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I haven’t exactly been rocking my goals lately, but I find that I try harder and ultimately do better for myself when I have them. So… I’m back again! The most recent "about me" can be found in my previous challenge. Otherwise, we'll figure it out as we go along. For this challenge my Inspirational Witch is Tiffany Aching, or, really most of the witches of Discworld. I adore these no nonsense ladies, and this line in particular has me right now: I'm not the sort of person who generally casts fault but I could do better at dealing with things. It’s the holidays which is always jam-packed and in addition, I have three trips of 5+ days in the diary during this challenge which doesn't make anything easy, let alone taking care of myself. So I’m going to start by dealing with my own self-care (because I can't help others if I'm not functional, and the Enting only has one mummy): Some way, some how, get in that 10k steps. Some way, some how, get in that 2L of water. Some way, some how, write 100 words a day on fiction or nonfiction. My aspiration is every day. Spoiler: I won’t hit every day! But by trying to do it every day, I’m going to hit it more often than I would otherwise. Let's go deal with things.

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.)

What's this reading club all about, then? 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 (still) 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 - @Luciana Valerosa Culming will be modding for January - but we're muddling through on the rest.) (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.)

Hi, I'm Phil, and I've been lurking on/off for a few years. I used to use the dull and uninspired username of pgnoon, but I got bored. I set myself the target of completing one 'new' 4 week challenge, and getting to the 150 post limit set for changing username. I've done both. As a massive Terry Pratchett fan (particularly the Discworld books), I've settled on my new moniker. BLACKBOARD MONITOR. Like Death in the novels, BLACKBOARD MONITOR SPEAKS IN CAPITALS, AND WITHOUT SPEECH MARKS. MY WORDS TRANSCEND THE SOUNDWAVE/EAR RELATIONSHIP, AND TRAVEL STRAIGHT INTO YOUR BRAIN. I won't always do this, just for my challenge posts. I FEEL GREAT ANTICIPATION. I HOPE WE WILL BE FRIENDS. EDIT: Current measurements. There aren't any fitness-related numbers to record, because I don't really do anything at the moment. I'm like a beginner, except for the psychological baggage of knowing what I used to be able to do. Weight: 77.5 kg / 170.9 pounds Waist: 35 inches / 88.9 cm Average of 3 different body fat calculators - 22%