It's quiz time, Shmoopers. You ready? Don't worry, we promise this one's easy:

• Do you care about truth and justice?
• Have you ever struggled to take responsibility for your actions?
• Do you like lions?

If you answered yes to any of the above, then you're in luck—C.S. Lewis's The Silver Chair is totally the book for you. But even if you answered no to every question (though we're not sure we believe that anyone doesn't like lions… just sayin'), there's still probably something in this book for you. After all, it's a fantasy novel that explores religion, prominently features a witch, journeys to magical lands, and culminates in a major dose of comeuppance for some school bullies. In other words, there's pretty much something for everyone tucked in these pages.

Published in 1953, The Silver Chair is the fourth book in Lewis's Chronicles of Narnia series, taking its place in line after The Lion, the Witch, and the Wardrobe,  Prince Caspian, and The Voyage of the Dawn Treader. So if you've read those, then get excited for more—but perhaps more importantly, if you like this book, then get ready to keep reading, since there are three additional books in the series. And that means lots more quality time with lions—or, the Lion, as Lewis calls Aslan in this series. Rawr.

Although we've never experienced this first-hand, word on the street is that some people don't like to read fantasy stories or fairy tales. If you are part of this rare group, don't despair—like Eustace Scrubb, you're primed for a conversion experience.

But why should you need converting? What's wrong with disliking these kinds of books? Allow us to explain.

To answer this, let's go back to The Voyage of the Dawn Treader, the book that comes before The Silver Chair in the Chronicles of Narnia series. At the beginning of that story, Eustace is a very unpleasant human being—partially because he "hasn't read the right sort of books." Instead of fairy tales and fantasies or books of adventure, Eustace just loves books that "[have] a lot to say about exports and imports and governments and drains." Unfortunately, those books are "weak on dragons"—and more importantly, on witches.

This becomes a major problem for him in two ways. First, he loves information only because it allows him to prove people wrong and intellectually bully them. But also, when Eustace actually does find himself in a dragon's lair—hey, it happens—he doesn't realize that the treasure in it will be cursed, much to his pain and suffering. Duh.

And these are just the practical repercussions of a poorly rounded literary diet. On a more intellectual and (dare we say) spiritual level, including fantastical narratives such as The Silver Chair in your life builds the muscles of your imagination and allows your mind to play with larger principles like faith, friendship, loyalty, and courage in new and interesting ways. And that's just good mental exercise, besides the fact that it's fun.

Lewis works hard to get you to flex those imaginative muscles, using tropes like aporia—a.k.a. a sense of inexpressibility—to force the limits of what we know (take a look at the description of the cliff on Aslan's mountain and you'll see what we mean). The point of having enchantments, morphing, beautiful witch queens, and two varieties of Giants Who Want to Kill You is not to fill you up with "useful information." It's to make you more receptive to the wonderful.

So don't be a Eustace and have to be turned into a dragon before you get to go on adventures and be the hero. Read The Silver Chair and open yourself to the questing life.