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I've never understood audiobooks. Can't you read it like five times as fast? I just bought ISWM last night; I got tired of waiting until the next time I saw my brother (december, probably) and borrowing his copy. It's great so far; I'll have to go back and read all those spoiler'd posts when I'm done. When I picked it up, it naturally was in the "young adults" section of my local bookstore, and I couldn't help but notice Nation was there too. I was not aware it was a "young adult" book. In fact, I started thinking about it, and as far as I can tell, the only reason it and other young adult books I like are not adult fiction is because their protagonists are young adults (but then, I've read "adult" fiction that has young protagonists, too - and some "young adult" fiction that has protagonists that are adults, although just barely). Nation certainly deals with deep and mature issues; it's certainly more serious and mature and dark than the majority of Pratchett's adult fiction. And while the Tiffany Aching series isn't any more mature, deep, or dark than the rest of Pratchett's work, it's certainly isn't less mature, deep, or dark. None of the "young adult" books I've ever read have bothered pulling punches when it comes to obscure or difficult vocabulary, either. So why the distinction? I don't know, it just bothers me; I feel like this dumb distinction means that there are casual Pratchett fans out there who are unaware of or dismissive of the "young adult" books, and THAT is a drat shame.
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Oct 16, 2010 00:27
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DontMockMySmock posted:So why the distinction? In YA stuff, the sex is less obvious.
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Oct 16, 2010 00:29
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LooseChanj posted:In YA stuff, the sex is less obvious. Is it? ISWM's first chapter has several mentions of livestock breeding, Tiffany explaining to a couple girls that witches indeed have vaginas, and then a drunk man beating his illegitimate daughter until her unborn baby dies.
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Oct 16, 2010 00:34
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DontMockMySmock posted:I've never understood audiobooks. Can't you read it like five times as fast? Most people don't sit around all day and read books. Some of them do other things like work, where you can put on headphones and listen to a whole book in an 8 hour workday and also accomplish things.
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Oct 16, 2010 00:54
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Alright, follow up question then: can you really work productively and fully absorb the book at the same time? I guess it depends on what your job is. It's a fair point, but I don't much appreciate your condescending tone. I don't "sit around all day and read books." I find that there is plenty of time for leisure reading - when you go to bed at night, during meals, while on the john, while walking somewhere, or just because. And I still have enough time to work 40+ hour weeks, spend too much time on the internet like I'm doing now, and all kinds of other stuff.
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Oct 16, 2010 01:14
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People can enjoy both, maybe? I do in fact read a great deal, but as a pedestrian I am frequently walking places, or taking a bus or train. For those times I like to have a wide variety of audio on me, and a few hours of podcasts or something. I've never listened to an audiobook, I thought it might be an interesting change of pace. That and I gave up walking with books after the third time I walked into a stop sign. Also, I believe Pratchett once said that the primary difference between his 'normal' books and his Young Adult books is that the Young Adult books have to have chapters.
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Oct 16, 2010 01:23
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Sorry about the pissyness, it's been a lovely day and some of it came out. In all seriousness, you're right. It's completely dependent on what you're doing while you're listening. Audiobooks while driving are absolutely fantastic, as well as any generally low brain function work (say, mowing the grass or doing you do regularly). That said I do spend a ridiculous amount of time actually reading.
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Oct 16, 2010 01:25
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DontMockMySmock posted:I've never understood audiobooks. Can't you read it like five times as fast? I personally, spend all day drawing http://www.sorcery101.net/sorcery101/s101chapter1/ So sitting at a drawing table for 8-16 hours a day. So audiobooks and radio dramas are a blessing. Because if I just put on music, I'll end up being like "um... not in the mood for this song" then waste time for a half an hour until I find something I like. Then repeat this an hour later when that album ends. And with TV I want to look up unless it's something I've seen a million times before or if it's a show like House were everything interesting is House insulting people and therefore auditory. So Audiobooks help me get more done and be more focused on both things. Also, I'm dsylexic so at least for me the audiobook is faster. The only time I've had a problem following an audiobook and working at the same time was Lord of the Rings. KellHound fucked around with this message at 02:19 on Oct 16, 2010 |
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Oct 16, 2010 02:16
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My introduction to the Discworld was the abridged audiobooks read by Tony Robinson. A good 90% of his character voices are permanently wedged in my brain for the characters now. Whenever we would go on holiday my dad would always take a new one along in the car.
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Oct 16, 2010 02:25
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I have a long rear end commute every day, and audiobooks entertain me and keep my road-rage at bay.
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Oct 16, 2010 02:48
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John Charity Spring posted:Equal Rites isn't one of my favourites but I remember enjoying it a lot when I read it. It wasn't one of the first I'd read, though, and I'd already read Wyrd Sisters, for instance, so I knew Granny Weatherwax fairly well already. Equal Rites would be a lot more popular if it "fit" with the later Witches books. ER, and the first two Rincewind books are noticeably different from the later books. They were first. He refined his style. If ER had been written after... let's say Lords and Ladies, and in the more mature Discworld style it'd probably be a lot more popular. In movie terms, the screenplay is fine but the script needed another draft. C'mon, Granny Weatherwax takes a student to Unseen University that they don't want to accept, then duels the Archchancellor ? Great idea for a Discworld story. I just consider that ER happened "before" one of the rebuildings of history that have occurred. Audiobooks... pfff. Ask me again when I don't read for an hour on the way to work.
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Oct 16, 2010 04:04
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I can't work or do homework while I'm listening to an audiobook. Also though I can't read a book while I walk to class or lift weights. That's where audiobooks come in. And they all just happen to be discworld novels.
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Oct 16, 2010 05:26
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The Relentless posted:I have a long rear end commute every day, and audiobooks entertain me and keep my road-rage at bay. How long? I hope it's a good job that justifies it.
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Oct 16, 2010 05:52
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Honestly, anyone who hasn't heard them and including people who have listened to the audiobooks, please have a listen to the BBC radio plays. They are fantastically well done and last time I checked were still available on the BBC website and elsewhere on the internet.
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Oct 16, 2010 07:03
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LooseChanj posted:In YA stuff, the sex is less obvious. Wait, so in Nation did Mau and Daphne ever do it?
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Oct 16, 2010 09:12
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Speakeasy posted:Wait, so in Nation did Mau and Daphne ever do it? Not onscreen. Probably not ever. They had more of a platonic friendship, in the end. But "not having sex" can't be all there is to a young adult book, since I've read young adult books about adults that sometimes have sex and adult books about young adults that don't have sex; for example, Soul Music's main characters are young adults and there is no sex, yet I find that in the scifi/fantasy aisle and Nation in the young adult aisle. The more I think about it the more arbitrary it seems.
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Oct 16, 2010 09:32
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LooseChanj posted:In YA stuff, the sex is less obvious. With Pratchett's stuff, I think the only real distinction is that in his kids' books/young adult books, there is a bit less swearing.
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Oct 16, 2010 11:23
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DontMockMySmock posted:Is it? ISWM's first chapter has YggiDee posted:Also, I believe Pratchett once said that the primary difference between his 'normal' books and his Young Adult books is that the Young Adult books have to have chapters. He also said the sex is less obvious.
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Oct 16, 2010 11:25
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DontMockMySmock posted:Not onscreen. Probably not ever. They had more of a platonic friendship, in the end. But "not having sex" can't be all there is to a young adult book, since I've read young adult books about adults that sometimes have sex and adult books about young adults that don't have sex; for example, Soul Music's main characters are young adults and there is no sex, yet I find that in the scifi/fantasy aisle and Nation in the young adult aisle. The more I think about it the more arbitrary it seems. Generally, the protagonist is about five years younger than they'd otherwise be, but that seems to be about it.
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Oct 16, 2010 13:59
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LooseChanj posted:He also said the sex is less obvious. If anything the handling of sex is more mature in his YA books than the others, most of the others tend to be more 'lol sex'.
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Oct 16, 2010 16:40
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veekie posted:If anything the handling of sex is more mature in his YA books than the others, most of the others tend to be more 'lol sex'. This is because sex is hilarious in just about any context.
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Oct 16, 2010 18:34
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Terry can be drat hilarious and classy when writing about sexual stuff. Like Rincewind wasting all of Twoflowers Iconographs pink ink just snapping random pictures of prostitutes in the old whores pits of pre fire Ankh-Morpork. Or getting faint and having to lie down a bit while describing Herrena the Henna-Haired Harridan a book later.
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Oct 16, 2010 18:37
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DontMockMySmock posted:I've never understood audiobooks. Can't you read it like five times as fast?. Many can. I can, but one thing I've noticed is that I pick up more detail sometimes listening to the audiobook. When I read, I sometimes end up subconciously skimming paragraphs where not much seems to happen. On the other hand, if I want to stop and think about something, I need to be quick with the pause button, plus reading before going to sleep is self-limiting with "real" books. With audiobooks, I've woken up dozens of chapters past what I remember hearing. With Terry's books it can be interesting. Having the book read aloud can make some of his jokes very obvious while obscuring others.
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Oct 18, 2010 14:52
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I found something fun at the Taichung Museum of Natural Sciences. ....plib I've also seen the water-calculator from Making Money at London's Science Museum. That one took me by surprise and I stared at it for a good minute thinking, "This thing actually exists?". Fortunately, it wasn't working otherwise I hate to think what might happe.
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Oct 20, 2010 15:18
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Robert_Deadford posted:I've also seen the water-calculator from Making Money at London's Science Museum. That one took me by surprise and I stared at it for a good minute thinking, "This thing actually exists?". That's Bill Phillips' MONIAC computer.
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Oct 20, 2010 20:57
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shadok posted:That's Bill Phillips' MONIAC computer. As a New Zealand economics student, I adored seeing the Making Money interpretation. 
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Oct 20, 2010 21:52
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Details of Pterry's Coat of Arms have turned up, along with a picture here. It's part way down the page. Also, the motto? "Noli timere messorem"? Means "Don't fear the Reaper". I like it. I'm pretty sure this hasn't been posted yet.
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Nov 4, 2010 09:54
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Staggy posted:Details of Pterry's Coat of Arms have turned up, along with a picture here. It's part way down the page. We're all going to imagine the Ankh-Morpork Heraldry expert as Terry now aren't we?
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Nov 4, 2010 15:27
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Well thanks, now I need to go buy a book heraldry and the College of Arms, that site is fascinating.
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Nov 4, 2010 21:51
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Staggy posted:Details of Pterry's Coat of Arms have turned up, along with a picture here. It's part way down the page. Oh my God, it's got an ankh and a morpork.
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Nov 5, 2010 02:11
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I think I've read just about all of the Discworld novels, with the exceptions of The Last Hero and the Tiffany Aching books. Honestly, I think the only two I didn't like were Eric and Moving Pictures.
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Nov 5, 2010 07:43
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the_steve posted:I think I've read just about all of the Discworld novels, with the exceptions of The Last Hero and the Tiffany Aching books. Oh, how I wish I still had the Tiffany Aching books to look forward to. . . . Read them, they are great.
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Nov 5, 2010 08:30
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I'm up to Jingo so far, which was good. Unfortunately I've stopped buying books until I have a job. Or until someone inexplicably gives me a large sum of money, that is also acceptable.
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Nov 5, 2010 10:45
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John Dough posted:Unfortunately I've stopped buying books until I have a job. Get a library card, or are you like me and absolutely loath letting a book out of your hands/shelf?
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Nov 5, 2010 14:20
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the_steve posted:I think I've read just about all of the Discworld novels, with the exceptions of The Last Hero and the Tiffany Aching books. Read The Last Hero, the art is gorgeus.
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Nov 5, 2010 18:22
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LooseChanj posted:Get a library card, or are you like me and absolutely loath letting a book out of your hands/shelf? He might also be like me and have a library with only two Pratchett books.
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Nov 5, 2010 19:20
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the_steve posted:I think I've read just about all of the Discworld novels, with the exceptions of The Last Hero and the Tiffany Aching books.
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Nov 5, 2010 20:02
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The only one I can't stand is Monstrous Regiment. It's not even funny. The whole gag of the plot is so immediately obvious that there's no dramatic tension; the only time there's even a single laugh is when Vimes and Carrot show up at the end. Don't get why people don't like Moving Pictures; I like that one just for Gaspode.
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Nov 5, 2010 20:18
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Hieronymous Alloy posted:Don't get why people don't like Moving Pictures; I like that one just for Gaspode. A lot of it for me was just how oddly the whole Hollywood thing, and especially the technology it depended on, fit into discworld. It was a square peg in a round hole. Soul Music, which I really wanted to like, suffered from the same problem. They both had absurd Flintstone-ish "technical" solutions to things, when something more mundane would have worked better. I haven't read those books in a while so I'm not sure this is accurate, but if you've got magical film why not make it work like ordinary film instead of being a really fast-drying canvas for tiny demons?
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Nov 5, 2010 20:52
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I enjoyed Eric more than Sourcery, I think. That one really put me off reading the rest of the Rincewind books, which is a shame because when I finally got back to them I enjoyed Interesting Times and Last Continent fairly well, though still not quite as much as pretty much any of the other series. But really, I can understand people going one way or the other on most of the Rincewind books, or Moving Pictures. Someone not liking Monstrous Regiment, on the other hand, really comes out of left field for me. Yes, the gimmick was obvious, but that's only a problem if you don't think the characters and events are interesting even when you already know the gimmick. I think they're absolutely engaging and often hilarious.
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Nov 5, 2010 21:01
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