How did you read the discworld?

[George]

I read them in the order of publication date because I did not know better and ended up not revisiting them after the first 2 books for years... Wish I had started with the guards .

How has anyone else approached it? I feel like they should include a recommendation in the first few pages of each of the books explaining the multiple story arcs to avoid confusion.

A Discworld reading guide

[Leonie]

I started years ago with the witches - Wyrd Sisters, and then Witches Abroad.

Then I read the Guards stories, and followed them up with Rincewind and Death, then most of the others as they were published.

I read the Tiffany Aching ones last, but I do love them.

[YouKneeK]

I started Discworld for the first time this past April and I’ve read 17.5 of the full-length books so far. Before I started, I debated quite a bit with myself about how to read the series. I found the chart that shows how all the subseries fit together, and I had originally wanted to read each subseries one at a time.

In the end, I decided on publication order and, for my tastes, I think that’s worked best. I like seeing the world evolve more naturally as the author created it, and feeling like I know the order in which events occurred. Although most of the books stand alone, there’s a good bit of character cross-over that I think would have seemed more jarring to me if I hadn’t read the books in chronological order.

I especially like catching references to events and jokes from earlier novels that wouldn’t have worked as well if I’d read them out of order. If I hadn’t read “Guards! Guards!”, the many references to “million to one chances” that I’ve encountered in later books from all the subseries would have gone completely over my head.

[~ Giulia ~]

I first read a couple of them more than 10 years ago.
I knew nothing about the series, on the cover there was no indication of which number in the series they were and, when I asked, a very 'helpful' shop assistant assured me that there was no reading order whatsoever. So, I chose completely at random and ended up with 2 of the Rincewind ones, of course not the first two, which I then proceeded to read out of order.
Let's just say I was mightily confused and I stayed far away from anything Terry Pratchett for a long time.

Now I've recently started reading them in publication order (thank God for internet diffusion), in their original language (some puns really don't get translated well), and it's so much better! Not to mention that I like seeing the evolution of the style of the author in the years.

[Silvana]

I actually read The Wee Free Men first and the book after (A Hat full of sky?). I was intrigued with the humour and then I try to read Guards! Guards!, immediately fell in love with the series and continued the Watch arc until Thud!.

Then while waiting for the next one, I started going back to the beginning, and read The Colour of Magic and the next one after that. I was not impressed with Rincewind arc so I switched to the Witches arc starting with Equal Rites and still was not impressed LOL

So, I decided to read Moist arc starting with Going Postal and it became my next fave arc. When I ran out of Moist novels (not many of them), I started reading the Death arc by reading Mort, then Eric and Hogfather. I like Death arc so I will definitely continue with the others.

[Paul]

Silvana wrote: "I was not impressed with Rincewind arc so I switched to the Witches arc starting with Equal Rites and still was not impressed"


I re-read The Colour of Magic & The Light Fantastic a couple of years ago and, while I think they're fine, Pratchett hadn't found his voice yet and they are a bit of a mess; much less tightly written, less satirical, less pointed, less well-written than the later books.

[Kim]

I first started with The Colour of Magic sometime in the 90s. I'm not sure how I got started, possibly somebody mentioned them to me. From there I just followed publishing order. I hear a lot of people complain about the first couple books but I enjoyed them and my love for the series only grew as I continued.

[colleen the convivial curmudgeon]

I first picked up Wyrd Sisters on a whim, because the title attracted me. I didn't even know it was part of a series.

I think the second book I read might've been Carpe Jugulum.

It was only later that I went back and read the others. I was glad I didn't start with Colour of Magic, because the Rincewind stories still aren't my faves.

[Kim]

Did you start a thread on the same topic on Reddit? :P

[Silvana]

Paul, maybe because I am ruined by the Guards arc which is more fun to me, story and character wise. Rincewind's first two books seem to pack too many plots in one (or two) and I remember disliking the Conan (?) plot alot, parody or not, doesnt matter. Even the Luggage did not save those first two books. Now, Mort is earlier than Guards and it is definitely an improvement from Colour of Magic for me.

Anyway, if I started with CoM I might still read the Watch arc eventually just because I want to find a suitable arc for me and try the others too. Then the above journey might still be the same.

[Leonie]

Even though The Colour of Magic and The Light Fantastic aren't my favourites, I do love The Luggage!

[Sarah]

The Luggage is fabulous :)

[Leonie]

I have a great little necklace with a 'Luggage' on it :)

https://www.etsy.com/au/listing/41914...

[Ilona]

I started with the first book, I didn't like it so I wouldn't have go on. But someone advised me to read a french version of few other books. So I tried the 11th one in french, I really liked it better and checked other entries in English again. I don't think I will try to read the 2nd book though.

[Donald]

I read most of them as they were released, so publication order, but that's not what I recommend either - usually I suggest starting with Small Gods as a taster and then expand on that if they enjoy it.

[Papaphilly]

I have read The Discworld series since 1987. I have read them in published order and I find that the best for me. I do this for two reasons, first: it is the published order and I tend to read things this way so I do not get bored with the same series and second: I love to see a writer develop and he did so marvelously. There are tons of inside jokes that may be lost if they are read in story arcs rather than published order.

[C Patrick]

I pretty much read them in published order. I didn't start them until the mid 90's. I foolishly ignored them thinking it was just a British riff on the Myth-Adventures books by Robert Asprin and Jody Lynn Nye, which I LOVED, but boy was I wrong! A girlfriend was a huge fan and gave me The Colour of Magic, Mort and Wyrd Sisters all at once to get me into it. Once I read those and decided I liked them I went back and read them in order.

Personally I liked reading them as published, that way it breaks up the storylines and keeps it more interesting. Plus, I feel that reading them in arcs spoils some of the surprises since they do mention events in other books frequently, relationships especially.

While it lacks somewhat the polish of later books, I would recommend reading The Colour of Magic and The Light Fantastic first, they're a great primer to the world as well as my favorite character, Rincewind.

[Mary]

I read them in publication order, but don't really recommend it because the first two don't really give you a feel for Discworld.

[Sha]

I read them in whatever order I could find the books in. I think Wintersmith one of the first disc books I read.

Edited because autocorrect.

[Mae]

Think "Wyrd Sisters" was the first one for me simply because that's the one that someone handed to me. But since "Soul Music" came out, I've been reading them in order (which makes a heck of a lot more sense since the characters do change a bit from the earliest books.)

[Lars]

After reading the colour of magic I found the Discworld reading order on-line and started reading after sub-theme.

https://www.lspace.org/books/reading-...

So far I have completed the Rincewind, witches, death and watch series and are only missing the Industrial revolution series and a few stand alone works.

As there are not going to be any more books (RIP Terry Pratchett) I'm saving the last books for a rainy day.

[Carro]

I started with Colour of Magic - from the library (yay for libraries - I've met a lot of new authors thanks to the library). I've read roughly in publication order - and re-read.
It used to be my top favourite was the Witches, now it is the Watch closely followed by the witches.
Then by Death with Rincewind coming in last - still like reading them but not as much as the rest.
Soul Music I found OK (there is a pun all the way through that I didn't get until about one minute after I closed the book and then had a massive groan) but I didn't entirely "get" Soul Music until I saw the film of it. Then I finally understood some of the musical references - types of music I hadn't really listened to - so I'd missed the parodies in the text, but got them with the help of pictures :D
I do also find that if people say they've tried Pratchett and don't like him it is worth asking which one they tried. There does seem to be a bit of a grouping for some people - that they like Rincewind and Death more than they like Witches and Watch - or vice versa.
But other than that yes, there is interlinking across the story arcs. The way Death turns up in the witches books makes more sense if you've read the Death books.

[Carol]

I read them in the order they were written because I read them as Pratchett wrote them - which definitely dates me, I know. I agree that the first two are not the best. He grew as a writer as he went along. He started by satirizing the fantasy genre and branched out into doing a number on whatever took his fancy - eventually some pretty heavy topics along the way as well as some just plain ridiculous ones. I read many of them to my kids, on up into high school. We re-read favorites. At his peak, it's my opinion that Terry Pratchett was nothing less than genius -- such a brilliant observer of humanity -- but for someone coming at the series cold, it is hard to know where to start. There are so many cross references and, as I said, the beginning is not the best.

[Donald]

I'd skipped the witches line of books and the children's books because the former underwhelmed me when I tried the first couple and the latter came out long after I considered myself a child.

Now that there's going to be no more new books I'm doling these out as rewards. My opinion on the witches hasn't really changed, but the Tiffany Aching stories... wow, they're some of my favourite Pratchett stories and bordering on some of my favourite stories ever. Just so enjoyable.

[Mary]

I read 'em in the order in the order published because I've been burned by effective spoilers in the past.