My Personal C.S. Lewis Reading Plan

One of my reading goals for this year is to read through all of the C.S. Lewis books on my shelves. When I made my goal, I assumed we probably had most of the books he wrote. I assumed wrong, but we do have 25, and I'm happy to start with that. I'm pretty sure I will not get through all of them this year. I will dive in and see how far I get.


I finished reading Terry Glaspey's book C.S. Lewis: His Life & Thought. It was short and sweet. I especially enjoyed the biographical portion, and almost wish I'd read a more extensive biography. The part on Lewis' thought was more disjointed and read like a series of short articles on various topics. Still, it was easy to read and worked well as an introduction.

Using an appendix in Glaspey's book, I arranged all the Lewis books on my shelves in chronological order. Here's what I have:

The Pilgrim's Regress (1933)
Out of the Silent Planet (1938)
The Problem of Pain (1940)
The Screwtape Letters (1942)
The Abolition of Man (1943)
Perelandra (1943)
That Hideous Strength (1945)
The Great Divorce (1945)
George MacDonald: An Anthology (1946)
Miracles (1947)
The Weight of Glory (1948)
The Lion, The Witch and the Wardrobe (1950)
Prince Caspian (1951)
The Voyage of the Dawn Treader (1952)
Mere Christianity (1952)
The Silver Chair (1953)
The Horse and His Boy (1954)
The Magician's Nephew (1955)
Surprised by Joy (1955)
The Last Battle (1956)
Till We Have Faces (1956)
The Four Loves (1960)
The World's Last Night and Other Essays (1960) (I don't have this but my public library does.)
A Grief Observed (1961) (I will buy this.)
Letters to Malcolm: Chiefly on Prayer (1964)
The Discarded Image (1964)
Present Concerns (1986) (My public library has this.)
Compelling Reason (1996)

Of these, I have read only the Chronicles of Narnia, Till We Have Faces, Screwtape Letters, The Great Divorce, and A Grief Observed. I know I've dipped into a few more over the years, but my memory of them is gone now.

So here I go!

I want to hear from you. What is your favourite book by C.S. Lewis, and why?