Monday, July 2, 2007

Any Discworld fans out there??


After reading a post over at Jean Pierre's, I thought I would maybe look into the Discworld Series by Terry Pratchett. Nymeth was even kind enough to post a link to a Discworld reading order guide. Then I went to Terry Pratchett's website. And I have to be honest....I'm more confused now that I was before I started!! I get there are a couple of series within the series. But where do I START?? Does it matter which "series" I start first? Since my library only has about 1/2 the books and NONE of the first books, I thought I would come back here and post for help!


On another note, I had a job interview today. Same company, just a different division. Although the interview went well (almost too good), I do know I'm not even close to being the best or most qualified candidate for the job. And that has left me feeling rather discouraged. I should be happy, that I got an interview, since only 3 did with over 85 applying. It still doesn't make me feel better knowing I'm probably not going to get the job. I really wanted this one. Oh well....the supervisor was great. And he did promise me no matter what happened, he would be on the lookout for somewhere else to place me. (which makes me believe he's definitely leaning toward someone else). Regardless, I'm making serious steps to getting out of a really bad situation.


Hope it's a better Monday for everyone else!! Later!

13 comments:

Marg said...

I love Discworld. There was a really good list, but it seems as though that list has been removed. Darn it!

chrisa511 said...

I too am all excited about Discworld now after the discussion on Jean Pierre's blog...but confused as well:P I'm thinking of just reading them in the order they were published. They all look fun. Go here: http://www.fantasticfiction.co.uk/p/terry-pratchett/ That's a list of the order they were published in that I found.

Jobs..psht! Who needs 'em...ok, we all do. I'm so frustrated with job hunts, but I wish you all the best with yours! I'll keep my fingers crossed for you.

Mailyn said...

I hope the job works out for you aor that he does find one that you'd like as well. And I do think he thinks higly of you if you were 1 of only 3 that got an interview!

darkorpheus said...

The fun in Pratchett is of course his madcap humour - but also the intelligence of his observations. he makes you laugh out loud, but then you stop and think - "hey, that's actually very true." I think of Pratchett as a kind of laughing philosopher, and he's funniest when he is most serious.

I think there's two way of approaching the Discworld books - by series (Witches, Guards, Death, Rincewind) or chronological.

You'll get a hang of the regular Discworld characters after reading a few books - Death, who speaks in CAPS ALL THE TIME, AND WHO GETS VERY ANGRY WHEN PEOPLE ARE UNKIND TO KITTENS, the Wizards, the Witches (Granny Weatherwx, Nanny Ogg,) Guards (led by Sam Vimes, Carrot and his werewolf girlfriend), Cut-Me-Own Throat Dibbler, the Patrician - and so many more.

Oh, and the Librarian. Read The Colour of Magic to find out how he came to be an orang-utan.

Once you get into Discworld, you will smile when someone goes, "Ook ook!"

If I may make some recommendations, you might like to start with Colour of Magic - first book, or some of the "singles": Pyramids or Small Gods - my personal favourite is Small Gods.

Or you can try The Wee Free Men - Pratchett's most recent series and see if you like it. I love this new series. It features the Nac Mac Feegle - a race of picties that's kicked out of fairyland for rowdiness - they are like Smurf, but violent, rowdy and drunk.

Have fun. If I have not confused you enough!

Anonymous said...

I'd second Small Gods as a good first book for the Discworld series, though I read A Thief of Time first, which is one of the later Death books and was fine.

You may not appreciate all the inside jokes if you pick up a later book, but Pratchett provides plenty of new material in each story and the jokes that are built upon old stories make a rudimentary sense even without knowing their history.

Anonymous said...

The Discworld series is definately complicated! I decided I was going to read them all a year or two ago and have 3 more paperbacks to read until I am up-to-date. I went for the option of reading them in published order (each one says in the front which number it is I think). The first three were not the best, but they pick up after that. Each book is stand-alone, but there are usually small references you wouldn't pick up on if you read them out of order.

I enjoy them, but I do find I can't read more than three in a row as they get too samey. He isn't the best writer by any means of imagination, but the books are enjoyable or I would have given up ages ago...

Good luck with the job interview, you never know and something better in the comany might come along anwyay!

Anonymous said...

i'm not going to say any more! i've said enough already! haha! :)

i just hope you enjoy it, whichever book you try.

and if there are any questions you may have, i'm sure nymeth and i would be able to give brief and succinct answers if asked to do so... :)

Anonymous said...

I'm actually in the middle of reading all of Pratchett's stuff right now. You can see the progress being made in a handy tabular form. As stated, I'm using the Discworld Reading Order Guide v1.5 as a guideline. I'd say that Guards! Guards! is a nice place to start. But to get the most out of later books, you need to have read the earlier stuff too.

Jeff S. said...

I wish the best news for you on the job front and I hope to read some Prachett too this next. With the size of my reading pile there's no way I'm getting to it until next year.

Anonymous said...

Glad to see someone else getting into Discworld - I've been a Pratchett faithful for years now - I was hooked by the Bromeliad Trilogy as a kid. :)

Look forward to hearing how you enjoy the books!

The L-Space reading guide is a good guide on where to start for each series of books. The Colour of Magic is one of my least favourites, so I tend not to recommend that people start there, but it's as good a place as any really, I suppose. If you don't like the book you start with that much, do try some of the others.

Unknown said...

I've newly discovered the Diskworld novels for me. I'm currently reading my very first, and I really enjoy it :)

Lightheaded said...

I think someone already sent the link to the reading order guide of Lspace website.

I started in the middle and then worked my way back. Although I initially wanted to re-read them the way it was published, I decided to simply follow the miniseries because I've yet to complete my set particularly of the witches and rincewind (as they don't carry all titles here in the Philippines).

Goodluck! My suggestion is that you start reading from either of the Death or the Watch novels. They're really good.

But don't ever miss Small Gods no matter what.

Ana S. said...

I know how confusing it can be. It was for me at first too! That reading order guide was a life saver, though.

I am not sure if I advise reading them in order of publication, though. It's very likely that you will like some sub-series more than others, and you will want to purse them further. If you force yourself to read them in order of publication, you may end up bored.

It really doesn't matter which sub-series you read first. I was all done with the Death and Witches series before I even started the one about the Watch!

However you decide to read it, have fun and happy reading!