Discworld discussion
Reading order
I read all the Discworld books in order over a six month period and I especially enjoyed seeing how each new wrinkle was added with each new publication. I think it made everything more dramatic to await the latest publication just as though I was living through the times of its actual publication. Experiencing the actual order of the mythos made it seem much more like a serial. Of course random order has something to be said for it. No telling how much pleasure that could bring to the reader. I had to read them all by the time I got to the fourth book and publication order was just so much fun. I HAD to go in the order that was already laid down. And, I plan to do it again some time.
Hmmm. I seem to be repeating myself. I think I will throw all the books into a pile and grab one blindfolded, or maybe read them in reverse publication order. Has anyone tried that? Silly, perhaps but it's Terry Pratchett. Let the silliness commence.
Yeah I'm unsubscribing from this thread. Enjoy the bickering!
There's no longer any bickering. Terry's message (102) about reading in published order is the definitive answer to the question of what order to read Discworld.
Blah blah blah.Start at the first page of the book and read through till the last page.
I am currently reading the books in reverse order, this lets you see where jokes come from.
Niall wrote: "Blah blah blah.Start at the first page of the book and read through till the last page.
I am currently reading the books in reverse order, this lets you see where jokes come from."
Reading in reverse order just to spite us is silly.
On a YA forum recently, one participant was looking for a good YA series for her 8 year old daughter. I recommended the Tiffany Aching books. I suppose that makes me a heretic.I'm currently rereading the Witch books. Somehow, my copy of Witches Abroad went missing. I must have loaned it to one of my kids. I replaced it with a 'Roc' hard cover edition (arrived yesterday) and I'm rereading it now. My goal is to have hardback editions of all the Discworld books. Currently, about half of mine are paperbacks.
I'm not reading it to spite anyone, just reading it as that's how the notion took me. Might read them sideways just to see if anything new falls out of them.
I've reread them in various and no orders. After my first exposure (Hogfather), I tried to read them in publication order but could not find the earlier books here in the U.S. I ended up ordering some from Canada and one from the U.K. Starting with The Truth, I've bought the hardcover editions as soon as they came out. I think my hardback edition of the The Last Hero is the crowning jewel of my collection. It's a beautiful book as well as a great story.
I came across this quote from Terry Pratchett in the introduction of Lords and Ladies. (Harper Prism U.S. paperback edition.)"By and large, most Discworld books have stood by themselves, as complete books. It helps to have read them in some kind of order, but it's not essential."
Thank the small gods for that, DL. Can we now stop this?!! If I could work out how to unsubscribe from an individual discussion thread I would have done have done it months ago...
Carole wrote: "Thank the small gods for that, DL. Can we now stop this?!! If I could work out how to unsubscribe from an individual discussion thread I would have done have done it months ago..."I was kind of getting that way myself. There was a kind of fundamentalist fervor going on here that you tend to see mainly in some of the more vocal religions. Amazing!
The stand alone quote won't stop the thread. I pointed that one out months ago. For me, as long as people read The bearded one, the world will be a better place. (Irrespective of their reading quirks)
Niall wrote: "as people read The bearded one, the world will be a better place. (Irrespective of their reading quirks)"Agreed.
Please tell me how to unsubscribe from this thread. I don't want to read it anymore but can't help it. There's a sort of horrified fascination ....
I'm done. I'm going to visit Lancre now and maybe other spots in the Ramtops. I may be gone a few days.
Diane wrote: "Please tell me how to unsubscribe from this thread. I don't want to read it anymore but can't help it. There's a sort of horrified fascination ...."I know - I want to escape as well, but every time I try a big wobbly white ball comes chasing me.. oh wait, that's a different story.
new reading order.arranging my books in order of colour, red through to violet
I really like your reading order Niall. You should try the well here is empty space I put my books here reading order.
I don`t read the books in order.Inn this way I`am always surprised :)I don`t think it`s necessary to read the books in order,just enjoy them as much as you can!Terry Pratchett is magnificent!
I have to disagree. Reading out of order the first time WILL lessen the enjoyment of the series. You won't know things Terry expects you to know. He doesn't recap or tell what's happened in the past. By reading in order, you get a steady progression of the characters. Even if the major characters are different, you get to learn about the minor (background) characters.Think of reading out of order as being born an adult. You'd miss out on so much. by not being a child. That's how Discworld works.
Ok,so everyone thinks that the books should be read in order?Maybe I could try :)
Nah, I don't think they need to be read in order. The ones about specific characters, perhaps, for ex. those about the witches, but you don't need to read all of them in the order TP published them.
So now reading the books out of order is like being born as an adult? And you'll miss out on your childhood?That doesn't even begin to be a good analogy. Unless of course you're not allowed to read books that were published before the book you start with. Then it's a perfect analogy.
Although there was that episode of Buck Rodgers with the gold people that age backwards they had childhood to look forward to. Maybe that's what he means
There is a lot of merit to reading the books in a certain order, or at least reading each subseries within order (or even published order). That being said, Thief of Time was the first Terry Pratchett book I read, which is about as out of order as you can get. Although I had a lot to learn fast, I still grasped all the characters, understood everything that was going on, and massively enjoyed the book. It was an incredible introduction to Pratchett and remains one of my favorites of his books. Were there jokes I did not pick up on in the book? Probably. But it certainly did not ruin my reading experience.Basically, do not worry too much about order. Yes, there are recommended reading orders you should stick to (and I endorse these!), but if you DO end up breaking those recommendations, it is really fine.
If you do read in published order, be aware that it will be very witch and wizard heavy at first. I personally prefer City Watch, Death, and Moist, so I read more of those initially and worked my way back through the witch and wizard subseries as I got more into Pratchett.
Also, the reading map is really helpful even if you do not read by the order it prescribes. Having a clear guide to which books belong to which series, what order they proceed in, and how things connect can help you plot your own reading order.
But when you've never read Discworld, you don't know what to read out-of-order. So this is another reason to read in order.
Oh my, JSWolf sounds a bit like the soup nazi from Seinfeld to me. "No books for you!"Terry wrote the books in a certain order, but that doesn't mean that you have to read them in the same order. You might miss some things, so what? TCOM is maybe a good start for hardcore Discworld fans, but first timers might not like it that much. I always recommend starting with Equal Rites, Mort or Guards!Guards! They are still early books, but a much nicer read for starters.
Oh yah, go ahead and spoil the series for new readers. That's just BS. The series was meant to be read in published order because of the way the series progresses. By skipping things, you lose the knowledge of what came before. Pratchett does not recap. I've you've read the series, sure, you can say what your favorites are, but don't then tell new readers there is nothing wrong starting with my favorites. There is something wrong and always will be.
Wow... I'm not sure what I'm getting into. I read The Color of Magic and The Light Fantastic because Amazon had a deal on the first three published books. I guess I should be thankful I like those first two books (and I'm starting Equal Rites).But, I can already see where reading in published order isn't essential (for me anyway) and am looking at how to approach the series since certain books are easier for me to get than others.
Anway, the guide for the subseries are nice, and I'll keep it as a reference. As to flaws in not reading in order.
One only has to look at the Star Wars movies for an example of what watching out of order can do or proof that order isn't all that important. From what I've seen Pratchett has made the books stand alone, and I love the two I've read and will keep reading.
To suggest anyone will enjoy a series more or less because of the order of selection is a little silly. Randomness can be fun.
Stand alone means that there is not a single book that has any effect on that one book. That's not the case with Discworld. While the focus of the main characters may be different in different books, the secondary characters could be the same and you do see the progression of them as the books go in order. You ruin that progression of learning about the people and places by reading out of order. Even Death progresses as a secondary character in some of the books.Do yourself a favor and read in order and don't spoil the series for yourself.
Stand Alone means that one can read the book without feeling like one is missing anything major.For instance, with Light Fantastic, I don't feel like Pratchett made anything there that a reader would absolutely NEED to read The Color of Magic beforehand. It isn't that the previous book didn't have an effect, but Pratchett referred just enough to the effect so that the reader is left completely clueless.
Personally, I think the fact that so many people have enjoyed the books without reading them in publishing order proves that it isn't necessary. It doesn't mean publishing order is wrong, just that there are other valid ways of reading the series. You don't necessarily ruin anything. It's just a different perspective.
You ruin the subtleties he put in in learning about people and places.
Erik the only problem with your Star Wars analogy is that you should always start at episode four, but never watch I-III ;) but with Discworld there are no books that shouldn't be read. :)
Good to see Wolfie still thinking inside the box. Fight the power Wolfie, fight the power.
When there is only one correct answer, that's all you can give. I feel sorry for you and anyone new to Discworld who listens to your wrongness.
A friend lent me The Fifth Elephant ten years ago and with that I was hooked on DW forever. When I finally got ahold of a full set I read them in order and I think it was most enjoyable that way. But having to have everything in perfect order is just my personality. I agree that TCOM is not the quite the right book for everyone to start DW with. I think it is best to start with Hogfather or one of the earlier Watch books and then decide whether you want to read the rest in order. I personally think that there are benefits to reading them in order as you can learn each character's back story, personality, species (heh); major events or places that are referred later; etc.
Wolfie, I feel happy for anyone who discovers the Discworld irrespective of what order they read the books in.
Niall wrote: "Wolfie, I feel happy for anyone who discovers the Discworld irrespective of what order they read the books in."But I just wish people would stop saying it's a good idea for new readers to follow a chart that should never have been created. It's not a good idea. It spoils the flow of the series.
the earlier books have been rereleased in shiny new hardback by sub collection. There is now the Death collection, Unseen Uni Collection, witches collection, city watch collection, and Gods collection. Me I love them all, but some people prefer the watch over the witches, or vice versa. It's all about personal choice.
Sorry but it is a good idea, because it stops people not liking discworld. Surely it is better for a person to read some of the series out of order than to give up on the first book, not read any more and not become a discworld fan. I don't understand how you can't see that, don't you want as many people to be discworld fans as possible!
I started reading the Discworld series this time last year. I started out reading them in order, then saw the chart that explained the reading order based on story lines. Since then I have been reading them according to the chart, because I feel it adds a level of continuity to the reading.
But the chart doesn't add continuity. The continuity is the background characters and the places. The main characters change reading in order, but you get a lot more out of what's going on around them that's the continuity. You lose that and the stories just don't work as well when you spoil the continuity.
JSWolf wrote: "But I just wish people would stop saying it's a good idea for new readers to follow a chart that should never have been created. It's not a good idea. It spoils the flow of the series."The vast majority of DW fans would disagree with this point. If you personally dislike the chart, don't use it, and don't recommend it to others. But don't pretend to speak for all DW readers by claiming that it is objectively wrong.
Meanwhile in the real world, Pratchett doesn't mind what order the books are read in so long as the royalty cheques keep rolling in
The chart is wrong for first time readers. It's OK for people who have read the series at least once. But for first time readers, they should never know about that series spoiling chart.
Discworld
Books mentioned in this topic
The Amazing Maurice and His Educated Rodents (other topics)The Color of Magic (other topics)
Pyramids (other topics)
The Color of Magic (other topics)
The Truth: Stage Adaptation (other topics)
More...
But the problem is that this thread is highly confusing for new readers. They get told a lot of garbage such as don't read in order, ..."
And that, of course, is how you like to read them and so that is what you recommend. But if someone asks about a good YA book about witches, you wouldn't point them to The Color of Magic. You might instead recommend The Wee Free Men because that would seem to better suit what that particular reader is looking for. I have little doubt that after going through the Tiffany Aching stories, that reader will go back and read all the rest, and possibly in the order in which they were published-- including rereading the Tiffany Aching books, but now with more understanding about why it is Granny Weatherwax is so universally admired.