Discworld - I wanna start reading it. (Terry Pratchett)

[Hawkeye-X]

But where to start?

Advice would be great!

Hawkeye-X

[leftyclimber]

1. Start with The Colour of Magic. It's the first Discworld book.

It'll get you acclimatized to the world and laughing hard. After that, you can pretty well go wherever you want. I'd recommend keeping a list of the ones you have so you can pick up the ones you don't have when you're at the bookstore. ;)

Enjoy!

[hobbit709]

3. Start there and read them all.

[timeforpeace]

19. Strongly recommend reading in order, here is some carry over in the stories and characters.

[FSogol]

7. IMO, the funniest one is "The Last Hero"

Cohen the Barbarian

[FSogol]

2. Read "Going Postal" and then start at the beginning of the series. n/t

[onehandle]

4. Here you go...

I would start with the Colour of Magic. You will get the real flavor of Discworld. To me, Rincewind is the soul of the books.

Death (in most), Lord Vetinari (in many) and Granny Weatherwax (Witches) being close seconds.

Captain Vimes. Forgot about him. The Watch novels are Excellent!

Oh, and if you can afford it. Join Audible and buy the audio versions for your iPod. They are all done very well.

Most of the early ones are read by Nigel Planer of Young Ones fame. He was the best.

[FSogol]

6. Huh? Where can I find the short stories? n/t

[onehandle]

8. I actually haven't read them. I'll have to ask my wife. nt

[Orrex]

23. Incidentally, "Theatre of Cruelty" was published online in the mid-90s

http://www.lspace.org/books/toc/

[Hekate]

11. Thanks for the great chart. Pratchett is one of my all-time favorite authors...

... and I've been trying to collect all his books. I have attempted to put them in order on my shelf, but keep getting confused. Now I can just print this out and keep it with them. :D

Hekate

[Jo March]

14. Are the YA ones suitable for a 10 year old girl?

She's read all of the Harry Potter books - some of them twice! - and wants to start on another series. I try to let her read what she thinks is interesting but the last book (Ghostgirl) was filled with language more suitable for a teenager.

[timeforpeace]

22. All of them are, not just the YA ones.

[tanyev]

5. Hubby and I recently read them in the order they were published.

There's a complete table in Wikipedia. Very entertaining books.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Discworld

[JoDog]

9. Begin at the beginning

with Colour of Magic, and follow either the order of publication or the flowchart provided above. Either is good.

Pratchett's Discworld stories do tend to build on each other. Characters from other books make special guest appearances in other story lines. For instance, members of the Ankh-Morpork watch have cameos in several of the novels.

You might want to time things so you read "Hogfather" around Christmas. Or try to find the British TV miniseries of that novel that's available in the states on DVD. It's wonderful!

And don't neglect Sir Terry's side projects, like the book Good Omens, which he wrote with Neil Gaiman.

[Orrex]

10. In 1999 I started reading them in order as they came out

Do yourself a favor and skip Eric/Faust, because it's pretty terrible.

Also, after you've gone through the "canonical" Discworld novels, you might get a kick out of Strata, which is something like a high-tech precursor, so to speak. The writing's not as good as his later work, but it's definitely Pratchett, and it plays with a lot of fun ideas.

[closeupready]

12. He's just so bloody brilliant, lol.

I think I have every Discworld book written, but I am a slow reader so I still am working my way through the series - I am reading in order, since I don't know, I just feel that's the best way to do it. Color of Magic, Light Fantastic (my personal favorite), Wyrd Sisters, Mort - just a laugh a minute, seriously. I can't read these in public, because I end up looking like a crazy person, busting out in laughing fits. I won't embellish and say that each volume is top-notch, but even when the humor is thin, the underlying story is fun, and with the recurring characters, you feel as if you are getting updates on friends. Enjoy. :hi:

[Onceuponalife]

13. Very funny books

I've only read the first three so far, my favorite being Equal Rites. Good Omens is good, too.

[LiberalSEO]

15. Anywhere but Equal Rites

I'd say anywhere but Equal Rites.. I started with this one and was so disappointed that I didn't read another Pratchett books for over 8 years, then I gave it another try and discovered that he is a very good author.. I just started with the worst of his books (IMHO)

[closeupready]

16. That started out slow, as I recall, but got better towards the end.

The first half or so was strangely dry of humor and more like a straightforward fantasy, but the last third of it had me, predictably, in stitches. I'll never again hear the term "rite of passage" without snickering. :rofl:

[nemo137]

17. Contrary to most of the advice in this thread

I'd say avoid starting with the first few Rincewind books (Colour of Magic/Light Fantastic) unless you're a diehard fantasy nerd.

[Orrex]

21. Hater!

Well, not really.

The reason IMO that you should read The Colour of Magic and The Light Fantastic first is because Pratchett's characterization of Death was still incomplete in those books, and if they come later in the reader's sequence, then the inconsistency could seem more problematic than it needs to be. Reading those two first, however, sort of gets that petty, vindictive aspect of Death out of the way and allows Pratchett's later (and better) characterization of him to take precedence.

Certainly there's little need to read the whole series in any particular order, except where different character arcs will make more sense if the books are read in the intended sequence (e.g., Guards! Guards! before Feet of Clay).

[fadedrose]

18. Here's a link

It shows all Pratchett wrote and in the order written....

http://www.fantasticfiction.co.uk/p/terry-pratchett/

[LearnedHand]

20. First, I read them in any ol' order, whichever I could find at the bookstore

Now, I'm reading them according to the order in the graphic posted above. Currently, I'm reading the City Watch/Sam Vimes series (my favorites in all the series are Sam Vimes & Death). You can't go wrong whichever way you decide to read them; they're all screamingly funny.