Quite apart from the Narnia books, Surprised by Joy also had a strong impact on me in my school years. That man had a way of capturing the most ethereal concepts with absolute clarity. Really made me consider my life in new ways, and learn to articulate it better.
If anyone is looking for a reading suggestion, I highly recommend Mere Christianity which I only read for the first time earlier this year. I was so moved that I turned around and read it a second time, which I rarely do for any book (so far only the Bible, The Lord of the Rings/The Hobbit, Neuromancer, and anything Ray Bradbury wrote are about all that's made the grade).
I also have Out of the Silent Planet near the top of my to-read queue, and I suppose I should stick the Narnia books in there now, too.
Oh my goodness yes. All Lewis's fiction is fabulous. My favorite of the space trilogy is the last one, That Hideous Strength. And yessss you'll definitely have to read the Narnia books. XD
I'm more a Perelandra guy myself, though THS grows on me every time I reread it. Still hold The Great Divorce as my favorite, though. And no, it's not because of the unicorns.
Love That Hideous Strength too, Melz. Probably my personal favorite is Till We Have Faces. One of my top 10 books of all time (and I was an English major so there are a lot of books I love. ).
Till We Have Faces is the one that's constantly rivaling Great Divorce for my top Lewis pick. BRILLIANT lines in there... then again, that can be said of all of them, but I'd say TWHF is the one I probably get reminded of most often.
Oh yeah, fantastic quoty lines, I remember that bit. I just had trouble with the general story and with understanding what. the heck. I was supposed to be taking from this.