lion, The Witch And The Wardrobe, then listened to the audiobook of The Magician's Nephew! I was surprised to hear that it wasn't a normal audiobook with one or more people reading parts of the book, it was a dramatisation of the book with sound effects and music, which I think is much better than a normal audiobook! I looked at the box containing the CDs for The Magician's Nephew audiobook and I saw the name Radio Theatre at the top of the front of it, which made me very interested! I fully enjoyed listening to the dramatised audiobooks and also The Lion, The Witch And The Wardrobe book!
Thanks to my wonderful Mum, I was able to buy my own copies at great prices, when she found a book site online called Fishpond which offered some great deals. Fishpond doesn't just have books for sale, they have music and movies as well, which I was also very happy about, but books are the main area where all the great deals are! I managed to find the Radio Theatre audiobooks that I borrowed from the library, but even better, they had the complete Chronicles Of Narnia series box set from Radio Theatre! I kept searching through those eight or nine 'search result' pages until I came across a box set containing all of The Chronicles Of Narnia books! Even though there were heaps of box sets of all the Narnia books, they were all pretty expensive. I then came across The Chronicles Of Narnia book set that has a box tie-in for Prince Caspian, the latest, newest Narnia movie now out by Disney and Walden Media! Mum ordered the Radio Theatre CD set and that Narnia book box set for me, which I paid for (both sets were originally over $100 (in Australian dollars), but I got them quite cheap, which is pretty good!
I impatiently waited for my order as I was going on holiday for a week and was hoping they would come before I left. My prayers were answered when one set arrived the day before I was to leave and the other set arrived only a few hours before I left for my holiday. Needless to say, I was stoked to be able to take the Narnia books with me. If I had a working CD Walkman, I probably would have taken the CDs as well, but that wasn't possible. I read book one of the Narnia series, The Magician's Nephew, while I was on the holiday and finished the book when I got back home. I'm now up to book two, The Lion, The Witch And The Wardrobe. Even though I read the version I got from the library, I'm happy to read it again and I can't wait to read the rest of the books! I was able to listen to the Radio Theatre Narnia CDs as soon as I got back from holiday and I really enjoyed listening to them! I eventually noticed writing at the top of the Radio Theatre name. Being legally blind, I didn't notice the words Focus on The Family until a few weeks ago, so I think it is actually Focus on The Family Radio Theatre. One thing I noticed about the CD dramatisations of The Chronicles Of Narnia compared to the ones I got from the library is that Douglas Gresham hosts them and talks about the stories and his memories at the beginning of each story, which is what I enjoy about them. It's nice to hear a bit of history before the stories start, such as their original names, etc!
I also noticed another version of The Chronicles Of Narnia on Fishpond, which I will eventually buy. It is just another dramatised version, except that the BBC are behind the making of these ones, not Focus on The Family Radio Theatre. I recently borrowed a few of the BBC dramatised CDs out of the library recently as well and they're done quite differently to the above mentioned ones. It is hard for me to explain about it, but I do plan to buy the BBC dramatised versions, which is also in a complete box set! The BBC were actually the ones who made The Chronicles Of Narnia TV series that my brothers and my sister used to watch when we were kids.
I have recently finished reading a different book so, stay tuned, as I will be posting a book review on that one in a few days.
