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I’ve been reading Lewis lately — finally making time for some of his works that I should’ve made time for a long time ago. Thus far in my life, I’ve conquered his fictional works and Mere Christianity, and snippets of others. I’m now in the midst of his autobiography Surprised by Joy. Its made me realize that some people just have a way with words. Whether Lewis is writing fiction, faith, or semi-auto-biography, his sentences are just brilliant. I find myself chuckling about the various things he records — schoolmasters and dances, his father’s mood swings (his father had a common Scottish/Irish tendency toward extremes… extreme happiness sometimes, extreme anger others). He also writes beautifully about sad things and insightfully about terrible things. In general, you get a pretty good idea of who the man is.

It leaves me to wonder how much of writing is raw talent and how much is refinement. We can work on the refinement part, but the talent part simply is what it is. Reading about Lewis’s imagination, it’s clear that there was a prodigious talent there.

I know what you’re thinking. You’re thinking, Here he goes with books for kids again. And you’re right. Here he goes again. Eragon is a book that I goofed up with. We watched the movie first. Gulp. It didn’t do very well and got pretty lousy reviews. Double Gulp.

We really liked it! We looked at each other at the end of it and said “That was way better than I expected.” So, Rebecca went right out and got the book from the library and read it. Surprise, surprise, she liked it too. And the sequel. And the third book. And she’s chomping at the bit for the next one.

(Using the term chomping at the bit in that sentence felt wrong. Really excited? Frustrated by not being able to read? I dunno. I’m going to leave it in, in hopes of giving you some insight into my self-editing process. And my self-aggrandizement process. Aren’t I cool?)

Anyway, last time we were at the library, I was casting about for a good book to read. My wife handed me Eragon. I’m about halfway into it. It’s good. It’s especially good because, honestly, it’s not perfect. The writing is a little too… big for its britches maybe? It feels a little forced, I guess. But it works. It’s encouraging too, because it’s the author’s first book. I’m sure he’s going to get better at the technical parts, just as I hope I will. But his story, the story is really good.

So anyway, next time you’re thinking about wanting to read something with dragons and swords and really good bad guys, Eragon might be right up your alley.

From time to time, you’ll see a post that starts with WIR. That simply stands for “What I’m Reading.” As a writer, I find one of the best ways to stimulate my brain is by reading widely. These posts will be an opportunity for thoughts on content, style, and method. It’s way more for me than for you, but I’ve got to have something to put up here, right?

In the interest of full disclosure, at the time I’m writing this, I’ve read the first three books of The Spiderwick Chronicles. The final two books are in the house, waiting for me.

The Spiderwick Chronicles is a clever little series of books that tell one story in five parts. They are very definitely aimed at younger readers — Amazon.com notes that the target audience is ages 9-12. What is a grown man doing reading books intended for 9-12 year olds? What a great question.

First of all, I’m trying to establish exactly what the young adult (YA) audience is reading now and whether or not I should aim for that audience.

Secondly, and more importantly, a frequent discussion around the Mackay household revolves around at what age The Lord of the Rings will become appropriate for our child. He’s only thirteen months old, so I guess we have a while to figure it out. However, it raises a lot of questions for both my wife and me. We were both heavily impacted by a love for reading in our childhood. We also both read books that were probably over our heads at times.

Realizing that each child is different, and that our little guy may not even like reading (what will we do then? Put him in sports? ), nevertheless, we have broad discussions of themes that are “too old for a ten-year-old” and things that are appropriate.

This brings me back to Spiderwick. This little set of novels feels very much like an introduction to the Fantasy Genre. Magical creatures, strange sounds in the walls, “more than meets the eye” in a non-transformers sort of way, the hallmarks of the genre are all here. What’s so intriguing about it for me is that the authors do it in a very non-sinister way. I haven’t yet got the feeling that the authors were out to give their intended audience nightmares.

They’re quick reads too. There are certainly some themes present that a parent would want to talk to their children about (divorce, the way the Grace siblings handle their parents’ divorce, fighting at school, siblings fighting, parents not believing their children, etc.) but what strikes me even as I tick those off in my head is that they are very human themes. The goblins and faeries and sprites and trolls all seem to be presented in an age appropriate way.

Just thinking these things through has been helpful for me as I try to establish both the audience I’d like to write for and the ability to write to that audience without talking down to them or flying over their heads.

Bottom line, like anything else, if you’re a parent looking for something for your children to read, read ahead of them. But, give the first book in The Spiderwick Chronicles a glance. It shouldn’t take you long to get through it.