I love to read. I have always loved to read.

I will read almost anything, provided it is at least modestly well-written, and will invariably finish what I start unless the content is incredibly boring, or I somehow otherwise lose interest. (I tend to read a few books at a time, unless they are so captivating that I read them through in one sitting. So, quite often, I will return after a few weeks to finish a book I put down to start and/or finish another one.) I used to describe myself as ’someone whom will read anything, from the side of a serial box to a tome from Tolstoy’ (though I haven’t yet opened War and Peace, I have read Anna Karenina, and yes, the former is on my to-do list).

Naturally, either through osmosis, or more likely from regular exposure to books by Megan and I since the moment his prenatal ear buds were forming, Caleb also loves to read. He reads by himself, he reads to his animal friends (eh-hem…when he is supposed to be sleeping at night, we sometimes open his door and find him reading a book in his bed to his stuffed animals), and he sits patiently (as patiently as a 3-year old boy can sit, I guess) while we read stories long and short to him. And occasionally, if we are so lucky, he even reads to us.

One of my most cherished memories is of the time that Caleb read to me (from memory) The Giving Tree when he was about two and a half. I gave him the book for his first Christmas and changed all of the gender references of the tree from a female to a male. It is probably my favorite children’s book, and I cherish sharing it with Caleb (which we do at least once a month). To say that he had me in tears by the end of the book would be an understatement.

So what are we reading now?

Among the usual fare of normal kid’s books, we recently read my childhood copy of Robinson Crusoe (which, after dozens of under-the-blanket-with-a-flashlight reading sessions by me as a young boy, is rather worn down and dog-eared) and have started the 7-book series, The Chronicals of Narnia.

While Robinson Crusoe is probably my favorite book of all time (sheesh, that sounds rather cheesy), The Chronicals of Narnia hold special meaning to Megan and I. We both read the series as children, Megan with her parents and on her own, and me several times on my own throughout my childhood and teenage years. Caleb and I are about three quarters of the way through The Magician’s Nephew (book one, which unknown to many, precedes the most popular book in the series, The Lion, the Witch and the Wardrobe). Caleb is engrossed in the story and determinedly does not like Queen Jadis or Uncle Andrew one bit. The Lion (Aslan), on the other hand, he is entranced with. (His favorite of his stuffed animals is his lion, P.L.C. Lion, whom often sits with us while we read.)

The set we purchased (pictured above) is my top recommendation for parents who want to read the series to kids under the age of 8 or so. It contains the full text, but is beautifully adorned every few pages with color illustrations. Indeed, while there are often three pages in a stretch without an illustration, I find that Caleb’s attention can easily be maintained throughout a full chapter in one sitting (often two) because the periodic illustrations routinely give him a visual on which to hook the story.

So the next time you see Caleb, be sure you ask him about Digory and Polly and what he thinks of Queen Jadis!