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

Oh and rereading your post Baron Grim I take it you have actually read the first two.

Well done, you stopped reading at exactly the right place in the series.

Ferrettbadger. The Renegade Master


Me too...looking at the book list I think I read Interesting Times and Feet of Clay possibly but Soul Music just killed the interest for some reason.

Still not exactly back into Discworld either and it used to be the book release that I stopped reading whatever I was to read it.

I've enjoyed the Guards books most - they always seem to be 'proper' books.

The witches ones probably are too but I never got into them.

I did get to see Guards Guards performed 'professionally' with Paul Darrow as Vimes a couple of times. Superb casting for all parts.

Found this on Youtube...look away now if you haven;t read the book...

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=LL2nfPUEJvE

So, "Mort" is worth reading.

[As I write this, I'm listening to the beach Boys singing "She'll have fun fun fun, now that Daddy took the T-Bird away."]

"Wyrd Sisters" would be the next recommended one, after which the sequence would be:

Pyramids
Guards! Guards!
Eric
Moving Pictures
Reaper Man
Witches Abroad
Small Gods
Lords and Ladies
Men at Arms
Soul Music
Feet of Clay
Interesting Times
Maskerade
Hogfather [which I began reading several years ago]
Jingo
The Last Continent
Carpe Jugulum
The Fifth Elephant
The truth
Thief of Time
Night Watch
Monstrous Regiment
The last hero
The Streets of Ankh-Morpork
Thud

I've already read:

Going Postal
Making Money

Good Omens, which I've read, is not a Disc World book

I had The Last Hero either just before or just after Thief of Time (can't remember now)

having checked this link I see I read it after Thief of Time.

I love the Watch novels, and I'm firmly with Hoo - if you know what's coming you don't get that "aha! so THAT's what was going on" when you follow the character progression by reading them in publication order.

Monstrous Regiment was great right until the end which was a huge disappointment to me. Hatful of Sky up for me next.

I'm definitely sorting my books when I get home. There are several that I've probably read, but can't remember by their names alone. Like Hat Full of Sky. I don't remember that one. I'm hoping I don't have it.

"Hat full of sky" is not a Disc World book. I might read it some day, but I want to get the disc world books done first.

Yes, it is, it's one of the Tiffany Aching books. The second, I think. She's a young witch who is not trained by Granny Weatherwax. In the sense that you'd probably learn more not being trained by Granny Weatherwax than you would by actually being trained by anyone else.


Geggs

"Yes, it is, it's one of the Tiffany Aching books" [Geggs]

Then HarperCollins has made a mistake by not listing it with The Discworld series.

Here is a list of Terry books that HarperCollins does *not* consider to be Discworld novels:

The carpet people
The dark side of the sun
Strata
The bromeliad trilogy
Only you can save mankind
Johnny and the dead
The unadulterated cat
Good omens
The amazing Maurice and his educated rodents
The wee free men
A hat full of sky.

[These lists were already long and complicated, and I was wondeirng howI was going to juggle Pratchett with other authors that I'm also trying to read. Aaron Elkins's "Skeleton detective" has 18 books in, and I've only read two so far.... Then there's Sarah Graves's series]

The last three:
The Amazing Maurice and his Educated Rodents
The Wee Free Men
A Hat Full of Sky

are indeed definitely Discworld, merely Discworld for younger readers. And the Science of Discworld books are Discworld too!

As for Monstrous Regiment, that was PTerry's attempt to write a Bernard Cornwell 'Sharpe' book.

I think it makes sense to read the books chronologically, as the books start off definitely set in a mediæval timeframe and seem to be getting progressively closer to the equivalent of Victorian.

(Incidentally, the two animated series were 'Soul Music' and 'Wyrd Sisters', neither of which seems available on DVD for a reasonable price).

Loved the computer games too, by the way...

<BB<

"Loved the computer games too, by the way... "

Was that the puzzle game one voiced by Eric Idle as Rincewind if so it was brilliant.

Yes - I think they did 3 in the end. The third one was about a werewolf detective, which actually works on my PC. I might have to dig it out again.

<BB<

It was Discworld II missing presumed......
I'm very tempted to down load it as it was hilarious

Well, I just went through my books and used that LSpace order guide.

I'm missing The Colour of Magic, but I think I loaned (apparently gave) it to my nephew. Also, I have two copies of Interesting Times.

Of the main Discworld books, the only ones I seem to be missing are:
The Last Hero, Where's My Cow & Night Watch. The only one of the Y/A books I have is The Amazing Maurice and I have none of the Science books which I'll remedy soon. I don't have any of the short stories. I'll find them somewhere, maybe electronically.

The Science books really ought to be read chronologically.
That's the way History works. And it's cool to see how he
weaves the Wizards in and out of a very comprehensive and
quite legitimately top notch series. The History of Science
on Roundworld (Earth as we know it) is a constant mystery
to the wizards who BTW kick-started evolution here with an
egg salad sandwich they left behind in their first visit to
our homely planet.

A 4th volume is due out shortly!


~jwf~

I have a spare copy of the first science book if anyone wants it?
My mum gave me hers when she cleared out her books, forgetting that she had already got me a signed copy

Free to an appreciative home.

A new Science of Discworld book will be released in spring by the way. Something about the end of the world as far as I understood.

There's one problem with the "science" books - the title.

There are a LOT of "The Science of [your favourite geek thing]" books out there. Blame Laurence Krauss, who started it all with "The Physics of Star Trek".

Most of those things deal mainly with the geek thing in question - Star Trek, Star Wars, Battlestar Galactica, whatever. Which is fair enough - that's what it says on the cover.

Whereas the "Science of Discworld" books are far, far more about science than they are about Discworld - and this is a very, very good thing. The Discworld features mainly as a way to drag in the reader and provide a sort of structure. There's almost nothing in there about whether magic would work or how strong a turtle's carapace would have to be to withstand the weight of four elephants big enough to support a habitable disc, or how gravity could work on a flat surface, etc. It's about THIS world... but I do think the title could put people off.

On the other hand, it's highly likely that quite a lot of people who would never have read such a good science book read it because of this same fact, so I guess it balances out.

Shame they didn't release that on the 21st December, in time for Christmas

Discworld Noir is the game I've played the most. Are they available to download? I'd love to play the first two again.

<BB<

You are correct, Hoovooloo. The "Science" title misled me. I skipped these books because I assumed they were just more geeky, glossy, coffee table books. While I might be somewhat interested in such a thing, I expected they would be overpriced and not really all that interesting, ala the Physics of Star Trek or similar books.

I have wasted money already on one book, The Wit and Wisdom of Discworld. I'm not sure what I was expecting it to be, but all it is is a selection of some of the jokes from the many Discworld books. It makes a good bathroom reader, but that's about it.


Anyway, I am looking at the Amazon site now, and I'll be adding the Science books to my list and probably ordering them soon. I see there are a few other books I'm missing that weren't listed on that reading guide.

Dodger (I knew this came out fairly recently)
I Shall Wear Midnight
Wintersmith


Also, there are the following books I don't have, some affiliated with Discworld, some not.
The Long Earth (with Stephen Baxter)
A Blink of the Screen (collected shorts)
Turtle Recall (DW Companion book with Stephen Briggs)
The Unadulterated Cat
The Compleat Ankh-Morpork: City Guide (DW Artifact)
The Folklore of Discworld (might skip that)
The Bromelaid Trilogy (I know nothing of this)
Truckers: The First Book of Nomes (again, ignorance)
Strata (???)
The Johnny Maxwell Books (I'll probably skip these for now)
The Dark Side of the Sun (???)
The Carpet People (???)

Anyway, I'll probably pick up the Science books and the remaining three Discworld books electronically. While I do love first edition hardbound books, most of my collection of Pratchett's books are in paperback and his first editions, at least all but some very early ones, are unlikely to ever be truly collectible as he's so widely published. I can save some money and some of my scarce bookshelf space and just d/l them.