well, Jean just explained the Chronicles of Narnia thing to me. she tried to post. but with blogger being as screwed as it is right now, it was eaten by the Post Eating Demon™. she emailed the gist to me, and this is what she had to say:

"In a nutshell, since LW&W was the best selling book, in the '70's the publisher rearranged the order to put it first, figuring that people would be more likely to read the rest of the series if they believed they were starting at the beginning.  Before that they were chronological, beginning w/ Magician's Nephew, which was how C.S. Lewis intended it, but I'm with you, I think Magician's Nephew is a lot better if you've read LW&W first."

it saddens me to know that i've been living a lie all these years. but at least it wasn't my fault that i didn't read them in the C.S. Lewis-intended order.