A friend in middle school was a big fan of both Terry Pratchett and GURPS
He lent me Maskerade after explaining to me about Greebo, and I have been hooked ever since
He is also the reason I owned all the GURPS World of Darkness books
You know there is a Discworld GURPS? Think I've got a copy at my parents house somewhere.
I'm not entirely sure when I first started reading, but pretty sure my first book was Witches Abroad and I've got a sneaking suspicion it might have even been a bedtime story. It was definitely early enough that I remember pestering the librarian in junior school to get Guards Guards! in as it was the only one the local library didn't have. They didn't get it.
Though actually my first ever Discworld exposure was the video games with Eric Idle. Finding out there was a book version of the video game was pretty surprising, let alone a great many books. I barely even believed they were actually related except that the next book I read was Interesting Times.
A friend in middle school was a big fan of both Terry Pratchett and GURPS
He lent me Maskerade after explaining to me about Greebo, and I have been hooked ever since
He is also the reason I owned all the GURPS World of Darkness books
You know there is a Discworld GURPS? Think I've got a copy at my parents house somewhere.
I'm not entirely sure when I first started reading, but pretty sure my first book was Witches Abroad and I've got a sneaking suspicion it might have even been a bedtime story. It was definitely early enough that I remember pestering the librarian in junior school to get Guards Guards! in as it was the only one the local library didn't have. They didn't get it.
Two books too. The second had a bunch of ideas from Pterry that never got into the books, like XXXX-ian backpackers.
My first ever was Small Gods, and I still vividly remember the opening exposition with the eagle. Was a great introduction to the series since it stands alone so well.
My first one was Men At Arms, somehow. I don't remember where I found it (the library, perhaps?), but I do remember that once I found Guards! Guards! the whole thing made a bit more sense.
I started with Colour of Magic in 1993. I'd already read Truckers, Diggers and Wings, though I can't remember what age I was when I read them.
I was in the final year of primary school, and my mum was the librarian at a nearby high school. She knew I'd enjoyed the Bromeliad, so she brought CoM home for me. Over the next year I read every book available by then, in whatever order I could. That took me up to Interesting Times, which was the first one I remember seeing in a shop as a hardback. My pocket money at the time didn't allow for hardbacks, so I had to wait until the paperback edition came out.
I vividly remember seeing Soul Music in a shop and not being allowed to buy it even though I had the cash, and not understanding why until my next birthday when my mum gave me a signed copy she'd arranged months earlier.
I skirted the DW series for a long time before I actually read it.
My older sister had them, and I read the Bromeliad books fairly early because they were among the maybe a dozen fiction books our local library had.
After that, I finally noticed the copy of Only You Can Save Mankind that had been on my shelf for years ever since the author (labelled in my head at the time as 'Some Guy Who Meant We Didn't Have Lessons That Afternoon') came to our school, gave a talk I'm assured I was present for but don't remember a word of, and 'gave out' (ie: our parents paid for them) signed copies.
So I finally read that. Then Johnny and the Dead when I noticed the poster on the wall in a bookshop (the good cover, the one with the gravestone and the phone).
But for whatever reason, I didn't want to touch the Discworld books. I think it was because that was what my sister liked, and I was trying to resist that at the time.
Then the family went on holiday to Lanzarote. During the off-season, because it was cheaper. And because it was the off-season, it was miserable. The weather was awful, the place we were staying was as cheap as it deserved to be, the power outlets killed anything that was plugged into them, and it was generally agreed to be the worst holiday we ever had.
You know the bit in FaustEric that describes the Holiday Hotel From Hell? It was basically that to a tee, aside from no Welsh-language television (possibly only because the television didn't work either)
Out of a lack of anything else to do, I tore through the three books I bought with me (Star Wars, and in retrospect not great ones), then out of sheer boredom and desperation my sister gave me Colour of Magic.
By the time we flew home three days later, I was halfway through Equal Rites while we were at the airport, and had started Mort by the time we landed.
Then a few weeks later I'd finished Soul Music, and had to adjust to the agonising wait between books.
Then a few weeks later I'd finished Soul Music, and had to adjust to the agonising wait between books.
I remember how disappointed I was when I found out there were no more books available after Interesting Times, and I had to wait for the author to write new ones. What the hell kind of system is that? I want them now!
In retrospect, TP's yearly (sometimes twice-yearly) schedule did me no favours when it came to realistic expectations for the release schedules of other famous fantasy authors.
I'd swipe my older sister's books all the time - much to her chagrin - and eventually got my hands on Colour of Magic and worked through her collection from there (Which at the time maybe went as far as Moving Pictures). I would have been seven or eight years old anyway so I'm sure a lot went over my head but I've been hooked ever since. I used to pretty much reread the whole series annually, but it became so big that I just dip in and out nowadays.
The best part about reading the books young is getting a constant dripfeed of retroactive reference recognition over the ensuing decades
Like when I watched The Blues Brothers and realised why the band ordered four fried rats and some coke, or why they referred to the theft of the Opera House piano as "a mission from Glod"
A friend in middle school was a big fan of both Terry Pratchett and GURPS
He lent me Maskerade after explaining to me about Greebo, and I have been hooked ever since
He is also the reason I owned all the GURPS World of Darkness books
You know there is a Discworld GURPS? Think I've got a copy at my parents house somewhere.
I'm not entirely sure when I first started reading, but pretty sure my first book was Witches Abroad and I've got a sneaking suspicion it might have even been a bedtime story. It was definitely early enough that I remember pestering the librarian in junior school to get Guards Guards! in as it was the only one the local library didn't have. They didn't get it.
My first Discworld was Interesting Times, though Good Omens is my first Pratchett book. Good Omens was in English, Interesting Times a dutch translation.
Re-reading The Last Continent, and it just hit me that Pratchett hit peak footnote here, even when he didn't actually use one:
‘There’s a mention of EcksEcksEcksEcks in Wrencher’s Snakes of All Nations,’ said the Chair of Indefinite Studies. ‘It says the continent has very few poisonous snakes . . . Oh, there’s a footnote.’ His finger went down the page. ‘It says, “Most of them have been killed by the spiders.” How very odd.’
He put a footnote gag in the book his characters were reading. That's just inspired.
Nobody remembers the singer. The song remains.
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BethrynUnhappiness is MandatoryRegistered Userregular
Someone tried to put me onto Pratchett when I was 10 or 11 by suggesting the Truckers series, which turned me off him for another 5 years until someone much more sensible recommended Colour of Magic and Guards, Guards!
I keep thinking that Only You Can Save Mankind would be trivially easy to modernise. Haha yes it's got old computer stuff in it (Amstrad? What the hell is that?), but you could rewrite it with modern consoles and the internet easily.
And an MMO where all the enemies suddenly ran away and disappeared because they got tired of being killed by these endlessly respawning warriors would be pretty interesting.
And so much of the book is timeless, like Johnny's dad trying to Take An Interest (my dad tried that once, but he learned his lesson).
I'm not sure when they did it, but they finally have the complete Collectors Library collection available (except for Last Hero, but that's unlikely to ever get the treatment due to the illustrations). They even did the YA novels that I thought they were going to ignore!
Just a few problems with it; I can't really justify £530 for it at the moment, and I have absolutely nowhere I could put 40 hardback books.
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He lent me Maskerade after explaining to me about Greebo, and I have been hooked ever since
He is also the reason I owned all the GURPS World of Darkness books
I used to get a new Pratchett and read it at least 2-3 times immediately. Then future rereads.
You know there is a Discworld GURPS? Think I've got a copy at my parents house somewhere.
I'm not entirely sure when I first started reading, but pretty sure my first book was Witches Abroad and I've got a sneaking suspicion it might have even been a bedtime story. It was definitely early enough that I remember pestering the librarian in junior school to get Guards Guards! in as it was the only one the local library didn't have. They didn't get it.
I think I may have read at least one earlier,.but I didn't connect that there was a series.
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That was mine too, high five.
Though actually my first ever Discworld exposure was the video games with Eric Idle. Finding out there was a book version of the video game was pretty surprising, let alone a great many books. I barely even believed they were actually related except that the next book I read was Interesting Times.
I'm mixing franchise references here but I can't help it:
"Terry Pratchett forever forever hundred years Terry!"
Two books too. The second had a bunch of ideas from Pterry that never got into the books, like XXXX-ian backpackers.
Why is the selection of these on audible so abysmal?
It took me several dozen pages of Guards! Guards! to realise that it wasn't starting with an extended flashback and was just the earlier book
I was in the final year of primary school, and my mum was the librarian at a nearby high school. She knew I'd enjoyed the Bromeliad, so she brought CoM home for me. Over the next year I read every book available by then, in whatever order I could. That took me up to Interesting Times, which was the first one I remember seeing in a shop as a hardback. My pocket money at the time didn't allow for hardbacks, so I had to wait until the paperback edition came out.
I vividly remember seeing Soul Music in a shop and not being allowed to buy it even though I had the cash, and not understanding why until my next birthday when my mum gave me a signed copy she'd arranged months earlier.
My older sister had them, and I read the Bromeliad books fairly early because they were among the maybe a dozen fiction books our local library had.
After that, I finally noticed the copy of Only You Can Save Mankind that had been on my shelf for years ever since the author (labelled in my head at the time as 'Some Guy Who Meant We Didn't Have Lessons That Afternoon') came to our school, gave a talk I'm assured I was present for but don't remember a word of, and 'gave out' (ie: our parents paid for them) signed copies.
So I finally read that. Then Johnny and the Dead when I noticed the poster on the wall in a bookshop (the good cover, the one with the gravestone and the phone).
But for whatever reason, I didn't want to touch the Discworld books. I think it was because that was what my sister liked, and I was trying to resist that at the time.
Then the family went on holiday to Lanzarote. During the off-season, because it was cheaper. And because it was the off-season, it was miserable. The weather was awful, the place we were staying was as cheap as it deserved to be, the power outlets killed anything that was plugged into them, and it was generally agreed to be the worst holiday we ever had.
You know the bit in FaustEric that describes the Holiday Hotel From Hell? It was basically that to a tee, aside from no Welsh-language television (possibly only because the television didn't work either)
Out of a lack of anything else to do, I tore through the three books I bought with me (Star Wars, and in retrospect not great ones), then out of sheer boredom and desperation my sister gave me Colour of Magic.
By the time we flew home three days later, I was halfway through Equal Rites while we were at the airport, and had started Mort by the time we landed.
Then a few weeks later I'd finished Soul Music, and had to adjust to the agonising wait between books.
I remember how disappointed I was when I found out there were no more books available after Interesting Times, and I had to wait for the author to write new ones. What the hell kind of system is that? I want them now!
In retrospect, TP's yearly (sometimes twice-yearly) schedule did me no favours when it came to realistic expectations for the release schedules of other famous fantasy authors.
Like when I watched The Blues Brothers and realised why the band ordered four fried rats and some coke, or why they referred to the theft of the Opera House piano as "a mission from Glod"
I think Pratchett said of Pyramids that he would have put a lot more ancient Egyptian religion stuff in, but it was too crazy
Although it does have my ex's favourite joke of the entire series: the philosopher Ibid, who claims to be an expert on everything
I didn't get that joke until I started reading non-fiction with references
Yup, he had both GURPS Discworld books.
They'd be interesting time capsules reading them now, what with floppy discs and the Gulf War
And so much of the book is timeless, like Johnny's dad trying to Take An Interest (my dad tried that once, but he learned his lesson).
It mostly just retweets stuff related to Rhianna Pratchett, Niel Gaiman, and Discworld news.
Dragged kicking and screaming.
https://discworld.com/products/books/terry-pratchett-a-life-with-footnotes-standard-edition/
EDIT: "Vimes Boot Index" theory backed by Pratchett estate.
https://www.theguardian.com/books/2022/jan/26/terry-pratchett-jack-monroe-vimes-boots-poverty-index
Big week for the Pratchett family.
Steam: Elvenshae // PSN: Elvenshae // WotC: Elvenshae
Wilds of Aladrion: [https://forums.penny-arcade.com/discussion/comment/43159014/#Comment_43159014]Ellandryn[/url]
Origin ID: Discgolfer27
Untappd ID: Discgolfer1981
Just a few problems with it; I can't really justify £530 for it at the moment, and I have absolutely nowhere I could put 40 hardback books.
But I really really want to.