Fiction_L Archives Discworld series Dates: 3/12/01,3:30 PM  through  3/13/01,12:52 PM  (8 postings) Search for: Select one or more indexes to search: 2011-current     2009-2010     2004-2008    1995-2003    (Matches from each index will be displayed separately in the results page.) Return to March 2001 thread menu   |   Fiction_L Archives Menu

FROM: "Fairlie Kinnecom" <[removed]@slco.lib.ut.us>
REC'D: 3/12/01, 3:30 PM

Is Discworld a series I need to have all of (so they can be read in order) or is a handful of them okay? This library has about 8 of the 25 in the series and the titles are from various sections of the series. This is a very small branch - 3 ½ columns for SF - and most of the titles are available from other branches, so I'm wondering if I should keep this spotty bunch, delete all, or buy the rest of the series and cut something else. From the jacket blurbs I think a smattering might be okay.

I'm another who doesn't like SF/Fantasy - disappointed in The Sparrow (a long buildup to a very earthlike crisis), Willis, and Lackey. I couldn't finish Wrinkle in Time and I didn't like the Giver. (Give me credit, I've tried them!)

I'll appreciate your advice. Fairlie

FROM: "Lynn K. Silence" <[removed]@imail.slcl.lib.mo.us>
REC'D: 3/12/01, 3:51 PM

I am a died-in-the-wool SF/Fantasy Hater, but I make the exception for
Discworld! I am sure that you can get away with a smattering at your
branch--I have read (or listened to) quite a few, but in no particular
order. There are ongoing characters, such as the orangutan librarian, but
they just make it more fun, no matter what order they appear.

lks


At 02:29 PM 3/12/2001 -0700, you wrote:
>Is Discworld a series I need to have all of (so they can be read in order)
or is a handful of them okay? This library has about 8 of the 25 in the
series and the titles are from various sections of the series. This is a
very small branch - 3 ½ columns for SF - and most of the titles are
available from other branches, so I'm wondering if I should keep this
spotty bunch, delete all, or buy the rest of the series and cut something
else. From the jacket blurbs I think a smattering might be okay.
>
>I'm another who doesn't like SF/Fantasy - disappointed in The Sparrow (a
long buildup to a very earthlike crisis), Willis, and Lackey. I couldn't
finish Wrinkle in Time and I didn't like the Giver. (Give me credit, I've
tried them!)
>
>I'll appreciate your advice. Fairlie
>
>
>......................................................................
>Need to subscribe, unsubscribe, search the archives?
>Everything Fiction_L: http://www.webrary.org/rs/flmenu.html
>
>
Lynn K. Silence Manager, Collection Development
St. Louis County Library
300 Clarkson Road Ellisville, Missouri 63011
Voice: 636-227-1138 Fax: 636-227-9632
"The librarians of today...are not fiery dragons
interposed between the people and the books."
Sir William Osler

FROM: "Sharon Custer" <[removed]@alpha.clarion-net.com>
REC'D: 3/12/01, 3:52 PM

The Discworld series is actually composed of a number of sub-series, which
follow major characters such as Rincewind the Wizzard, Granny Weatherwax, &
the city of Ankh-Morpork. You do not have to read them in order to enjoy
them, although the Rincewind ones tend to end with him in major peril, which
he escapes from at the beginning of the following book.

Sharon Custer
Eccles-Lesher Memorial Library
673 Main Street
PO Box 359
Rimersburg, PA 16248
(814) 473-3800
FAX: (814) 473-8200
[removed]@alpha.clarion-net.com

----- Original Message -----
From: "Fairlie Kinnecom" <[removed]@slco.lib.ut.us>
To: "Fiction_L" <[removed]@maillist.webrary.org>
Sent: Monday, March 12, 2001 4:29 PM
Subject: Discworld series


Is Discworld a series I need to have all of (so they can be read in order)
or is a handful of them okay? This library has about 8 of the 25 in the
series and the titles are from various sections of the series. This is a
very small branch - 3 ½ columns for SF - and most of the titles are
available from other branches, so I'm wondering if I should keep this spotty
bunch, delete all, or buy the rest of the series and cut something else.
>From the jacket blurbs I think a smattering might be okay.

I'm another who doesn't like SF/Fantasy - disappointed in The Sparrow (a
long buildup to a very earthlike crisis), Willis, and Lackey. I couldn't
finish Wrinkle in Time and I didn't like the Giver. (Give me credit, I've
tried them!)

I'll appreciate your advice. Fairlie

FROM: "Roberta S. Johnson" <[removed]@nslsilus.org>
REC'D: 3/12/01, 4:12 PM

Please, please try to have all the Discworld books, as they are both addictive and a
good suggestion for someone looking for clever, funny fiction (and willing to take on
funny names as well). I see them less as fantasy than as thinly disguised caper
novels, as they always remind me of Donald Westlake. OK, Donald Westlake with
dwarves and werewolves.

Roberta


Roberta S. Johnson
Readers' Services Librarian
Des Plaines Public Library
[removed]@nslsilus.org
www.desplaines.lib.il.us
Opinions my own.

FROM: Dennis Lien <[removed]@tc.umn.edu>
REC'D: 3/12/01, 4:35 PM

At 02:29 PM 3/12/01 -0700, you wrote:
>Is Discworld a series I need to have all of (so they can be read in order)
or is a handful of them okay? This library has about 8 of the 25 in the
series and the titles are from various sections of the series. This is a
very small branch - 3 ½ columns for SF - and most of the titles are
available from other branches, so I'm wondering if I should keep this
spotty bunch, delete all, or buy the rest of the series and cut something
else. From the jacket blurbs I think a smattering might be okay.

****

The Discworld series is a top 1% favorite both for my spouse and myself;
until recently the UK editions were coming out 8-12 months before the
US editions and they were the only things for which we "couldn't wait" to
the point we ordered British hardcovers and paid the shipping etc. as well.
(The US has now pretty much caught up, though the British cover art is
still a lot more interesting.)

However, trying hard to remain unbiased, I would agree with previous
respondants that this is a series which does not cry out to be read
in order; there are some life changes along the way (marriage,
promotions, previously unsuspected depths of ongoing characters coming
out in crisis, etc.) but little that would count as a seriously spoiled
surprise if read out of order. (One volume does open with the deaths
of the main characters of several books back, but they'd led a good
life in the interim, and they had previously appeared only in that one
book.)

(On the other hand, change, slow in coming to Discworld, has been
accelerating in recent books: the City Watch is becoming a model of
ethnic diversity, a new semaphore system has brought about rapid
communications over distance, and its version of the Gutenberg
Revolution has just begun in the latest, THE TRUTH.)

Most of the books cluster around one of three main sets of characters:
Rincewind and/or the wizards of Unseen University; Granny Weatherwax
and the other witches and citizens of Lancre; and Capt. Vimes and the
City Watch. The ones with the fewest connections to any of these
three, if it matters, are PYRAMIDS (Pratchett's take on the Matter of
Ancient Egypt) and SMALL GODS (origins of religion, theocratic
inquisitions, and a long segment in Pratchett's version of classical
Athens).

Dennis Lien / U of Minnesota Libraries // [removed]@tc.umn.edu

FROM: "Brenda O'Brien" <[removed]@sls.lib.il.us>
REC'D: 3/12/01, 4:56 PM

Fairlie,

When I discovered Terry Pratchett's Discworld, my library didn't have too
many of them, and the older titles were out of print, though many have
since reprinted. Didn't bother me at
all. The titles feature different clusters of characters: wizards at
Unseen University, witches, city guards, Death, and others, so I don't
think they need to be read in strict order at all. The Discworld isn't
big on strictly ordered ways; barely controlled chaos being more typical.
The real reason I think you should keep them is that they are very funny,
and nobody else writes quite like Terry Pratchett. He also seems to be
getting more popular, and is hugely popular in Great Britain.

Brenda O'Brien
Woodridge Public Library
[removed]@sls.lib.il.us

FROM: Hedy Hustedde <[removed]@libby.rbls.lib.il.us>
REC'D: 3/13/01, 10:24 AM

I too don't read a lot of science fiction, but I too make an exception
with the Discworld series. They make me laugh out loud! Pratchett is so
witty and satirical, I am buying the whole series in paperback for my
personal library. My teenage son and I read them together (he laughs out
loud too). I agree that your library does not need to own every book of
the set, but if someone starts reading them and likes them, they will want
to read every one--you can always interlibrary loan the rest. My son and I
love it when an earlier character turns up in a later book.


*************************************************************************
Hedy N.R. Hustedde (daisy) tel: 319-344-4175
Information Librarian fax: 319-344-4185
Bettendorf Public Library email: [removed]@libby.rbls.lib.il.us
2950 Learning Campus Drive website:http://www.rbls.lib.il.us/bpl
Bettendorf, IA 52722 Alles Gute!

On Mon, 12 Mar 2001, Fairlie Kinnecom wrote:

> Is Discworld a series I need to have all of (so they can be read in order) or is a handful of them okay? This library has about 8 of the 25 in the series and the titles are from various sections of the series. This is a very small branch - 3 ½ columns for SF - and most of the titles are available from other branches, so I'm wondering if I should keep this spotty bunch, delete all, or buy the rest of the series and cut something else. From the jacket blurbs I think a smattering might be okay.
>
> I'm another who doesn't like SF/Fantasy - disappointed in The Sparrow (a long buildup to a very earthlike crisis), Willis, and Lackey. I couldn't finish Wrinkle in Time and I didn't like the Giver. (Give me credit, I've tried them!)
>
> I'll appreciate your advice. Fairlie
>
>
> ......................................................................
> Need to subscribe, unsubscribe, search the archives?
> Everything Fiction_L: http://www.webrary.org/rs/flmenu.html
>

FROM: "Lisa Colcord" <[removed]@CI.GLENDALE.AZ.US>
REC'D: 3/13/01, 12:52 PM

I just have to mention one of my favorite scenes in the Discworld series, and one that illustrates Pratchett's humor.

In the book *Men at Arms* there is a character (a dwarf?) who dies. Dwarves firmly believe in reincarnation. Death tells him not to worry, he will be "Bjorn, again."

Lisa

Lisa Colcord
Librarian
Glendale Public library
Glendale, AZ

....my views are my own....

-The secret to life is enjoying the passage of time- James Taylor

>>> [removed]@libby.rbls.lib.il.us 03/13/01 09:22AM >>>
I too don't read a lot of science fiction, but I too make an exception
with the Discworld series. They make me laugh out loud! Pratchett is so
witty and satirical, I am buying the whole series in paperback for my
personal library. My teenage son and I read them together (he laughs out
loud too). I agree that your library does not need to own every book of
the set, but if someone starts reading them and likes them, they will want
to read every one--you can always interlibrary loan the rest. My son and I
love it when an earlier character turns up in a later book.


*************************************************************************
Hedy N.R. Hustedde (daisy) tel: 319-344-4175
Information Librarian fax: 319-344-4185
Bettendorf Public Library email: [removed]@libby.rbls.lib.il.us
2950 Learning Campus Drive website:http://www.rbls.lib.il.us/bpl
Bettendorf, IA 52722 Alles Gute!

On Mon, 12 Mar 2001, Fairlie Kinnecom wrote:

> Is Discworld a series I need to have all of (so they can be read in order) or is a handful of them okay? This library has about 8 of the 25 in the series and the titles are from various sections of the series. This is a very small branch - 3 + columns for SF - and most of the titles are available from other branches, so I'm wondering if I should keep this spotty bunch, delete all, or buy the rest of the series and cut something else. From the jacket blurbs I think a smattering might be okay.
>
> I'm another who doesn't like SF/Fantasy - disappointed in The Sparrow (a long buildup to a very earthlike crisis), Willis, and Lackey. I couldn't finish Wrinkle in Time and I didn't like the Giver. (Give me credit, I've tried them!)
>
> I'll appreciate your advice. Fairlie
>
>
> ......................................................................
> Need to subscribe, unsubscribe, search the archives?
> Everything Fiction_L: http://www.webrary.org/rs/flmenu.html
>

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