sarakingdom Posted November 17, 2016 Report Share Posted November 17, 2016 Lately we've had a lot of Discworld re-readers and new readers who weren't sure where to start, so we thought we'd start a book club. People struggle with where to start reading, because there are so many places you could start, and it's a fairly common opinion that the worst place to start is the actual first book. The books are all pretty self-contained, with a few exceptions that just work better if you know the characters, and there are so damned many, and everyone has a favorite and a totally different recommendation on where to start. So we thought we'd start the first three challenges with good starter books, introducing the major sub-series of the Discworld books: Challenge #55 (December) - Guards! Guards!, the most commonly recommended starting book, which introduces the hapless police force of Ankh-Morpork, Discworld's biggest city, one of the major sets of characters followed through the series. This is the book where people often feel the writing matured into something fully representative of the series that followed, and it introduces Sam Vimes, one of the major characters we follow through the books. Challenge #56 (January) - Wyrd Sisters, which introduces Granny Weatherwax, Nanny Ogg, and Magrat; a trio of witches in the rural Ramptops mountains, who carry another major subseries of the books. Granny Weatherwax lives in a town called Bad Ass, and it might as well be named for her. Challenge #57 (February) - Mort, which is the first major book in a series focusing on the Grim Reaper and the consequences of his questionable parenting decisions. Death is the third major character in the series. Challenge #58+: We'll take a vote to we see who's here and what they'd like to read next. So if you're curious about Discworld and couldn't figure out where to start, this is for you. Any of these challenges will be a great place to start. All three would be a great intro to the major characters and themes of the series. If you find the holidays rough or winter depressing, these are fairly light, humorous action books with a solid core of human decency. They're good winter reading. If you've been away from Pratchett books too long and are looking for a re-read, this is your chance. (And we'd welcome a couple of old hands pitching in to keep discussion rolling. We've got a blackboard monitor for Wyrd Sisters, but we're muddling through on the rest.) Discworld Reading Club - Guards Guards (Challenge #55) We'll start with Guards! Guards! in the December challenge. This should give everyone about two weeks to tell all their interested friends and get their hands on the book, which should be in most libraries in book and quite possibly audiobook form. The Discworld audiobooks are really good, especially the later ones, so you can't go wrong if you prefer to listen rather than read. (Future people reading the book two years from now, please feel free to use this thread for discussion. Just beware of possible spoilers as the thread goes on.) 4 Quote I felt like I could run forever, like I could smell the wind and feel the grass under my feet, and just run forever. Current Challenge: #24 - Mrs. Cosmopolite Challenge Past: #1, #2, #3, #4, #5, #6, #7, #8, #9, #10, #11a & #11b, #12, #13, #14, #15, #16, #17, #18, #19, #20, #21, #22, #23 Link to comment
Volki Posted November 17, 2016 Report Share Posted November 17, 2016 Yay I am in 2 Quote Link to comment
Laghail Posted November 18, 2016 Report Share Posted November 18, 2016 I'm in, what a great idea! 3 Quote Level 38 [TBD] Link to comment
Rincewind Posted November 18, 2016 Report Share Posted November 18, 2016 I love the challenge. I'm totally in. Just bought "Guards! Guards!" as a gift for a friend from France to introduce him to Discworld novels. I read the book three times. Maybe I'll try the French edition too and improve my language skills. - Double win. O:-) 2 Quote My NF character: Rincewind Class: Assassin My 4 week challenge (Location: Germany - CET / UTC/GMT+1) Link to comment
Infinity.Creates Posted November 19, 2016 Report Share Posted November 19, 2016 Yes! It has been too long since I last read them. I was dumb and decided to do a challenge and read all of them within a month. I succeeded, but haven't managed to pick them up since, despite my everlasting love for them I am so on board with this! Also, if you don't want to go for the Discworld series, you could go for his spin off trilogy with a Hat Full Of Sky, which involves the witches, but is a contained story line, which might be better for some to start with? 1 Quote they / them | half-orc paladin ( oath of the watcher ) -- lv 0 Challenge 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 11 12 13 14 15 16 17 18 19 20 ~ Battle Log ~ Epic Quest Link to comment
Bookish Badger Posted November 19, 2016 Report Share Posted November 19, 2016 I'm in! Now, off to get the book.... 1 Quote "'It's time for a few small repairs,' she said." - Shawn Colvin Link to comment
Luciana Valerosa Culming Posted November 20, 2016 Report Share Posted November 20, 2016 I'm going to join in for sure 1 Quote level 12 Hobbit Monk (respawned September 2016) STR 4 | DEX 15 | CON 16 | STA 15 | WIS 33 | CHA 24 | Halfling | Newbie | Fencer and Bookworm Introduction | Character | Daily Battle Log | 1 | 2 | 3 | 4 | 5 | 6 | 7 | 8 | 9 | 10 | 11 | 12 | # | 13 | 14 | 15 | 16 | #### | 17 | Current Challenge Spoiler I'm exercising, because I want to get my stamina and strength. I enjoy medieevil swordmanship, Tai Chi, yoga, aikido and fire spinning. I'm also a roleplaying nerd and a book worm. Let's fight the procrastination dragon! Link to comment
Infinity.Creates Posted November 20, 2016 Report Share Posted November 20, 2016 Can I also recommend Monstrous Regiment. It doesn't really tie in with any of the series, but it is just one of the greatest light hearted and clever books that I loved reading. Definitely one of my favourites. 3 Quote they / them | half-orc paladin ( oath of the watcher ) -- lv 0 Challenge 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 11 12 13 14 15 16 17 18 19 20 ~ Battle Log ~ Epic Quest Link to comment
Bookish Badger Posted November 23, 2016 Report Share Posted November 23, 2016 Guards, Guards! just arrived at the library, so I'm all set! Impatiently awaiting the start of the challenge! 1 Quote "'It's time for a few small repairs,' she said." - Shawn Colvin Link to comment
Blocky Posted November 27, 2016 Report Share Posted November 27, 2016 One of my favourite discworld books. I just saw a local stage production which was pretty good... 1 Quote Neutral Gargoyle Warrior with a dash of Ranger/Monk/Adventurer. Now LEVEL 9! My Instagram STR 78, CON 31, DEX 1, INT 21, WIS 13.5, CHA 4 Meet lifts: SQ 175kg, B 112.5kg, Dead 215kg. Gym lifts: SQ 185kg, B 132.5kg, Dead 220kg Nerd Stuff: Sci Fi TV, Sci Fi + Fantasy Books, Classic Space Lego, Warhammer 40K... Link to comment
Infinity.Creates Posted November 27, 2016 Report Share Posted November 27, 2016 I really want to see some of the dramatisations. I can imagine it would be a lot of work to get the humour of the written word into a performance. 1 Quote they / them | half-orc paladin ( oath of the watcher ) -- lv 0 Challenge 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 11 12 13 14 15 16 17 18 19 20 ~ Battle Log ~ Epic Quest Link to comment
Broba Fett Posted November 27, 2016 Report Share Posted November 27, 2016 I'm in. Discworld has been on my list for years but there are so many that I've been intimidated to start. Sent from my SM-N920V using Tapatalk 4 Quote Spoiler Currently... Playing (Video Game): RDR2 DMing: Tyranny of Dragons. First session 11/29. Broba Fett tracks em down. Facebook (Personal) Facebook (Author Page) Past Challenges: 13,12,11,10,9,8,7,6,5,4,3,2,1 Link to comment
sarakingdom Posted November 27, 2016 Author Report Share Posted November 27, 2016 6 hours ago, Broba Fett said: I'm in. Discworld has been on my list for years but there are so many that I've been intimidated to start. That is a common problem with Discworld. This reading club was made just for you. 2 Quote I felt like I could run forever, like I could smell the wind and feel the grass under my feet, and just run forever. Current Challenge: #24 - Mrs. Cosmopolite Challenge Past: #1, #2, #3, #4, #5, #6, #7, #8, #9, #10, #11a & #11b, #12, #13, #14, #15, #16, #17, #18, #19, #20, #21, #22, #23 Link to comment
sarakingdom Posted November 27, 2016 Author Report Share Posted November 27, 2016 12 hours ago, Blocky said: One of my favourite discworld books. I just saw a local stage production which was pretty good... The BBC had a radio adaptation that was pretty good. (I can't say the same about their adaptation of Night Watch, although I like the actor who played Vimes in that.) 11 hours ago, IAmInfinite said: I really want to see some of the dramatisations. I can imagine it would be a lot of work to get the humour of the written word into a performance. There's a stage adaptation of Monstrous Regiment that got really good reviews. On 11/23/2016 at 9:17 AM, Bookish Badger said: Guards, Guards! just arrived at the library, so I'm all set! Impatiently awaiting the start of the challenge! That is so exciting. That's what I like to hear. I should go dig out my copy from wherever it's squirrelled away... Quote I felt like I could run forever, like I could smell the wind and feel the grass under my feet, and just run forever. Current Challenge: #24 - Mrs. Cosmopolite Challenge Past: #1, #2, #3, #4, #5, #6, #7, #8, #9, #10, #11a & #11b, #12, #13, #14, #15, #16, #17, #18, #19, #20, #21, #22, #23 Link to comment
Infinity.Creates Posted November 27, 2016 Report Share Posted November 27, 2016 I got to page 89 today before realising I had to get to my Bible Study. The plan is for 25 min reading everyday. I forgot how good this book is! 2 Quote they / them | half-orc paladin ( oath of the watcher ) -- lv 0 Challenge 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 11 12 13 14 15 16 17 18 19 20 ~ Battle Log ~ Epic Quest Link to comment
sarakingdom Posted November 28, 2016 Author Report Share Posted November 28, 2016 Guards Guards - Week 0 I'm one of those Week 0 people who gets going on a challenge early to warm up. Since we've got people starting on the book already, we should probably warm up the book club, even if we don't officially start till Week 1. I'm not sure how we want to run discussion, but my general thought was this: Week 0: All book discussion goes under a spoiler cut. Week 1: First 25% of the book is fair game to discuss, the rest under a spoiler cut. Week 2: First 50% etc. Week 3: First 75% etc. Week 4: The whole book is out from the spoiler cut. And maybe just give a little thought to marking how extensive your spoilers are? I realize this is imperfect for the people who read a bit slower. I'm just sort of crossing my fingers and hoping it works in practice. Does this look unworkable for anyone? We could make a rule that all specific discussion goes under a spoiler cut, if people prefer. As for discussion, please post anything you like. Scenes you love, quotes, actual deeper discussion of themes or characters, fanart, anything goes. I don't have plans yet, I figured I'd see how it went. Where to get the book: There are hard copies, ebooks, and audiobooks, and all are good. (The Discworld series has two audiobook readers. The first is very good, and the second is AMAZING. They do darned good audiobooks. The quality of the characterization makes up for losing the footnote-and-font games of the books.) Libraries in many places will have all three, Pratchett's a fairly big name. Amazon and other retailers of choice, of course. Borrow from your fannish friends, one of them is bound to be a Pratchett fan. (I can't in good conscience recommend pirating, and would prefer those discussions not happen here, if only to keep us on the right side of forum moderation and whatever. Since Pratchett books practically grow on trees anyway, we're good. It's not quite like having to take an umbrella to avoid freak showers of Harry Potter books, but Discworld books definitely crop up where dust bunnies congregate.) 1 Quote I felt like I could run forever, like I could smell the wind and feel the grass under my feet, and just run forever. Current Challenge: #24 - Mrs. Cosmopolite Challenge Past: #1, #2, #3, #4, #5, #6, #7, #8, #9, #10, #11a & #11b, #12, #13, #14, #15, #16, #17, #18, #19, #20, #21, #22, #23 Link to comment
sarakingdom Posted November 28, 2016 Author Report Share Posted November 28, 2016 On 11/18/2016 at 4:05 PM, Rincewind said: Just bought "Guards! Guards!" as a gift for a friend from France to introduce him to Discworld novels. I read the book three times. Maybe I'll try the French edition too and improve my language skills. - Double win. O:-) I think the French translation is supposed to be one of the really good ones. It's hard to do the wordplay in translation, apparently, and some countries did better than others. Quote I felt like I could run forever, like I could smell the wind and feel the grass under my feet, and just run forever. Current Challenge: #24 - Mrs. Cosmopolite Challenge Past: #1, #2, #3, #4, #5, #6, #7, #8, #9, #10, #11a & #11b, #12, #13, #14, #15, #16, #17, #18, #19, #20, #21, #22, #23 Link to comment
Broba Fett Posted November 28, 2016 Report Share Posted November 28, 2016 Do you happen to know which narrator is the amazing one? I'll be listening on my daily 2hrs of commuting. 1 Quote Spoiler Currently... Playing (Video Game): RDR2 DMing: Tyranny of Dragons. First session 11/29. Broba Fett tracks em down. Facebook (Personal) Facebook (Author Page) Past Challenges: 13,12,11,10,9,8,7,6,5,4,3,2,1 Link to comment
sarakingdom Posted November 28, 2016 Author Report Share Posted November 28, 2016 35 minutes ago, Broba Fett said: Do you happen to know which narrator is the amazing one? I'll be listening on my daily 2hrs of commuting. I do, though alas it's not a choice between the two. One read the first part of the series, and the other took over the second part. So all these books are all going to be the very good narrator. (Who is genuinely very good. It's Nigel Planer, who's a pretty experienced comedy actor in the UK, and does a great job.) I just prefer Stephen Briggs, who does some amazing, and sometimes very sly, character work. (His Sam Vimes is both, though Planer's is great, too.) Every one of Briggs's characters can be distinguished by voice alone, and he also reads the women a little better, which matters in the second half of the series especially. It's tough for male readers to get the women right, and Stephen Briggs manages several books that are basically all women, including a narrator who's a nine-to-fifteen-year-old girl. Man, if you've got a two-hour commute, you are going to be done in a week. I'll have to find you more books. (I can find you more books.) 3 Quote I felt like I could run forever, like I could smell the wind and feel the grass under my feet, and just run forever. Current Challenge: #24 - Mrs. Cosmopolite Challenge Past: #1, #2, #3, #4, #5, #6, #7, #8, #9, #10, #11a & #11b, #12, #13, #14, #15, #16, #17, #18, #19, #20, #21, #22, #23 Link to comment
Broba Fett Posted November 28, 2016 Report Share Posted November 28, 2016 20 minutes ago, sarakingdom said: Man, if you've got a two-hour commute, you are going to be done in a week. I'll have to find you more books. (I can find you more books.) Yeah I blow through them pretty quick if they're well read. Many books get derailed after just a couple hours of bad narration. Currently finishing up Off To Be the Wizard by Scott Meyer. Narrated by Luke Daniels. He's excellent. Distinct accents and pitches for each character that makes it sound more like a radio program than a book. Just googled him and I'm thrilled to see that there are a couple more in that series and he narrates the Iron Druid chronicles as well, which I had actually read up to this point. 2 Quote Spoiler Currently... Playing (Video Game): RDR2 DMing: Tyranny of Dragons. First session 11/29. Broba Fett tracks em down. Facebook (Personal) Facebook (Author Page) Past Challenges: 13,12,11,10,9,8,7,6,5,4,3,2,1 Link to comment
sarakingdom Posted November 28, 2016 Author Report Share Posted November 28, 2016 8 minutes ago, Broba Fett said: Yeah I blow through them pretty quick if they're well read. Many books get derailed after just a couple hours of bad narration. I'm with you, I'm very picky about the narrator of audiobooks. A lot of them aren't very good. I like both the Discworld readers, so fingers crossed it works for you. If you don't get into this guy, consider trying again with the later reader. He's kind of like what you describe, more like a full-cast drama than a narration. (Nigel Planer is sort of in the middle, I'd say. Part narration, part distinct characters.) If you need more books and dig Guards Guards, the two next logical places to go would be either to read ahead the next two challenge books, or, if you wanted to read those with the challenges, to read the next book with the characters of Guards Guards, which is called Men at Arms. (Discworld is technically all chronological, but it also has series within the series, that focus on the story of certain groups of characters. So you can read down one subseries, as well as skipping across a bunch of them, as well as plain old chronologically. This is why it gets complicated for new readers. The plan for the challenges is to read the start of the three major subseries so people can find what they like best and get to know the basic structure of the whole series, but if you like the City Watch, you can keep going there.) The City Watch books just get better and better. We'll get to those eventually, but maybe you'll be ready for a re-read then. Also, if you get a couple under your belt, there's a book called Small Gods which is totally standalone, because it's set centuries in Discworld's past and in another country from most of the books. It's a very popular one. You could hit up that one, too. (It'd be a slightly weird second book, because it's so disconnected from all the others, but whatevs.) 1 Quote I felt like I could run forever, like I could smell the wind and feel the grass under my feet, and just run forever. Current Challenge: #24 - Mrs. Cosmopolite Challenge Past: #1, #2, #3, #4, #5, #6, #7, #8, #9, #10, #11a & #11b, #12, #13, #14, #15, #16, #17, #18, #19, #20, #21, #22, #23 Link to comment
Laghail Posted November 28, 2016 Report Share Posted November 28, 2016 5 hours ago, Broba Fett said: Yeah I blow through them pretty quick if they're well read. Many books get derailed after just a couple hours of bad narration. Currently finishing up Off To Be the Wizard by Scott Meyer. Narrated by Luke Daniels. He's excellent. Distinct accents and pitches for each character that makes it sound more like a radio program than a book. Just googled him and I'm thrilled to see that there are a couple more in that series and he narrates the Iron Druid chronicles as well, which I had actually read up to this point. I didn't realize that was part of a series! Enjoyable book, but I confess I only grabbed it thinking it was written by Ernest Cline. Some mistakes have happy results. 1 Quote Level 38 [TBD] Link to comment
Broba Fett Posted November 28, 2016 Report Share Posted November 28, 2016 2 hours ago, Laghail said: I didn't realize that was part of a series! Enjoyable book, but I confess I only grabbed it thinking it was written by Ernest Cline. Some mistakes have happy results. I believe all of the books are searchable as "Magic 2.0" If I finish Guards Guards early I'll probably be grabbing the second one and can let you know how it is. Quote Spoiler Currently... Playing (Video Game): RDR2 DMing: Tyranny of Dragons. First session 11/29. Broba Fett tracks em down. Facebook (Personal) Facebook (Author Page) Past Challenges: 13,12,11,10,9,8,7,6,5,4,3,2,1 Link to comment
Jarric Posted November 29, 2016 Report Share Posted November 29, 2016 On 20/11/2016 at 8:14 PM, IAmInfinite said: Can I also recommend Monstrous Regiment. It doesn't really tie in with any of the series, but it is just one of the greatest light hearted and clever books that I loved reading. Definitely one of my favourites. Agreed, absolutely love that book! On 27/11/2016 at 10:23 AM, IAmInfinite said: I really want to see some of the dramatisations. I can imagine it would be a lot of work to get the humour of the written word into a performance. I saw an amateur dramatics version of Wyrd Sisters. That book is virtually written to be a stage show imo, so it worked really well. Totally in for this; I've read just about all of the Discworld books (bar a couple of the Hat Full of Sky series) but any excuse to pick them up again is fine by me . 2 Quote Level 21 Wood Elf Ranger STR: 16 - CON: 22 - CHA: 9 - SAN: 19 - INT: 17 IAgreeWithTank™ "Shit is going down, but I am not." - iatetheyeti Don't say "I don't have enough time", say instead "that's not a priority right now" and see how that makes you feel. Current Challenge: Downtime External: Epic Quest - Instagram - Strava Spoiler Previous Challenges: 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 11 12 13 14 15 16 17 18 19 20 21 22 23 24 25 26 27 28 29 30 31 32 33 34 35 36 37 38 39 40 41 42 43 44 45 46 47 48 49 50 51 52 53 54 55 56 57 58 59 60 61 62 63 64 65 67 68 69 70 71 Old Stuff: Battle Log - My Introduction - 2017 Road Map - 2018 Road Map - 2019 Road Map - 2021 Road Map - 2022 road map/wrap-up Link to comment
Stronkey Kong Posted November 30, 2016 Report Share Posted November 30, 2016 I'm currently reading The Color of Magic (I always start these things with the first one), and might join in with you once I get it finished. Also, here's a link for a map of the story threads. Might help in voting for future books. (The image itself won't post on NF) http://obsidianwings.blogs.com/.a/6a00d834515c2369e201b7c760de51970b-popup With that, might it be better to do Equal Rites before Wyrd Sisters? Edit: Err... nevermind. I had to zoom in on the image, the line connecting ER to WS denotes a minor connection, not a direct link. But I think we're all glad we're now aware of this. 5 Quote ===================================================================================================== --Stronkey Kong-- Link to comment
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