Terry Pratchett

The Amazing Maurice and his Educated Rodents by Terry Pratchett (Photo credit: Wikipedia)

In anticipation of Terry Pratchett and Stephen Baxter’s upcoming book The Long Earth, coming out June 19, 2012, this month I’m enjoying reading and rereading a few of my Terry Pratchett favorites. Mostly the wonderful and fabulously imaginative Discworld series.

But before I continue gushing about how wonderful I think Terry Pratchett’s writing is, I’d like to share just how I got into reading him.

My husband kept insisting that I would love his books. He had quite a few Terry Pratchett’s laying around but my sense of humor and my husband’s differ greatly so I didn’t want to pick them up. For all of you naysayers out there, I definitely say, as hindsight is truly 20/20, that you should try at least one if not two or three of his books to get a feel of how interesting and quite funny he can be. My first Terry Pratchett was The Amazing Maurice and his Educated Rodents. I could not put it down. I remember, laughing and crying and simply wondering why it took me so long to pick it up. Maybe it was because my husband wanted me to read it!

To this day, I have read and reread nearly all of Terry Pratchett’s works. Just recently I started the Discworld series again. Finished Eric which I have never read. Sadly I found Eric annoying to begin with, but that was years ago and I am glad I didn’t stand firm and the other day I decided to pick it up again. More on Eric the demonologist, seven year old in my next review.

As I said above, if you are interested in Terry Pratchett’s works, there are many ways to go about starting. Fortunately for you the Discworld series does not have to be read in order. And until recently I have never read any of them in order but by whichever took my fancy at the time. Let’s take them a series at a time and the recommended reading order for each series.

• Ankh Morpork

1. Moving Pictures
2. The Truth
3. Monstrous Regiment
4. Going Postal
5. Making Money
6. Unseen Academicals

• Death

1. Mort
2. Reaper Man
3. Soul Music
4. Hogfather
5. Thief of Time

• The Watch

1. Guards! Guards!
2. Men at Arms
3. Feet of Clay
4. Jingo
5. The Fifth Elephant
6. Night Watch
7. Thud
8. Snuff

• The Witches

1. Equal Rites
2. Wyrd Sisters
3. Witches Abroad
4. Lords and Ladies
5. Maskerade
6. Carpe Jugulum

• Tiffany Aching (who is also a witch)

1. The Wee Free Men
2. Hat Full of Sky
3. Wintersmith
4. I Shall Wear Midnight

• Rincewind

1. The Colour of Magic
2. The Light Fantastic
3. Sourcery
4. Eric
5. Interesting Times
6. The Last Continent
7. The Last Hero
8. The Science of Discworld
9. The Science of Discworld II: Globe
10. The Science of Discworld III: Darwin’s Watch

• Or read the Discworld in order
  

1. The Colour of Magic
2. The Light Fantastic
3. Equal Rites
4. Mort
5. Sourcery
6. Wyrd Sisters
7. Pyramids
8. Guards! Guards!
9. Eric
10. Moving Pictures
11. Reaper Man
12. Witches Abroad
13. Small Gods
14. Lords and Ladies
15. Men at Arms
16. Soul Music
17. Interesting Times
18. Maskerade
19. Feet of Clay
20. Hogfather
21. Jingo
22. The Last Continent
23. Carpe Jugulum
24. The Fifth Elephant
25. The Truth
26. Thief of Time
27. The Last Hero
28. The Amazing Maurice and his Educated Rodents
29. Night Watch
30. The Wee Free Men
31. Monstrous Regiment
32. Hat Full of Sky
33. Going Postal
34. Thud!
35. Wintersmith
36. Making Money
37. Unseen Academicals
38. I Shall Wear Midnight
39. Snuff

OR! Just pick a book up and start reading. Although I think starting with Guards! Guards! is the way to go but I am biased to Captain Vimes. I have a fictional crush on him.

It is interesting that I enjoy reading Terry Pratchett so much, especially since he refers to the overuse of exclamation points to be a sign of some mental disease or craziness!!!! In multiple books he has a character or two explain how using multiple exclamation points is always a bad sign. Of course I already know that I’m crazy whether he is pointing it out or not, but I find this particular point to be very interesting, so I decided to do a little research on it. Terry Pratchett, I still love you, even if you do think (know?) I’m crazy!!!!!

‘Multiple exclamation marks,’ he went on, shaking his head, ‘are a sure sign of a diseased mind.’ — in Eric

Five exclamation marks, the sure sign of an insane mind. — in Reaper Man

‘And all those exclamation marks, you notice? Five? A sure sign of someone who wears his underpants on his head.’ — in Maskerade

CITY’S BIGGEST CAKE MIX-UP!! […] ‘Lose the second exclamation mark,’ he said. ‘Otherwise I think it’s perfect.’ — William de Worde in The Truth

It goes ‘baa!’ It is a sheep! […] That! Is!! Not!!! My!!!! COW!!!!! — in Thud!

As I read these this year I will link to my reviews and to their goodreads pages. Everyone deserves to sit back with a drink and enjoy a good book. I would recommend any of Pratchett’s!!!!! 😉 Emphasis on the exclamation mark just for him!

Related articles

• Guards, Guards Discworld #8 (myseryniti.wordpress.com)
• Terry Pratchett – The Amazing Maurice and His Educated Rodents (sffbookreview.wordpress.com)
• The Wee Free Men: A Story of Discworld, Terry Pratchett (HarperCollins, 2003) {HarpurAudio, Narrator: Stephen Briggs) (sophyanempire.wordpress.com)
• Review: Mort, by Terry Pratchett (janetsketchley2.wordpress.com)
• What’s the Color of Magic? (jworqprojeqs.com)
• Week 7 – Book 7- “Mort” by Terry Pratchett (theblackbirdsnest.wordpress.com)
• The wonderful world of Terry Pratchett (judysp1.wordpress.com)
• ‘Jingo’ is a Real Word! (jworqprojeqs.com)
• Book Review: The Colour of Magic by Terry Pratchett (thebookaddictblog.wordpress.com)
• Sir Terry Pratchett: Text and Twitter harming children’s development (telegraph.co.uk)

Tags: Ankh-Morpork, Book, Discworld, Maurice, Mort, Terry Pratchett, The Amazing Maurice and his Educated Rodents, Wee Free Men