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

I've found this illustration useful in navigating the series...

http://www.lspace.org/books/reading-order-guides/the-discworld-reading-order-guide-20.jpg

Hm. Wonder if this is the place to confess that (for reasons beyond my control) I started reading LOTR on page 1 of 'The Two Towers'. It was so long ago (I was 10 I think) that I don't really remember how confused I was about what was going on (apart from thinking 'Huh?' when the action suddenly switched to Frodo and Sam). Anyway, the point is, it didn't matter - I figured it out, I was hooked, and eventually, of course, I did read 'Fellowship'. It didn't spoil it, reading it in the wrong order (although it does mean that nowadays, when I've finished the appendices at the end of Return of the King, I have to stop myself going straight back to the start of Fellowship ...)


Mol

>> while I was looking at posting 47 <<

Were you? Really? That's quite a trick in a thread
with less than 40 posts so far!



But seriously, glad you do agree that they are like
many early Shakespeare plays that can only be enjoyed
after you have digested Hamlet and MacBeth.

Chronological order is a false god!
Linear time can only be appreciated with hindsight.

~jwf~

Regarding the films and my personal vision of the books, or at least some of the characters, Jeremy Irons closely matched my physical image of Vetinari but I don't get his speech impediment. Was that something I missed in the book's description of him? He sounded like Micheal Palin calling for the Welease of Bwian.

Also, I thought in Hogsfather, that Teatime mispronounced his own name. In my mind, it's pronounced teh AH ti may.

Someone will have to make a really cunning post in the 47 slot now

jwf - Yeah I could go and read Pratchett but I have to say that I have tried to read Good Omens too and never finished it so I'm not actually convinced that I'm ever going to finish one of his books really. I'm not really sure if I'm that much of a fan frankly - although I can appreciate his cleverness.

Oh, and Witty Moniker, I found that guide helpful as well.

>> tried to read Good Omens too and never finished it <<

Well that's not Pratchett's fault.

OK, if you need just one to get you into it, and
you will be happy you did, try Night Watch which
as someone mentioned is very much 'Literature'.
Or go for the fun stuff like Thud or Guards Guards.

PS:
There are now four Tiffany Aching books that MUST
be read by every young girl before, during and after
puberty... in that order.


~jwf~

My logic (such as it is) for recommending the first three to be read first is that I think there's a distinct qualitative difference to the ones that come after.

I think if you read the first two first, and take them for the direct parodies of the fantasy genre that they are, you'll think they're fairly good, and then you'll read the later ones, which are better. If you read the later ones first, when you get round to the first three I think you'll probably feel disappointed.

Interestingly, I don't think you'd feel that way about Mort. That one holds up very well indeed, in a way the first three don't.

To me, reading them in anything other than chronological order seems perverse. If you can - and you can - why would you not?

That said, there is a non-perverse (or at least only SEMI-perverse) way to read them out of order, which is:

* read all the Rincewind ones (TCom/TLF, Sourcery, etc.) in the correct order
* read all the Death ones in the correct order.
* read all the Guards ones in the correct order
* read all the Witches ones in the correct order
* read all the rest, in pretty much any order you like. But start with Small Gods, or Pyramids.

The point, however, is this: although the Discworld is made-up-as-he-went-along, it IS (mostly) historically consistent and major characters grow and develop from one book to the next. Reading them out of order deprives you of the pleasure of following this progression linearly. It requires you to think "ah, right, this is *before* he knew she was..." and similar. It makes about as much sense as watching the Star Wars movies in numerical order, instead of in chronological order. Any numpty who tried that would get to one of the great twist cliffhangers in modern cinema and go "er... well, I knew that."

I got post 47!
Yay, me!

~jwf~

I loved Good Omens, but it is NOT (indeed is far from) typical Pratchett. It's a good deal closer to typical Gaiman.

>> Reading them out of order deprives you of the
pleasure of following this progression linearly. <<

Control freak.



There is no great pleasure to be had in linearity.
Thought you'd know that being a kite flyer.
Three dimensions good, four dimension better.


~jwf~

I'm still greatly disappointed that there will almost surely never be a Terry Gilliam film of Good Omens.

Well, Baron, wouldn't you agree the link bears repeating?

>> Terry Gilliam film of Good Omens <<

Now that would be an improvement. I'd watch that.
But not if (as I fear) it becomes a Tim Rice cartoon.
The bike wrecks on the bridge for example just wouldn't
ring true. And the witch would have a wart on her nose.

~jwf~

>>> tried to read Good Omens too and never finished it <<

Well that's not Pratchett's fault. <

Whose is it then? If I can read a thick fantasy epic series like A Song of Ice and Fire or the entire Wheel of Time series (13 books most greater than 800 pages) then I don't think it's attention span which is my problem with these things.
With Good Omens I just didn't really like it that much - possibly due to overhype from others. It's still on my bookshelf with the bookmark in it but it's been that way for more than a decade.
Not everyone loves the same stuff y'know

To be fair, it may have been Neil Gaiman's fault

The first (and for a very long time, only) book that I'd read by Neil Gaiman was his biography of U42.

Entirely the Gayman's fawlt.
But then it only makes TP human.
We've all done things we regret.

~jwf~

I'd like to go on record of having quite enjoyed Good Omens.

But, yes, taste is personal.


Oh, and speaking of reading things out of order, I abandoned the Dune series mostly because of a misprint. I picked up the third book, Children of Dune. The copy I had skipped several chapters and replaced them by repeating following chapters. So, basically as I read it, I skipped very confusingly ahead in the story and then starting experiencing very muddled déjà vu. When I later tried to read God Emperor of Dune, I just dropped it. I'd lost all interest in the series.

"Small Gods. Fundamentalists have NOT objected to it. There've been no protests. Nothing said by anyone. I assume that this is because only sane, rational people have read it and understood it. The religious have either never read it, or if they did they missed the central point"

They probably think it's a book on herpetology

The thing with Dune is that the first book is AWESOME. It then remains good up to a point for the two following books and then disappears firmly and increasingly up the backside of the author from about God Emperor onwards.

I have read Chapter House Dune twice and for the life of me (why?) I still haven't much of a clue what is going on.

But Dune itself is one of the best sci-fi books there is.

I began reading one of the newer incarnations a few years back where they seem to have allowed others to write new books. Don't even bother (not that you were going to anyway obviously )