
Discworld Reading Order Guides - ColinWright
http://www.lspace.org/books/reading-order-guides/
======
ColinWright
In
[https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=6965433](https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=6965433)
it was proposed that Emacs users, _true_ Emacs users, are like the Igors from
Pratchett's Discworld novels. Someone clearly didn't understand the reference,
and a little was explained.

This site provides charts to help see the structure of the novels, and decide
on entry points into the canon. The actual chart is here:

[http://www.lspace.org/books/reading-order-guides/the-
discwor...](http://www.lspace.org/books/reading-order-guides/the-discworld-
reading-order-guide-20.jpg)

Enjoy!

 _Added in edit: It should be noted that there are geeks and hackers who don
't like Pratchett, just as there are geeks and hackers who don't like The
Princess Bride. Not sure what to say to them._

~~~
stevewilhelm
> just as there are geeks and hackers who don't like The Princess Bride

Inconceivable!

------
mickeyp
I'd recommend you just read them in chronological order. The universe evolves
over time and there are many surprise appearances by a lot of characters --
notably Death -- in many of them.

~~~
ColinWright
I'm not convinced. I've gone back and re-read "The Colour of Magic" and found
it to be significantly less entertaining than "Guards! Guards!" In fact, I
found "The Colour of Magic" much better after having read the other stories.

A colleague of mine agrees with you, saying that TCoM was published on its own
merit - others may have ridden the wave of success, but I say that the canon
of work is there, why not pick a good place to start?

As a metaphor, you don't insist everyone learn ForTran, then BASIC, then
Pascal, _etc.,_ before learning a modern language. You choose where to start.

<fx: shrug />

Start somewhere.

~~~
mickeyp
The first two are standalone, yes. They're also different in style to the rest
as Pratchett had yet to find his voice for the series.

However, they do introduce two very important characters that remain some of
the most popular in the series.

I would call that a false dichotomy, Colin. Most of the books are standalone,
technically, yes; but consider this: most people who look at the reading order
wouldn't know why they should read the witches novels nor the watch novels -
so why not just start at the beginning and let it unfold as the author wrote
them?

------
coldtea
I love S.F (especially classic hard S.F fiction era, but also later stuff),
and I like stuff like Hitchiker's Guide to the Galaxy, Neil Gaiman, and the
like.

Never could like Discworld. The jokes are few and far between, and the
insights are only insights if you are a fifteen year old. As for the story,
it's mostly a lame subtext for the non-jokes.

~~~
ColinWright
I wonder if you don't get all the cross-references and cultural comments. When
I spoke with another programmer who preferred HHGttG over Pratchett it rapidly
became clear that he was looking for jokes, not realising that the vast
majority of the humour is not in the jokes, but in the structure, language,
ping-backs, and other re-interpretations of external material.

So, in short, maybe you just don't it. That's fair enough. Not everyone has
the context in which to insert it.

 _My wife has just asked if you 're reading Craig Shaw Gardner, whose covers
are also done by Josh Kirby._

PS: I wish people wouldn't downvote just because someone has a different
opinion, especially when it's just a personal preference.

~~~
coldtea
> _I wonder if you don 't get all the cross-references and cultural comments.
> When I spoke with another programmer who preferred HHGttG over Pratchett it
> rapidly became clear that he was looking for jokes, not realising that the
> vast majority of the humour is not in the jokes, but in the structure,
> language, ping-backs, and other re-interpretations of external material._

I doubt that's it. I'm a book freak and I've also consumed tons of
music/TV/net, so I can get the cultural/cross references to external material
in stuff ranging from Derrida to Woody Allen and the Family Guy.

I've actually had this contest with a friend who insisted on Pratchett: we'd
read together a tome until we found a good joke. I gave up after 50 or 60
pages, and he too was buffled that nothing seemed as good as he remembered it
so as to justify it.

> _My wife has just asked if you 're reading Craig Shaw Gardner, whose covers
> are also done by Josh Kirby._

No, not really.

~~~
ColinWright

        >> My wife has just asked if you're reading
        >> Craig Shaw Gardner, whose covers are also
        >> done by Josh Kirby.
    
        > No, not really.
    

Worth checking - it's a mistake one of our friends made.

Anyway ...

    
    
      > ... we'd read together a tome until we found
      > a good joke.
    

I wonder if this is the mis-match in your expectations. Yes, there are jokes
in Pratchett, but that's not where the majority of the humour lies. It's more
about word-play and visual imagery.

It's not to everyone's taste, and I'm not trying to convert you, but given
enough time it would be interesting to find where the difference is between us
that makes me really, _really_ enjoy most Pratchett (although not all), and
for you, not.

But there is no time, so it will remain a mystery.

------
gcb0
this is a majot fail

how to start reading a book series promisse that delivers a jpeg with a graph
with some 10 entry points.

title might have been "reduce your doubts from 30 to 10 on where to start
reading"

...its probably an inside joke for people that already read the books

~~~
ColinWright
I don't understand your disappointment. It's a reading guide, it's a
description of the connections between the books - the story arcs and
dependencies. It's clear that there are dependencies between the books, and
lets you know where you can choose to start, and where is best avoided because
of the dependencies.

Perhaps you could be a little more explicit about what you were expecting, and
why this doesn't help.

And if you really want more explicit advice, if you really don't want to
understand the story arcs, and just want to be told what to do, read them in
order of publication.

------
blumkvist
What is "Bulgarian"?

~~~
ColinWright
Are you serious?

Bulgarian[0] is the official language of the country, Bulgaria[1][2].

[0]
[http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Bulgarian_language](http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Bulgarian_language)

[1]
[http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Bulgaria](http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Bulgaria)

[2]
[https://maps.google.co.uk/maps?q=bulgaria+map](https://maps.google.co.uk/maps?q=bulgaria+map)

