On Reading (and Writing) a Series of Books

I came across an old blog post this morning in which I admitted that, with 200 pages left to go, I had given up reading The Chronicles of Narnia — at least I had given up on reading it straight through to the end. I was reading the book for my book club, but I still had two weeks until our club met, so I figured I had time to take a break.

700-plus pages of children’s adventures in a magical land might be fun, but not all at once.

To tell the truth, I was ready to put the book aside after the...