Get Your Narnias in Order!

I love seeing all of the Chronicles of Narnia displays in the Chapters bookstore.
I can see one from here where I am sitting in the Starbucks, drinking my own body weight in coffee. Everyone is gearing up for the Yuletide release of the movie The Lion, The Witch, and the Wardrobe.
The marketing gods have awoken, if they have ever slumbered at all.
As I sippeth upon caffeine, I would like to take a few minutes to address a certain Narnian issue, regarding chronology.
For decades now, there has been quite a disagreement over how the seven books in The Chronicles of Narnia should be read. The controversy originates over the discrepancy between when the books were written, and when they were published.

C.S. Lewis wrote the books in this order:

1. The Lion, The Witch, and The Wardrobe -> 1948.
2. Prince Caspian -> 1949
3. The Voyage of the “Dawn Treader” -> 1950
4. The Horse and His Boy, -> 1950
5. The Silver Chair -> 1951
6. The Last Battle -> 1953
7. The Magician’s Nephew -> 1954

The books were published in this order:

1. The Lion, The Witch, and the Wardrobe -> 1950
2. Prince Caspian -> 1951
3. The Voyage of the “Dawn Treader” -> 1952
4. The Silver Chair -> 1953
5. The Horse and His Boy -> 1954
6. The Magician’s Nephew -> 1955
7. The Last Battle -> 1956

Hence, how ought one to read them? In what order?
My own ancient Collier 7-Volume boxed set follows this second sequence, above.
However, neither of these two lists is a correct chronological ordering for the Chronicles.
And for some light on the topic, I turn to a letter that C.S. Lewis once wrote to some British kid.

April 23rd. 1957
Dear Laurence:
I think I agree with your order for reading the books more than with your mother’s.* The series was not planned beforehand, as she thinks. When I wrote The Lion, [the Witch, and the Wardrobe] I did not know I was going to write any more. Then I wrote P.[rince Caspian] as a sequel and still didn’t think there would be any more, and when I had done The Voyage [of the “Dawn Treader”] I felt quite sure it would be the last. But I found I was wrong.
* Laurence’s mother felt that the seven books should be read in the order in which they were published, since she assumed this sequence was intentional. Laurence, however, believed that the stories should be read chronologically according to Narnian time.
Lewis agreed.

What follows is the true chronological way in which the books should be read, according to both Laurence, and Lewis.
You will see that the order is quite significantly different than either of the other two lists.

1. The Magician’s Nephew
2. The Lion, The Witch, and the Wardrobe
3. The Horse and His Boy
4. Prince Caspian
5. The Voyage of the “Dawn Treader”
6. The Silver Chair
7. The Last Battle

HarperCollins has finally gotten it right, in the new boxed set of Narnias shown here, and displayed in pretty much every corner and aisleway of this store.
I’ve read the entire series three times and will surely read it again, it is so amazingly good.

I close with another incredibly delightful letter that Lewis wrote to some other British kid.

May 7th, 1954
Dear Joan:
As for doing more Narnian books than 7, isn’t it better to stop when people are still asking for more than to go on till they are tired?

Love from,
yours,
C.S. Lewis