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

As the name says this thread is for all Terry Pratchett related information and chats (and certainly some topic drift).

a picture of TP:
http://www.noreascon.org/masquerade/ProfTerry&Duck2.jpg

You can also find some more obsessive fans here: Pratchett's Anonymus A640360

To start a converstion:
What is your favourite TP book?

For me it's Reaper Man, it's the last book I've read and it was wonderful. I especially liked the end, it was really nice.

Yes, Death is always such an endearing character. I wonder why. I think it's because he tries to hard to empathize with people. And Susan's a hoot. Sort of an anti-Mary Poppins. Of course, 'Mary Poppins' is an occult book, and the character is supposed to represent the Sophia, Holy Wisdom. So I guess Susan is Holy Wisdom as wiseacre.

I'm also fond of the Death of Rats. SQUEAK! (He gets a lot of business from my black cat, Isis.)

My favourite Pratchett books are the ones about the Watch. Vimes, Carrot, Nobby, Angua, and of course, Vetinari. 'Night Watch' is about the best, with its mixture of time-travel paradox, Agincourt, and the Chartist riots. Personally, I could back a political party that promises peace, freedom, justice, and a hard-boiled egg.

dmitri, you're very deep, lol, I'm afraid I don't go that far into things

Death's my favourite character too!
Oo, fav book? Thief of Time was a favouraite for a long time- all the Horsemen are in it, plus Yetis, History Monks and Igors. The Truth was hilarious, if I remember rightly, especially the vampire- oh! What's his name??!!! I'm sorry I'm v. tired

My other favourite character is the Bursar, with his dried frog pills..oo speaking of which...

Go to bed, and sweet dreams of your favourite Pratchett characters.

I think people also like Death, because that's a kind of Death we whould like to have. Like in the end of Reaper Man, where he "kills" the old women for whom he worked on the farm. I think she had a very wonderful death, she didn't even realize it.

Oooh yes, and it's a great comfort to me that he likes cats... So far, I also like the Death and the Guards books best, though Monstrous Regiment and Jingo were also very good. I also like some of the witches ones. Rincewind is probably my least favourite. On the whole, I like the later, more philosophical ones better than the sillier early ones; they're still funny, but in a more subtle way.

Yes, it's nice to think there's someone friendly waiting for us

I've been reading the Companion and apparently UU's colours are horrendous, for example, their official scarf has, amongst other things, purple and bright green stripes adjacent to one another, as the wizards attempt to show octarine.

Apparently this is what you have to expect when the Bursar is left to his own devices.

I like the latter ones too, which is great because they can only get better!

i didn't like Monstrous Regiment that much though

I didn't like Moving Pictures, it was a bit "flat" in my opinion.

Of course, I am also required to like Bergholt Stuttley... Since I'm getting my Bachelor of Science in Architecture, my family likes to annoy me by calling it "doing your Johnson"...

er... Moving Pictures? it wasn't the best, but I quite liked it. That was Detritus's first role, wasn't it? Where he found his beloved ..er..Ruby (?)

I didn't explain myself. Monstrous Regiment was set in a country we'd never heard of before, with mainly characters who we'd never met before- it just didn't seem very Discworldian to me. For example, Jade thought too much and the plot line of women soldiers was a tad predictable, although it was funny when the officers...well, Tavaron hasn't read it yet However, I'm increasingly getting the impression that I don't understand what I'm reading

<>

Ach, we'll tell you what you're reading.

Yea, I think it was Ruby.
No I haven't read it yet, but I'm not sure whether it matters much when I know what happenes, for there are other things then the story in Pratchett's books.
You can't always think of me anyhow, there are too many books that I haven't read yet.

Well, in case you're stuck on some philosophical subtelty or something, this is a good resource:
http://www.ie.lspace.org/books/apf/index.html

I just like his way of not assuming that the reader is stupid and letting him/her/it figure things out for hertself...

That's true, yes...

Thanks for the page, I'll read later.

I already gave you that one privately, Tav No need to read it again!

Well i'll read it later then.

just a quick question before i scuttle off to more revision(): ow ould one find the Bursar in the Companion? I've looked up Dried Frog pills, which don't exist as an entry, and neither does the Bursar, which has shocked me to the bone- it's always been v.reliable before. any ideas? What's his real name?

Yes, I thought that I've seen it already

No idea, I don't have a Companion, I'm in this all alone...

I'll take a look at the German Discworld page, maybe I can find his name ther