C. S. Lewis question

I am really looking forward to reading from the C. S. Lewis collection in Logos. I have not read any of his writings. I have listened to all seven books in the Narnia series, but they are not in the collection.

What would be the top five recommendations from the collection to read first?

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Ronald Quick

Mere Christianity would be a great place to start.

Bruce Dunning

What would be the top five recommendations from the collection to read first?

Here are my top 5

Mere Christianity
The Problem of Pain
Miracles
The Weight of Glory
The Abolition of Man

JT (alabama24)

What would be the top five recommendations from the collection to read first?

In no particular order:

Mere Christianity
A Grief Observed
Perelandra*
The Screwtape Letters
The Abolition of Man

* Second book in "space trilogy." The best of the three.

Rosie Perera

I would start with these five:

1. Mere Christianity

2. The Screwtape Letters

3. The Great Divorce

4. The Abolition of Man

5. The Problem of Pain

6. A Grief Observed

7. Miracles

8. The Weight of Glory

9. Letters to Malcolm: Chiefly on Prayer

Oops. Did you ask for 5? Did I promise 5? Well, those are the top 9 of his books in the collection, IMO. After the first three, the remaining 6 could be read in any order. But the top 3 are definitely the top 3 on almost anyone's list. [EDIT: Oops, I see that the previous two posters have undermined my confidence on this. [:$]]

After that I'd read the Space Trilogy (Out of the Silent Planet, Perelandra, and That Hideous Strength) and Letters to an American Lady, and dip into some of his other letters.

The remaining books in the collection are either more obscure or are about him rather than by him.

DBR

https://community.logos.com/discussion/comment/707954#Comment_707954

There is no doubt that Mere Christianity tops the list. I will agree with Rosie that Screwtape and the Great Divorce are must reads. I think I read the Great Divorce in one sitting the first time I read it. Screwtape is not my favorite, but a very interesting, and important read for someone who wants to get into Lewis.

From there, Miracles and Problem of Pain would be next. If you are expecting something like Narnia from the Space Trilogy, you may be disappointed, but I find them good reads with interesting content. I plan to read them through again here soon.

Kenneth Neighoff

https://community.logos.com/discussion/comment/708022#Comment_708022

Thanks for the suggestions and your top 5 or 9.

I look forward to reading these works.

Maybe over the next 50 years of my life, I will get caught up on my reading.

It really is hard to believe that many people struggle to read a book or two a year, while I find it hard to read all that I want to read. I need more hours in the day.

Josh Hunt

My Lewis favs:

Mere Christianity

Screwtape Letters

Great Divorce.

NB.Mick

I haven't studied the collection's content (too expensive for me, and I own much from Lewis in paper - some in German and English), but Mere Christianity surely is top of the list for non-fiction. The Four Loves is the next most often dragged from my book-shelf, I think. His small exposition on the psalms is surely worth gold, too (not all will be happy with his stance on the "revenge-psalms-issue" - but he tackles it right on).

Fiction: If Narnia is out of bounds, The Great Divorce is really great, but so is the often overlooked Till We Have Faces which I personally rate higher than the Space Trilogy (which is great, too!).

It's a long time since I read "The Pilgrim's Regress", so I'm not sure where to place it on a Top X list, but probably below the one's I already mentioned (note that Bunyan's work is no household fare even in Christian homes in Germany, so I read Lewis' reprise to Bunyan's theme before knowing Bunyan's book and probably missed lots of allusions - the German edition's title doesn't play on Bunyan either and retranslated would be "Flight from Puritania" - the idea being that the main characters escapes the oppressive regime of Puritania in search of the shining castle that occurs in several of Lewis' writings)

JT (alabama24)

https://community.logos.com/discussion/comment/708067#Comment_708067

too expensive for me

+1 [:s]

Rosie Perera

https://community.logos.com/discussion/comment/708029#Comment_708029

It really is hard to believe that many people struggle to read a book or two a year, while I find it hard to read all that I want to read. I need more hours in the day.

I used to read on average about 30 books a year. I've been down to about 10-15 a year in the past few years, though. I think it's because I've bumped up my priority on catching up on classic movies that I'd never seen, and thus have less time for reading. And I'm spending more time online these days, too. Reading all kinds of articles there, but it doesn't count towards my books per year.