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Oxxidation posted:my first contact with pratchett was buying the last continent and night watch at a mall bookstore when i was sixteen or something. sat down at a bench and went through most of the last continent right there i tried to read good omens for the first time in a university library. i got thrown out because i could not keep from laughing
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Mar 11, 2023 07:19
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My first was Light Fantastic which is a direct continuation of the previous but it starts with an Alien reference and introduces the Librarian
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Mar 11, 2023 07:23
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I started with the truth, and later read other books as I got my hands on them 
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Mar 11, 2023 08:05
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Riven posted:I'm good going through them in order. The true Terry Pratchett experience is to read whatever books that are available in your public library, slowly realizing there's is an order and go from there.
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Mar 11, 2023 08:52
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Started at Going Postal, then moved randomly in "whatever the library had"
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Mar 11, 2023 09:06
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First book I read was Color of Magic, picked it up in a bookstore at the CNN center in Atlanta while at a high school robotics competition. After that, went with whatever I could find at the library and the nearby Borders until it went out of business.
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Mar 11, 2023 09:21
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Alhazred posted:The true Terry Pratchett experience is to read whatever books that are available in your public library, slowly realizing there's is an order and go from there. The true Terry Pratchett experience is to read TCOM and TLF first and then the rest as they get published. In pre-internet days the only thing better than going into a bookshop and finding a new Discworld book was seeing a poster for a signing tour.  For everyone who wasn't reading in the mid-80s, though - yes, yours is as good as it gets.
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Mar 11, 2023 09:48
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Color of Magic may have some rough edges, but I will always maintain that competent, streetwise, linguist Rincewind was a far more interesting character than the flanderized stereotype he turns into later. He also seems to be something of a natural scientist who immediately figures out the workings of an actual camera and rants about wanting a different kind of magic to bring order to the Discworld. When he is briefly transported into a modern world pocket dimension, he turns into Dr. Rjinswand, a successful nuclear physicist. It seems to be me that the original concept for Rincewind was that of a scientist who had the misfortune of being born into a fantasy universe rather than "he runs away a lot". I would have liked to read more about that character.
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Mar 11, 2023 09:57
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The first two books have a lot more in common with the Hitchhiker's Guide books inasmuch as one episodic adventure happens after another without much of an overarching plot, and little to no character development occurs. (I later learned that there's a word for this style of story: Picaresque) Which is perfectly fine: As a rabid Adams fan (and due to the fact that the books were first marketed in Germany with a back blurb of "the Douglas Adams of Fantasy"), I devoured them, and didn't really notice that they got more mature until around Reaper Man or Small Gods. (And much later, I learned that there's also a phrase for that now: Cerebus Syndrome)
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Mar 11, 2023 10:14
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Yeah I am really liking the first two because they are very Hitchhiker-es que. Lot of Pratchett fans in here trying to give me reasons to skip books lol. Ironically the one book I couldn’t get from the library is Colour of Magic, I guess because everyone thinks “I should read the Discworld books and that’s the first” but it was $5 on Apple Books so I bought it while I waited for my hold on Light Fantastic at my local branch to be available the next day, and the transfers for the next four books to reach my local branch, since every book after Colour of Magic is basically immediately available. Riven fucked around with this message at 16:20 on Mar 11, 2023 |
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Mar 11, 2023 16:17
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Alhazred posted:The true Terry Pratchett experience is to read whatever books that are available in your public library, slowly realizing there's is an order and go from there.  My first was randomly picking up Moving Pictures at the library one summer.
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Mar 11, 2023 19:28
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Moving Pictures sucks.
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Mar 11, 2023 20:14
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Bum the Sad posted:Moving Pictures sucks. I quite like it
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Mar 11, 2023 20:20
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thetoughestbean posted:I quite like it I hope you have loose stool
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Mar 11, 2023 21:34
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Bum the Sad posted:I hope you have loose stool The reason you're sad is because you cannot open yourself to joy.
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Mar 11, 2023 21:53
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I started reading Men at Arms to my kiddo just because it was around and I had been meaning to start the Discord books. After that we started did pub order but did read all the Tiffany Aching books and Hogfather out of order. We have just started with Interesting Times and I think that makes our 20th book I think. Nova likes The Librarian and CMOT Dibbler and Nanny Ogg the best.
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Mar 11, 2023 22:16
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Kid's got good taste, no doubt from you puttin' them on the right track in life: becoming a Pratchett fan
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Mar 11, 2023 23:47
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Bum the Sad posted:Moving Pictures sucks. Spot the guy who didn't get the jokes and/or who hates movies. Of the several times Pterry did the "condense decades of pop culture into one month" thing Soul Music is the best, but MP has a better story to go with it. It also adds a large dose of hilarity to Ponder Stibbons becoming the most progressive member of the UU faculty and pushing the boundaries of experimental magic, when in fact he technically isn't qualified as a wizard at all.
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Mar 12, 2023 01:33
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Is Moving Pictures the last hurrah of the things from the Dungeon Dimension?
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Mar 12, 2023 02:25
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Pterry passed 8 years ago today.  GNU Terry Pratchett
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Mar 12, 2023 03:22
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e X posted:Is Moving Pictures the last hurrah of the things from the Dungeon Dimension? I think you may be right.
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Mar 12, 2023 08:38
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Moving pictures were fun for the first 2/3, maybe 3/4, but the finale invoked the " force of narrative necessity" as motivation for everything happening too much for me.
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Mar 12, 2023 09:08
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e X posted:Is Moving Pictures the last hurrah of the things from the Dungeon Dimension? Nylonathatep is the main villain in Discworld Noir.
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Mar 12, 2023 09:32
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Xarn posted:Moving pictures were fun for the first 2/3, maybe 3/4, but the finale invoked the " force of narrative necessity" as motivation for everything happening too much for me. Pterry liked - or at least, understood - narrative necessity so much that his production company is named after the Discworld's goddess of it. The Witch series has multiple novels about the force of narrative necessity.
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Mar 12, 2023 10:06
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It's covered extensively in the Science of Discworld books which I really need to get around to reading again.
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Mar 12, 2023 10:11
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Jedit posted:It also adds a large dose of hilarity to Ponder Stibbons becoming the most progressive member of the UU faculty and pushing the boundaries of experimental magic, when in fact he technically isn't qualified as a wizard at all.
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Mar 12, 2023 10:25
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DACK FAYDEN posted:He knows what the answer to question one is. Which is what his name is. That was 100% on that exam. I remember loving the sequence where he gets nervous and then underlines it, adds "The answer to question 1 is:" and ", which is the name that I bear" or something, lol. Decades since I've read it but for some reason I will always find that very funny.
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Mar 12, 2023 10:46
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Yeah, I was trying to evoke that. It's hilarious because I've absolutely done that where I'm like, looking over a test question that seems too easy, figuring I'm missing the mark, maybe I get some partial credit...
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Mar 12, 2023 10:54
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The_Doctor posted:GNU Terry Pratchett
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Mar 12, 2023 11:17
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DACK FAYDEN posted:Yeah, I was trying to evoke that. Oh right  The_Doctor posted:Pterry passed 8 years ago today. https://chrome.google.com/webstore/detail/clacks-overhead-gnu-terry/lnndfmobdoobjfcalkmfojmanbeoegab
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Mar 12, 2023 11:18
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This is a nice guide to the various subseries within Discworld, but really, read what you want. You're going to read them all eventually.
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Mar 12, 2023 19:20
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If you read a lot of '70 and '80 fantasy, TCOM and TLF are fun in as general parodies of that specific moment in time of the genre. Especially early Ankh-Morpork is so spot on for the murderous nature of a lot of these novels.
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Mar 12, 2023 19:47
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That image irrationally irritates me, it makes it look so much more complex than it really is. The books are a) fine read in any order you want, and b) published in chronological order, so work just great in that order.
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Mar 12, 2023 19:47
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Looks like the new hardcover of Nation being published next month is indeed designed to match the Discworld Hardcover Library editions, which makes me very happy.
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Mar 12, 2023 20:31
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DACK FAYDEN posted:Yeah, I was trying to evoke that. It's hilarious because I've absolutely done that where I'm like, looking over a test question that seems too easy, figuring I'm missing the mark, maybe I get some partial credit... This reminds me of a story my father told me about a philosophy exam he took in college. It was one page, one question. The question was: "Why?" The correct answer was "Why not?"
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Mar 12, 2023 21:53
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Volkova III posted:This reminds me of a story my father told me about a philosophy exam he took in college. The philosophy exam where the paper simply says "Why?" and the student gets 100% for answering "Why not?" or "Because" is a myth going back many years. Sorry, your dad lied to you.
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Mar 13, 2023 10:25
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Or the law exam with the question " define risk" with the alleged answer "this is"
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Mar 13, 2023 10:31
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I read them in publication order because my mother did and she brought them as soon as they came out.
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Mar 13, 2023 11:40
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Jedit posted:The philosophy exam where the paper simply says "Why?" and the student gets 100% for answering "Why not?" or "Because" is a myth going back many years. Sorry, your dad lied to you. “The Monks of Cool, whose tiny and exclusive monastery is hidden in a really cool and laid-back valley in the lower Ramtops, have a passing-out test for a novice. He is taken into a room full of all types of clothing and asked: Yo, my son, which of these is the most stylish thing to wear? And the correct answer is: Hey, whatever I select.”
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Mar 13, 2023 13:00
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My reading order was “whatever looked interesting based on title, back cover, and library/bookstore availability,” and I can vouch for that being a totally fine order, even when no bookstore has Feet of Clay and you spend months hunting for it. I think Equal Rites was my first, but The Truth and Thief of Time (which I bought in hardcover from an outlet mall for a combined $8) were the ones that really sold me.SimonChris posted:Color of Magic may have some rough edges, but I will always maintain that competent, streetwise, linguist Rincewind was a far more interesting character than the flanderized stereotype he turns into later. He also seems to be something of a natural scientist who immediately figures out the workings of an actual camera and rants about wanting a different kind of magic to bring order to the Discworld. When he is briefly transported into a modern world pocket dimension, he turns into Dr. Rjinswand, a successful nuclear physicist. It’s been an age since I reread Colour of Magic, but isn’t it strongly implied that he’s a bit of a fraud even as Rjinswand?
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Mar 13, 2023 16:20
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