I've just finished Going Postal and Thud! and they're both pretty good. As usual he makes some valid points about human society all disguised in a fantasy story (mostly in Thud!).

Going to get 'Thud' this week.

is good stuff. Look for the "it's a [insert name here] thing" motif.

quote:

Originally posted by St.CountZero:
I've just finished Going Postal and Thud!

I'm just in the middle of Going Postal. I went into hysterics at the Initiation Ceremony thing. I know quite a few Freemasons, and that was so accurate in a totally weird and wrong way! Plus, I think I'm in love with Moist. He's a cutie.
Which parts (from the first half, please!) did you like most?

Which Discworld book is your favourite at the moment? I think I like "Truth" best, probably because it's about a journalist and I recognised so many things.

Is Thud! as good as Going Postal?

I liked the pinshop part. that was funny. (is that in the first half? I think it is).

my favorite Discworld books are probably Men at Arms, The Wee Free Men, and Lords and Ladies.
The Truth was good too, but not quite in my personal favorites.

And yes, Thud! is every bit as good as Going Postal, although it's a different type of story: Vimes-centered, and a lot about dwarfs and trolls (and Koom Valley!).

oy! you's lot, get you to the book club thread and pick a book to be put up for a vote as the next one we'll read, and read along with us too!

Well, I like Lords and Ladies (my favorite) but I don't know if people who are unfamilier with the witches should jump in there.

How about Small Gods?

oops, going to the bookclub NOW 

quote:

Originally posted by BeeZee:
Well, I like Lords and Ladies (my favorite) but I don't know if people who are unfamilier with the witches should jump in there.

How about Small Gods?

oops, going to the bookclub NOW 

**hugs**

I'm in the middle of Once More With Footnotes. It is delightful with little author notes about the different works including Pterry's very first published story.

from discworld monthly :

quote:

BBC Radio 4 will be broadcasting its adaptation of Small Gods at
23.00-23.30 on 28th February, 7th, 14th and 21st March. It has been
dramatised by Robin Brooks, directed by Gordon House and produced by
Claire Grove. You should be able to listen to it on the web via the
listen again system.

*begins beating herself in the head severely*

WHY!! WHY did I not even think of signing up to this board until now?? Oh yeah, had my nose buried in a book. And when I finally got a computer again it was to play World of Warcraft.

Couple quick things, noticed a few referrences to Zelazny, anyone ever read his If at Faust You Don't Succeed? I live a life very similar to that of Arthur Dent's it seems, only through books. When a co-worker of mine, many moons ago, loaned me a book I was going to love, Damned If You Do, I was in the process of reading it when another friend loaned me On a Pale Horse and then I get a phone call from the bookstore to come pick up some Pratchett that came in that I wasn't listed as owning, of course it was Mort. Later in a very strange warehouse/apartment/deathtrap I lived in, someone had left behind a bookcase (actually it was a door that had a bookcase built onto it, the clever bastards) full of books including a ton of Zelazny. Another co-worker of mine had just loaned me the Amber Chronicles so I immediately nabbed every Zelazny novel (and some others) from the shelf. Halfway through If at Faust, I get another call from the bookstore (this used to be a weekly occurance before I stocked up on most of my favorite authors) and they're holding Eric for me.

It's a crazy old world isn't it?

I just finished Hogfather myself

Before that was Small Gods

Before that was Masqurade (sp?)

Before that was.........hmmmmm a lot

Soooo goooood!

oh, and welcome to the board nisi

I'm almost done re-reading The Fifth Elephant, will prolly now migrate to Night Watch and Going Postal and Thud!

Nisi, a bookshelf built in to a door?? sounds like something I need. You don't happen to have any pictures of it?

I've read Zelazny. I haven't read all the Faust books though, I think I just read A Night In The Lonesome October, mostly because I adored the title.

The Amber stuff seemed to trail off at the end and I always feel like I've missed a book or something, because it just seems like he's jumbled all these characters together. And knowing that it will never be resolved doesn't help.

Don't have a photo of the bookcase door. The place itself had a very bizarre history. It used to be commercial space and then the slum lord running it let it fall beneath code. Oddly enough he owned and ran the Church Goods Supply Store just below it. As it was a gigantic space, our living room had a basketball court in it for example, he began renting it out to young folks as an apartment. The lease consisted of a post-it note that just had a lit of names, the bottom one being the only one not crossed out, of who was supposed to pay him.

The location was ideal, about two blocks away from the main downtown bar scene and, incedentally the places that I worked, so a long string of partiy kids just kept passing it on to their friends and leaving behind remnants of themselves over the course of 20 years. By the time I moved in, the back rooms had boarded up windows that birds and the occassional bat would enter through, stacks of matresses, broken vaccuum cleaners, and boxes of ex-tenants junk that they left behind them. There was an antique Pepsi Machine, a wheelchair, a bicycle mounted on one wall, and an entire 'small' (15' x 20'?) room filled with movie posters and cardboard displays of characters from some ex-tenant's previous job.

When feeling adventurous, my friends and I would grab flashlights and go 'spelunking' into the back rooms, where we had such favorite locations as 'the bird shit room', 'the circle of dead birds', 'where appliances go to die' and other silly names. Of course, given its history, people showed up on a near nightly basis to party after the bars closed, and given that we could accomodate upwards of 200 people easily, it often took a while to locate everyone to kick them out when we wanted to finally go to bed.

There was access to the roof, and the bookcases were not only built into one of the doors, but we had a few that were built into the walls. It was a place that would have been truly glorious had it not slowly gone to absolute hell over the years. I showered at my place of employment whenever I could as the bathroom was slightly frightening. There was a wonderful little greek restaurant directly below us so every morning at about 5 or 6 we could smell breakfast stasrting which, of course, demanded our attentions away form sleep. There, Stella, a wonderful greek woman who would welcome you with a hug and remember everything about your family she had ever heard (while at the same time possessing a silencing stare Granny Weatherwax would have been proud of)would seat us for anything from breakfast gyros to my personal favorite, porkchops and eggs, not like your normal porkchops and eggs, these were nearly an inch thick and the plate was so full that the hasbrowns needed their own plate, with a side of horseradish.

Across the street there was an access to the skywalks that connected everyone downtown who wanted to stay out of the weather. The sky-mart always made me giggle. A little mini-mart in the top of a building surrounded by hair salons and small colleges, restaurants open only for lunch for the workers in the various banks and offices, and the coffee and icecream stand.

I was reading Neverwhere when I first moved into 'The Loft' (as it was known to everyone in the downtown bar scene) and I had the most lovely dreams, I think I read the book 3 or 4 times at least during my year there before the hustle and trash of the neverending party finally broke me down to moving to my current residence.

An interesting side note, the place came with a live in ancient black cat named Elvis who wrowled like the beast from Pet Cemetary, was 19 years old, and was of the tempermant that he would wrap his arms around your neck to be cute but constantly drooled and did such things as knocking a bat down from the air one night in the middle of a party and proceeded to eat it, drawing a small crowd, in the middle of the kitchen devouring every last pieces, head, wings, hair and all.

Anyway, many a story about this place exists in my mind. As you can imagine, many notebooks are crammed with story ideas, plays, etc. from my time spent living there. Thought I'd share with you the absolute fun and horror involved in living in the most ecclectic residence I've ever had.



Oh, and with regards to the Amber Chronicles, I cheated when I read them. The hellrides simply became too tedious for me to deal with and I sort of got to where I would skip pages at a time to keep into the books. I agree, it just got to be rather thrown together in the end. A man with so many ideas who just gave up on all the work it would take to properly introduce every character and idea he had with the knowledge that the series couldn't hold up with the weight of an additional 20 books added.

wow. that was just astonishing!

I seem to de-rail threads and take them way off tangent, but don't we get to some interesting places?

Does anyone else have the soundtrack to Soul Music? s'lots of fun!

And Wintersmith is due out in September, so that'll be my birthday present to myself!

I finally decided to start reading Pratchett (besides Good Omens, of course). Read Color of Magic Wed. night, read the Light Fantastic last night. Going to buy the next one today

I really need to buy a hardback of Equal Rites. seeing as I loaned out my paperback yonks ago and I don't remember who I gave it to. I want a proper British edition hardback, anyway.

am re-reading Thud! at the mo.

my favourite? hmmm...whichever one I happen to be reading! Except for the first two, which have good bits, don't get me wrong, he's just gotten better and better. I think perhaps Thief of Time and The Last Continent are faves, but Wyrd Sisters and Lords and Ladies and Witches Abroad are just sooo much fun! oh and Maskerade! and...well, see, that's why I said my favourite is whichever book I'm reading...

quote:

Originally posted by the not-quite-so-Intellectual Hooligan:
I finally decided to start reading Pratchett (besides Good Omens, of course). Read Color of Magic Wed. night, read the Light Fantastic last night. Going to buy the next one today

take it from me, they're gonna get better before they get worse again.

and by worse I don't mean bad, just not as good as his best.

and hats off to you, colour of magic and the light fantastic are much heavier reads than his later books, so go you for reading them in one night

I've just re-picked up once more with footnotes and am reading a couple of bits out of that.

are we playing favourites?
lords and ladies and nightwatch. hands down, no questions. although i do want to re-read small gods....which i suspected is packed away

I just tried to read Pratchett a few weeks ago. I'm running out of Gaiman novels, and I wanted to see if I like Pratchett's writing before reading "Good Omens." I tried to read "Thud!" and got about half way through before I gave up on it. He's just too goofy for me.

I'm okay with his satire beneath the fantasy, but I just can't get passed all the silly sounding names and ridiculous situations to appreciate it. My I'm just a callous old jerk.