Books

[Peter Murray]

The only book I'd say you want to avoid is Eric (unless you're desperately mad for Faust)--it was team-written as a one-joke kind of lark, and it works well, but it's not exactly meant to be a Discworld novel in the same way the others are.

"Team-written"? I thought the main point of it was to have an illustrated Discworld book, with two-page Josh Kirby spreads. And it does have Rincewind in.

I'm scared about Dreamworks making a version of Truckers.

Oh? Is that something that's going to happen, then? Or even rumoured?

[Kathy Li]

Early early early development stage, and has been for a while. The idea of Spielberg doing Pratchett though is kind of frightening. Spielberg was never particularly good at being subtle.

And I think you're confusing Eric and The Last Hero.

[Peter Murray]

Urk. Spielberg as in "Move Hogwarts to the US, squash the first two books into a prologue and cast the Osment boy as Harry" Spielberg?
Urk.

No, Eric and The Last Hero are easy to tell apart. Eric is a thin book with lots of Josh Kirby art, and The Last Hero is a thick book with lots of Paul Kidby art. Simple.

Though I gather Eric tends to appear in a text-only point-missing edition now.

[Kathy Li]

No wonder it didn't work.

Thanks for solving that mystery.

Honestly, you'd think people were scared of pictures or something.

[Birdhead]

*notes* The first DW books I read were COM, Wyrd Sisters, Soul Music and, um, Feet of Clay. None of them except COM are the first in their sub-series, and I didn't suffer at all.

And hey, I LIKE Eric, though I had never to this point heard of an illustrated version. (I suppose you were around to see it published? *needles* It's really unfair; you have all the first publication info for everything back to the Bible, just 'cause you were THERE. ) . The Last Hero is awesome, too.

[Peter Murray]

Well, Wyrd Sisters is sort of first, as it's the first in the "three witches" sub-series. I know Granny and Nanny (should I call them Esme and Gytha, as I'm so old?) were introduced in Equal Rites, but Magrat wasn't, so...

Of course I was around to see Eric published! Hmmm. There's a book, called, umm... hang on, does Amazon know? Hmmm, Amazon UK says it has 13 used copies of the original. Oh, right In the garden of Unearthly Delights is a book of paintings by Josh Kirby, and some of the Eric paintings are in there, with details added in the originally-blank sections left for text. Presumably copies will still be around when you're 18 and this information is of any use to you.

And as for the Bible, you should have heard St Peter threatening to take his name off the book if Mary Magdalen's book was included...

[Wilf]

I would say "go forth and read Discworld, my son" - except that there a lot of females on these forums. My general point still stands, though I woudl recceomened that at somepoint inlife you read the various sub-series in order.

Switching slightly, but still staying on topic (!), does anyone know anything about the next Chrestomanci novel Conrad's Fate? (The Chrestomanci novels are by Dianna Wynne Jones... the two main ones are The Lives of Christpher Chant and Charmed Life, and I strongly reccomend they are read in that order).

[Birdhead]

*snickers* I love teasing you, PM. You always rise to the occasion so amusingly. *wanders away laughing*

[meteorite]

Any way you slice it, then, I should be in good shape. I read about half a chapter from Night Watch while gaming at a friend's house, so I think the next one I read will probably be Guards! Guards!

Still waiting for the latest Clive Cussler book to come out in PB, or someone to donate one to our library. He's the adventure equivalent of a trashy romance novel; very little skull sweat involved, but fun nonetheless.

[db_pr]

Anybody read "The Perfume" by Patrick Suskind something?

[Kathy Li]

For some weird reason, I'm working my way through the letters of Wilkie Collins. It's fun. There's a bit where he's sold Antonia, and he's telling the publisher that they have to get some really top-notch illustrations, and his brother has these friends called the Pre-Raphaelites they can hire... :-). Then, a few months later, he's complaining about how the ads have screwed up with tons of typos, including "Willais" for "Millais". Currently at the part where he's taking a trip through Europe, working on Armadale, while Dickens is penning Bleak House down the hall.

Also reading J.D. Robb's latest (in paperback), Divided in Death. I wonder why I never tire of Nora Roberts...

So, what are you reading?

[Gryphon]

I've been reading Stravaganze: The City of Masks and Stravaganza: City of Stars. They're pretty good. The first one I wasn't really interested in until the end, and that's when I started staying up until midnight.

Now I'm on A Deadly Game of Magic by Joan Lowery Nixon. It's kinda... creepy. Oh, look. It says Four-Time Edgar Award Winner on the front.

Great. I don't really like horrors...

[Kathy Li]

Gryphon, that's tough. Dark Fantasy (as that middle ground between fantasy and horror often gets labelled) is one of those semi-iffy areas for me. Sometimes I love it (Neil Gaiman, usually), and sometimes I get completely creeped out by it (Jonathan Carroll's Land of Laughs. Great book. Really creepy.)

Good luck on getting through it ok, or putting it down ok.

BTW, has anybody picked up The Grand Tour? Any good? I really liked Sorcery and Cecilia but it wasn't a book I loved.

[Birdhead]

I am re-reading The Dark is Rising, a book I re-read fairly regularly and enjoy every time (Along with the rest of the sequence and everything else by Susan Cooper); and 84 Charing Cross Road by Helene Hanff, which is like a collection of letters between her and an antique bookshop in Charing CrossRoad when she was living in New York from 1949 to about 59. It's really light and funny. Takes about an hour all told to read. True story too, I think.

[Kathy Li]

Tui. Hooboy. Yeah. It's a true story.