To kick of the discussions, why not give a quick introduction about yourself? I don't want to know your name, age, favourite brand of toenail clipper or if you think the world is flat (we already know it is, it's carried by four elephants standing on a the Great A'Tuin). No, I want to know how you discovered Terry Pratchett, why you love or like reading him, which and how many books you read, and in what language... Anything that would make a nice introduction. As for myself, I was introduced to the wacky universe of the Discworld when my Latin teacher in secondary school gave us a fragment to read from Faust Eric. We were reading and discussing Homer(os) at the time, and the fragment he gave us was the part were Eric and Rincewind arrive in Tsort - the link with the Trojan war is obvious. I was intrigued, and wanted to read more about it. I rented 'The Colour of Magic' and although it was one of the strangest things I had ever read (your first experience with Pratchett can be quite daunting), I loved the humour of it. Since then, I've been reading a new book every month or so, and I'm currently reading Soul Music - I've already read Interesting Times, Maskerade, Feet of Clay and Hogfather, but I've only been able to find Soul Music recently. As a little side-note, I'm reading all the books in Dutch first, my primary language. The Dutch translations are widely considered to be the best translations, even by Pratchett himself. I do of course plan to read them all in English, and the 'research' I've done before starting this group has urged me to do so.
I started reading them because my brother read them. Even though english isn't my native tongue, hours of training in front of Cartoon Network and the computer finally advanced me to a level where I could reasonably well understand written english(I was like 10-11 years old) so I picked up a Terry Pratchett book and been reading them ever since The first book I read was Interesting Times.
I first became aware of Pratchett's Discworld books back in the mid '80's soon after he started writing them. My sister certainly read the first few of them. Oddly it was the Josh Kirby covers that actually put me off. I had recently had a disappointing experience with another comedy fantasy author, and decided Pratchett must be a lightweight writer of forgettable fluff. Skip forward to about a year and half ago and I happened to have a book token. On a whim I bought The Colour of Magic and I was really impressed. Since then I have been steadily reading my way through Pratchett's works. I think I've read 20 of them now. One thing I noticed was that Pratchett changed his style after the first two books, which were both "road" stories. At first I was disappointed, thinking the series was going to turn into a kind of soap-opera set in Ankh Morepork, but now I think I understand why the change had to be made and I am more than happy with it.
Kirby's style takes some time to get used to, but now I can't imagine any other portrayal of Discworld and it's characters. Like I said in the other topic, I find Kidby's (the new artist) drawings to be a bit too clean, they remind me too much of general fantasy concept art.
By the way, don't forget to use the reading-order guide (I put one in the pictures section). This will enable you to follow the various sub-series within Pratchett's work without coming across too many references to people and events you haven't read about yet.
Thanks for posting that! I do prefer to read the books in the order they were released, to get some variation.
I started reading when My mother suggested I read them. And I now own and have read almost all over them. Heres the list: Making Money Wintersmith The Wee Free Men A Hat Full of Sky Small Gods Deaths Domain (actually a map, but has a short book with it too) Guards! Guards! Feet of Clay Pyramids Monstrous Regiment Mort Soul Music Reaper Man (those last three should be read in that order, mort, soul music then reaper man) Night Watch (this one is excellent, but you must read all the previous Watch Books) Lords and Ladies The Fifth Elephant (excellent) Eric Interesting Times Thud Men At Arms The Light Fantastic The Last Continent (truely a work of Art! Many jokes only an Aussie would get, he did brilliantly) Going Postal Maskerade Moving Pictures Hog Father Colour of Magic Carpe Jugulum Jingo Wyrd Sisters and finally Witches Abroad. Read all of those aswell. Oh, and I also have a book that contains both the Graphic novels. Its was $20, marked down from 50
Alright then. I was introduced to Terry Pratchet by my mother in the late 90's, she thought I needed to read more, and so gave me this book I might like called "Guards!Guards!" and "To arms" (two-in-one). It was in Russian (one of the first translations), but the translation was not bad and the stile was side-splitingly good, I liked it. From then on Pratchet was one of the only three Authors who's books I regularly read. I'v read all of his books, except for some where the Wierd systers as the main heroes (don't like them that much for some reason), and am eagerly awaiting his latest work. What I really like about Pratchett is his great sense of humor and his bizarly correct (and corectly bizare) logic. My favorite characters are the staff of the unseen University, love those geezers.
it all started with Mort....and then the love affair began... love his style of humour kick ass
When I was twelve I stumbled across Douglas Adams Hitchhikers Guide to the Galaxy, in my opinion, the best book ever written. I asked an older friend for a book similar to Adams and he borrowed me The Colour of Magic. I hated it. Read the whole book, tossed it aside and did not plan to ever read another one of Pratchett's books in my life. But then, some years later, around age 15-16 I think, I stumbled across yet another book that took me by surprise. I can't remember which one but it was Pratchett. I didn't make that connection until I had read through the whole book laughing. I read some of his books during a couple of years but not really avidly. I liked the books but thought no more of it. Then 5 or 6 years after that, another friend asked for some children's book recommendations since he had gotten a child of his own. I mentioned Pratchett, borrowed him one of my books and the next time I saw him (we lived in different countries) he brought me the collected works of Pratchett minus the ones I already owned, all in English. Of course you can discuss how well suited Pratchett really is for smaller children but I've always been of the opinion that Pratchett's stories are "children's stories for adults" in that both a child as well as a grown can appreciate the stories on their own terms. Anyway my friend worked at a bookstore so he got a sweet discount but still, it was kind of moving. So I said that I would read the entire collection , one or two books a week. By now I've read every book up until Nations, I think. I've found myself appreciating Pratchett's books more, the older I get and it's very interesting to see how far he has evolved in his writing comparing his later works to his earlier. I've read about 5-6 books in my home language and the rest in English. The English ones are far better but a few translations of some words are actually far more hysterical than the originals. And I re-read the Colour of Magic, it's ok.
Like Sevasti, I first came to Douglas Adams before Pratchett, enjoying Dirk Gently and the Hitch-hiker books greatly. Have now read most of his discworld books and Good Omens (co-written with Neil Gaiman) and have enjoyed most of them, particularly the Watch novels- I think Sam Vimes is my favourite character I have ever read. Reading through many of his books, the way he deals with so many themes so well is amazing, he has also improved with time.
Wow, It's been months till I've been to TWC, and what a thing to come back to! I first encountered Pratchett in my school library eight years ago, where I started off with a copy of "guards! guards!" and then went on to plow my way through his novels in the six years following, interspaced with other novels. The only one I have yet to read is "making money", but I'm sure I'll get round to it after finishing David Gemmel... I have to say both his earliest works and latest works were disappointing after starting with the genius of those in the center. His earliest ones were too simplistic, much like the covers back then, and the later ones became too serious, with too much of a moral stapled on to the end. I'll use masquerade as an example of the former, and monstrous regiment as an example of the second. Although very good, they were nothing compared to the amazing read which was hog father or night watch (this was my favorite series of novels as well, when the guards come across death it provides the two best story lines in one book).
I think I would agree that the best of Pratchett's novels were from the 1990's. They benefit from the Discworld universe having become fully developed by earlier work and have the best ideas. Even someone as accomplished as Pratchett is bound to start repeating himself eventually. Although I still have a long way to go, my current favourites are Pyramids, Small Gods and the entirety of the Guards series.
to be honest i had no idea bout this Terry Pratchett dude and the Discworld series until i saw Hogfather on the tube(i am a cultural barbarian, i know). and i laughed... i nearly soiled my pants.
So you started reading the books right ?
Fist time. Hmmm... I guess when I've read the Reaper right after it was published in Poland. So many years ago. Untill now I've read almost everything except Making Money. I guess I've fallen in love with the books because of its kind of sense of humour simile to the one so evident in novels and short stories of Stanisław Lem.
The first novel I read was Carpe Jugulum when I saw it in a library, and thought the illustrations on the cover looked funny. I think I was about 12 at the time, so some of the more subtle jokes went over my head. I realized there were so many other discworld novels out there, so I went back and started the series from the beginning and I have now read the whole series, and most of the books at least twice. I think as I got older and more knowledgeable the books got funnier beacause I understood the satire and historical references. Night Watch was genius. Terry Pratchett has to be the best author alive today
I'm a Pratchett n00b. Except I'm not. I read my first Pratchett book only a few years ago (I think it was 2007) - Thud! Absolutely loved it. The humour of course was a plus but what really won it for me was Pratchett's storytelling; the way he convinces you, every time, to turn a page and read on. The serious undertones to the book only helped in that respect, and this fictional city of Ankh-Morpork really fascinated me. Straight away, I knew I had to get more. Now, three years on, here I am with every Discworld book in my collection minus the Tiffany Aching books, Eric and The Last Hero. I have loads of "favoured" books - Small Gods, Monstrous Regiment, Interesting Times. But the prize for my absolute favourite has to go to Night Watch.
I first heard about Pratchett through friends, and finally got around to reading Small Gods after I bought it while on holiday way back in 2006. Since then, I've gone through quite a chunk of his novels (including the Bromeliad although strictly speaking, it isn't part of the Discworld series). My favourites would have to be Interesting Times, Carpe Jugulum, and Small Gods. I also enjoyed Strata.
