h2g2 The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy: Earth Edition

Me too. I'm not really sure it was worth the effort, mind.


Geggs

Well, the idea of the center of Jupiter being an enormous diamond has its share of attractions. Plus, the domino-shaped objects get wiped out by a makeshift computer virus. Jupiter gets to be a second sun, though this was not absolutely necessary. It's kind of exhilarating, though, traveling through the solar system on a comet.

I've managed to find a second-hand copy of the old 1990s Discworld animated 'Wyrd Sisters' and 'Soul Music', which is how I was first introduced to Discworld. Anyone else remember watching them?

<BB<

I've almost finished reading "Soul Music." Its predecessor, "Men at Arms," seemed the best oft he whole series so far.

I enjoyed Snuff, and am now 1/4 way through Jingo.

My brother-in-law started with the most recent Pratchett book, and has been reading his way backwards through the series.

>>..reading his way backwards through the series. <<

While that may at first seem to be "one way of doing it"
I cannot recommend it. Such a perfectly linear and arbitrary
regression may not have the same satisfaction as retracing
one's steps thru a minefield. In fact, after a couple of books
I would suggest a giant leap to the beginnings and then a
general stir-around so that all the pieces will start to come
together rather than fly apart. If one really wants to arbitrarily
predetermine any pattern then starting in the middle and working
forward and backwards simultaneously may well be the best way
to weave the fabric of the Pratchett Cosmology.


~jwf~

My strategy has been to start at the beginning and work gradually forward from there. For some reason, I found the books about the witches to be rather tedious. Rincewind was fun every time he showed up, and the books about the Watch were uniformly good.

>> found the books about the witches to be rather tedious <<

Well, that's just a Massachusetts thang, ain'it.
Burn one witch and ya burn 'em all.

Whatcha need is a New York state of mind.
Bell, book and candle and all that.

But in the Greenwitch meantime...



~jwf~

There is a recording - I know there is, it was at the start of a quiz show about radio mistakes a few years back - in which a very RP lady announcer said:

"The time is 12 o'clock Greenwich. Meantime, here is the news."

The punctuation is placed as she pronounced it.


Geggs

Oh, and Greenwich was pronounced green-witch.


Geggs

Really? I find the witch books are among my favourites, though I admit I didn't really "get" Carpe Jugulum the first time: it took a reread. Witches Abroad and Lords and Ladies were particularly good witch novels. My favourite two books of the series, though, are Night Watch and A Hat Full of Sky. NW is a watch book (of course) while HFoS is in the Tiffany Aching series (a subset of the witch series; also a subset of the Discworld for Younger Readers series).

TRiG.

I've just started reading "Maskerade." Perdita Nitt has just arrived for her audition at the Ankh-Morpork Opera House. This should be fun.

I rather liked "Lords and Ladies," actually. Maybe I just don't trust elves.

Her that calls herself Perditax?


Geggs

"Well, that's just a Massachusetts thang, ain'it. Burn one witch and ya burn 'em all."[jwf]

Actually, I'm proud of the literary results of the Salem Witch experience. Nathaniel Hawthorne. Stephen King's "Salem's Lot." The plot of the film "Paranorman."

"Whatcha need is a New York state of mind. Bell, book and candle and all that."

"New York state of mind" is a great Bill Joel song. I enjoyed the film "Bell, Book and Candle." There's an anecdote by Tony Randall in which he had just gotten cast in "Bell, Book and Candle" on Broadway. He mentioned it to a friend, abbreviating the title to BBC.The friend misunderstood it to mean "British Broadcasting Corp."

"But in the Greenwitch meantime"

The town of Greenwich, Massachusetts no longer exists. It was flooded when the Quabbin reservoir was created in the 1930s. It was next to Enfield, which was also flooded. My sister lives ion Enfield Road in Pelham, which is much too high to have been flooded.