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[heatwave]

In the middle of rereading LotR. Just finished the first half of The Two Towers. It's been a long time since I've reread them and I've been enjoying rediscovering details I forgot.

[itisnotlogical]

I just read The Phantom of the Opera. I was surprised by how much it engaged me given the older writing style, the translation, and the fact that several pages were missing from my digital copy (it was lazily scanned and even lazier OCR'd from a print copy.)

I just don't quite understand the layout of the cellars underneath the opera house. There's many basements, and then a lake deep underground, which can somehow also be accessed by a street from ground level...?

[Mephisto]

Right now, I'm reading about something I might be reading in the future.

Quick poll before you continue. Urban fantasy book. Basically modern day plus magic. What city are you imagining?

Spoiler (click to show/hide)

Cleveland. Cleveland, Ohio.

Nothing against it, just an unexpected choice. Though it being a hundred miles (as the crow flies) from Detroit could lead to *fun*.

http://www.brianmcclellan.com/blog/uncanny-collateral

[Levi]

I've started up on the Discworld series.

I really hope the writing quality improves after the first book though.  Its been really hard to read.

It took me a while to figure out why random words seem to be capitalized until I figured out that periods were left out all over the place.  Its also had a paragraph break actually start mid-sentence and often scene changes happen without even a paragraph break.

Its very confusing to read.

[heydude6]

I've started up on the Discworld series.

I really hope the writing quality improves after the first book though.  Its been really hard to read.

It took me a while to figure out why random words seem to be capitalized until I figured out that periods were left out all over the place.  Its also had a paragraph break actually start mid-sentence and often scene changes happen without even a paragraph break.

Its very confusing to read.

Seems like you bought a bad edition. My version of the first book doesn’t have those problems.

As for the improvements in writing quality, it will take until book 4 for things to finally start getting good. I found the second book to be very frustrating, (though I read it anyway cause I wanted to finish the story of the first book, feel free to skip it if you don’t care about it), book 3 is essentially non-canon and I definitely recommend skipping it cause it hurts the story of book 5 which is actually a pretty good read. After that things should be smoother, there will still be a few duds along the way (I’m not really a fan of Wyrd Sisters), but then you’ll get classics like Guards, Guards, Guards; Men at arms; Small Gods; and Hogfather

[Starver]

When Discworld started, it was pure parody of the fantasy genre, and parody of the parodies. The world was unformed and unmapped. Though it did not lack inspiration it could have been seen as a little shallow. Bear with it though.

Fairly quickly things form up, as heydude says.

I do like Wyrd Sisters (but then I like and am familiar with Shakespearean themes), and it starts to set out what the future Witches books do well (not so obvious in Equal Rites, which introduced Granny) and everyone probably has an above-the-average-level favoured book if one of the 'theme' books does their area of interest justice, while others wonder what it actually is about, to some extent.

It gets into pace, IMO, by the point of Guards! Guards!, although there's something to said about Mort too, and how it establishes the main character of Death properly (in TCOM you get Him 'killing' things out of frustration, which he specifically doesn't do later) , and I am wont to argue that the Patrician of the first book is Vetinari (but in his guise of "hail the new boss, same as the old boss" necessary to get put into power, before slimming down and becoming his own brand), but you'll perhaps see that for yourself if you stick with it.

There's a rich resource of Discworldly information out there to appreciate (Mappes, etc) which were created beyond your current point of interest but rationalise well with the ad hoc geography (discography?) you started with. But I suggest you start off just enjoying the ride. Either go through the first few books by date written or consult a Reading Order Guide to follow a theme and skip over another. I have no idea what you'd find interesting, though. It may be you'd get quite into Rincewind (and the Unseen University faculty in general) while not 'getting' the City Watch.

But I leave you to decide this journey yourself. I think it's rewarding, but I've already proven myself as a fan, and so I may be a bit biased. I found Harry Potter 'derivative', and yet obviously others disagree with me, so...  you know.

[Enemy post]

I started Moby Dick, then sidetracked when I was recommended Dresden. I also read All Tomorrows. That one was a sort of tragic/creepy history of humanity's next billion years.

[Loud Whispers]

I did not expect to love Moby Dick. GIVE ME THE MOBY DICK
I do intend to one day do a shitty spinoff where post-WWIII Ahab hunts down a nuclear mega-whale with a devil RPG

[heydude6]

Either go through the first few books by date written or consult a Reading Order Guide to follow a theme and skip over another. I have no idea what you'd find interesting, though. It may be you'd get quite into Rincewind (and the Unseen University faculty in general) while not 'getting' the City Watch.

That's something I really don't agree with. Though I do understand the benefits of using a reading list (I think it's incredibly important that you read the 5th book before you read the 3rd book), I find that it usually suffices to read the books in release order. I have a friend who has been reading it in order of themes (Every Rincewind book first, then every Witches book, then Death, and etc.), and I really think he's getting an inferior reading experience from this. Many of the books have callbacks to previous books of different themes that he won't understand if he sticks to just one of them at a time. Another thing to note is that as the books progress, Pratchett matures as an author, but if you start a new theme then you go back to the jank of the early days temporarily. That doesn't even get into the standalone books such as "The Truth" and "Small Gods".

I've been mostly reading in release order (minus a bit of accidental jumbling of the early books due to difficulties finding copies at the time), and it's been fine. Sometimes you have to endure a bad book, but you get an experience closer to what the author intended.

[Starver]

Oh, I'm definitely an advocate of the publication chronology (this list includes non-Discworld, including the 'prototype' that is Strata, but even just sticking to this list would work) and it was the only way for me to read them, as one eagerly awaited most of their publications after finding the first few in the library to prime me up. (Pratchett did for humorous but thoughtful situations what Piers Anthony basically tried to do with puns alone in the Xanth series.)

The actions of Small Gods (in the century before most of the other books' events) also introduce The Sweeper far in advance(!) of Thief Of Time, with The Truth setting up a couple of characters seen later in the Watch and Lipwig books (slightly more than cameos). There's very few truly stand-alones. The ones that appeared tended to spawn a continuation later on. The Amazing Maurice spun off a single-location scene 20 books earlier, in a newish part of the Disc not far from the areas dealt with 4 and 5 books earlier, but doesn't carry forward. Pyramids takes a pre-written AM guild experience over to a location barely mentioned in later works, though arguably it links into Small Gods, like Moving Pictures leads into various "Revolutionary Developments" successors.

It is simpler to read them in published order, but I can imagine someone who really didn't get on with an entire arc finding being forced to endure that arc a discouragement in attempting to follow the 41 basic books. Being aware of which arcs there are and which books are in them could save that trouble.


But caveat lector. It's a body of work that can be quickly addictive, or could just do with letting mature in the mind by revisiting some of them, from in amongst the whole series, and then appreciating the relative significance of the others.

(And you also have three made-for-TV movies/series, semi-direct from the books, which might be best watched only after reading the source material, plus two animations likewise. I highly recommend the Soul Music one, for the songs progressing through genres, even if it butchers some of the plot along the way. But that's getting towards "advanced fandom" and getting away from reading. If I went on in that thread I might end up mentioning Discworld Noir (the third PC game, all new plot) or the MUD!)

[Yoink]

I'm reading Glue, by Irvine Welsh.
Bloody hell, I love all this cunt's books but this is truly an epic.
It's half past two in the morning (oh hey it's my birthday) and I'd planned on stopping at several page number milestones throughout the evening, but at this point it's just a runaway truck packed with various feels and shocks and joy and I'm there unable to escape if I wanted to.
Barry.

[hector13]

I started Moby Dick, then sidetracked when I was recommended Dresden. I also read All Tomorrows. That one was a sort of tragic/creepy history of humanity's next billion years.

I am also reading Moby Dick.

It is frustrating because it is simultaneously very interesting and WHY ARE YOU GIVING ME 70 MILLION EXAMPLES OF WHY SOMETHING BEING WHITE MAKES IT MORE TERRIFYING FUCK

[Yoink]

I finished Glue. 'Twas excellent, as per usual.
Was nice to get more backstory on some of the central characters in Welsh's later books that I'd already read, too.


Now I'm back to reading The Mosquito Coast, courtesy of the local library. Interesting characters and dynamics surrounding them, as well as (a) fascinating setting(s) and writing adequate to immerse you in it/them. I am very much enjoying it so far, even if the author is apparently the father of that POS Louis Theroux.

[hector13]

... that POS Louie Theroux.

u wot

[Yoink]

Oops, yeah I misremembered the spelling. My bad.