Terry Pratchett's Discworld

I love this series of books, unfortunately I haven't read one in about a year. If you've heard of Terry Pratchett and his discworld series then you know just how awesome they are. For those who have never heard of then here is your introduction. I was introduced to them by my ex-girlfriend but I didn't start reading them until we broke up. I do wish I had started while we were dating b/c it would have made for some cool conversations talking about them.

Discworld is a fantasy series that has stretched so far into 34 novels. Since Wilipedia puts it better than I do I'll just lift this from them "the world adheres (loosely) to the conventions of classical and current fantasy literature. The books are comic and satirical, and frequently parody ideas from Tolkien, Robert E. Howard and HP Lovecraft, as well as myth, folklore and fairy tales, often also using them to parallel current cultural, technological and scientific issues." I think of them as a fantasy world with the humor of Monty Python.

Most of the books include a bunch of stories interwoven together. What I find so cool about the books is that many of the novels share the same lead characters. While some characters are important in some of the novels they may not be in others but they usually pop up somewhere. Another thing that is great about then is each book is a stand alone and you don't have to read then in order to know what's happening in the world.

My absolute fav character in the series is DEATH. He is in every one of the novels except one. Every time he talks in the book it is with caps.

ex: WHERE IS MY GRANDDAUGHTER? he said. YOU HAVE TO TELL ME. OTHERWISE I CAN'T KNOW.

So far I've only read six but I only starting reading them April 2002 and I'm a slow reader. I really hate being a slow reader :( It is one thing I'm a bit self conscious about. I sometimes have to read slow just so I'm able to comprehend things. I think I have spead up a bit but I would like to be faster and still be able to understand what I've read. Anyways it is a life goal to read everyone in the series, but he is making it really hard because he keeps on writing more books for the series. The summer is usually my core reading time. I was never able to start a novel while in school b/c I had to concentrate on text books. As I've said I haven't read one in a while but I do have my next one sitting on my shelf waiting to be started. The ones I've read so far include Soul Music (theme Rock Music), Moving Pictures (theme Hollywood), Reaper Man (theme Death), Small Gods ( theme Religion), Hogfather (theme Christmas), and Men at Arms (theme Cop Novels). I think my fav out of these is Soul Music. If your curious as to the other themes of the novels then check out the Wikipedia site on Discworld. Just looking at them all makes me wish I could just absorb all the books at once, or at least be a faster reader so I can go through them faster. One thing I got into the habit of doing while reading these books is underlining all the really funny parts so I could go back and experience them without having to reread the books.

So if you appreciate British humor and love a good fantasy novel then find one in the series that is appealing and start reading it. :)