No offence r1ok, but terry pratchett is an intellectual of the highest order. Easy for me to say 'genius', but i won't because it's bandied around too much. His books are filled with such amazing philosophies and opinions, explained and parodied in such subtle ways often and never preachy, he always shapes it into the fiction of his novels. In the genre in which he writes, he is unparalelled. He's one of the greatest wits in the world. He's friendly, he's caring.

To attempt to ridicule THIS MAN because he has read the same material as you but forms a different opinion borders on the farcical. You engender the 'bible-thumping' stereotypes by doing this at all. Terry is more intelligent than you or i, more witty, far more experienced, he's read more than most of us ever will - yet when he expresses his opinion on a writing, you try to call him small minded.

SMALL MINDED? Terry fucking Pratchett? Who the fuck are you anyway?

And as for you mentality - that's a hard one. Discworld of course are his best books (he has done some others), and within that series of books there are different spin-offs. Some are written from the perspective of the witches of discworld, some on the wizards (unrelated to the witches), some on the police, some are randomly based on a few individuals.

My dad started with the book about the police (or The Watch, as they're known in discworld). I let him start from the 1st book and he really didn't enjoy it, too fantasy for him, but fortunately he quickly realises comedy rather than fantasy is his niche. So while the very early books are a good read if/when you love discworld or fantasy, they're not always the best starting point.

I'd recommend therefore the City Watch books, as i did with my dad. They're an easy starting point. In order:
* Guards! Guards! 1989
* Men at Arms 1993
* Feet of Clay 1996
* Jingo 1997
* The Fifth Elephant 1999
* The Truth 2000
* Night Watch 2002
* Monstrous Regiment 2003
* Thud! 2005

I would recommend starting at the start if you mean to go on. The characters become more familiar and often you find the stories more sentimental and humorous if you know the characters. This list includes my top 3 favourite books of his, so definitely a good starting point. The books about Death (the character Death) are very good too.

>> ^mentality:
>> ^spoco2:
Could you expand upon what you think he says here that is clueless about the bible?
Obviously Terry, or anyone else who doesn't believe in god, is clueless because he doesn't know how to properly pick and choose and selectively re-interpret the Bible to delude himself to believe in it. Because the Bible can't possibly be wrong, only our understanding of it.
Universe created in 7 days? Oh it's only a metaphor.
Fit all the species on a wooden boat? The boat was probably magical.
Explain how you should buy slaves? Oh God's probably just joking around.
Forbidden to eat shellfish? Yeah I'm not going to follow that one.
My favorite is the parts about selling your daughter off into slavery. Going to keep that one handy in case my daughter disobeys me.
On a serious note, I've never read his books. What's a good place to start?


The simple answer, spoco2, (so I don't waste my entire day trying to argue this stuff on here, the home of devout anti-christian fanatics) is that anyone who reads God as a maniac from the old testament just hasn't paid attention, stumbling at one of the most basic theological understandings. In other words, it's just plain missing the boat. It's like watching the first 30 seconds of a movie and trying to explain everything about it. People who do that are called idiots, and people who do the same with the bible get a similar title. It's just dumb, no matter which way you slice it, because you're obviously going to get stuff wrong. I don't expect everyone to decide on Christianity when reading the bible, but I expected more from Terry.

Mentality, your statement about selling daughters off into slavery is a great example of this. I'm mean really, if I have to explain that one to someone, they may as well permanently stamp an idiot tattoo to their forehead, it's so incredibly easy to understand, especially when it's spelt out in the equivalent of bright neon lights throughout the new testament.

>> ^spoco2:
Could you expand upon what you think he says here that is clueless about the bible?

Obviously Terry, or anyone else who doesn't believe in god, is clueless because he doesn't know how to properly pick and choose and selectively re-interpret the Bible to delude himself to believe in it. Because the Bible can't possibly be wrong, only our understanding of it.

Universe created in 7 days? Oh it's only a metaphor.
Fit all the species on a wooden boat? The boat was probably magical.
Explain how you should buy slaves? Oh God's probably just joking around.
Forbidden to eat shellfish? Yeah I'm not going to follow that one.

My favorite is the parts about selling your daughter off into slavery. Going to keep that one handy in case my daughter disobeys me.

On a serious note, I've never read his books. What's a good place to start?

Upvote before watching - terry pratchett is a FUCKING LEGEND. The man has been the source of so so so much enjoyment in my life, his imagination is unparalelled for his genre. His sense of humour is blistering, his writing is excellent. Even with alzheimers he still knocks out books and stories, and i hope he finds SOME WAY of continuing his legacy for as long as possible. I love you terry.

From all his books and all the interviews i've seen, my favourite quote from the mind of terry:
Questioner: "If these tablets help stave off alzheimers even with some negative side effects, you'd still take them?"
Terry: "I've been on record for several years now as saying that i'd gnaw the arse out of a dead mole if it could cure this."

Rather be a rising monkey than a fallen angel.... God i love you terry, thanks for everything.

Your video, Terry Pratchett on religion, has made it into the Top 15 New Videos listing. Congratulations on your achievement. For your contribution you have been awarded 1 Power Point.

Reminds me of something i read in a terry pratchett book though it may not be his originally.

"In the beginning there was nothing... which exploded"

>> ^bluecliff:
>> ^blankfist:
"I like rape."
-Steven Seagal

I'm sure rape likes you too.


That seems to point up a significant difference between Europeans and Americans. A European says: "I can't understand this, what's wrong with me?" An American says: "I can't understand this, what's wrong with him?"

-- Terry Pratchett


edit: I love Pratchett, so one more:

Give a man a fire and he's warm for the day. But set fire to him and he's warm for the rest of his life.
-- Terry Pratchett, Discworld

1. Papillon - Henri Charrière
2. Henderson, the rain king - Saul Bellow
3. Less than zero - Bret Easton Ellis
4. Altered carbon - Richard K. Morgan
5. The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy - Douglas Adams
6. The Colour of Magic - Terry Pratchett
7. Fabric of Reality - David Deutsch
8. The Teachings of Don Juan - Carlos Castaneda
9. Childhood's End - Arthur C. Clarke
10. The Sirens of Titan - Kurt Vonnegut jr.

thanks

I also greatly enjoyed reading your profile page. Being a Terry Pratchett fan, have you read "good omens?" I think that's the only Pratchet I've read, but I've always meant to read more.

Your mention as to the nature of science reminded me of Kuhn's "The structure of scientific revolutions" Here's a synopsis: http://www.des.emory.edu/mfp/Kuhn.html

In reply to this comment by MycroftHomlz:
*promote

A bit too short to be upvoted I would say. But they mentioned Terry Pratchett and Discworld. So I say FUCK YEAH, UPVOTE!

1. Dune - Frank Herbert
Dune remains amoung my favourite book I've read and the only one I've read multiple times. While I was disappointed by the rest of the series, the first book is a tremendous read and very enjoyable.

2. Deadhouse Gates - Steven Erikson (Book 2 of the Malazan Book of the Fallen series)
The Malazan Empire series by Steven Erikson is one of the hardest to read fantasy books I've ever encountered. The author has a complex web of relations and events going on while writing with a fairly high level of english. The second book stands out for its section call "The Chain of Dogs" which details a group of refugees fleeing to safety under the guidance of a powerful leader.

3. The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy - Douglas Adams
A great blend of comedy and science fiction. I still remember the first time I read the passage about the two missles screaming toward the Heart of Gold. I burst out laughing as the petunias came into being.

4. The Colour of Magic - Terry Pratchett
The fantasy version of Douglas Adams. Equally enjoyable and both love to use footnotes* for off the wall observations.

5. Sword of Shannara - Terry Brooks
While probably not the best written book and it is clearly Tolkien inspired, it is in my top 5 simply because it was the first real book I ever read. Previously I only read a few kids books, this one was a beefy amount of pages that took my 12 year old mind nearly a year to get through.

*Attaching notes to one foot does seem an odd, and potentially painful way (if you use a tac) to do things.

This is more of a 'top five of the books I can actually see on the shelves over there'.

The Silmarillion, J. R. R. Tolkien - Most authors tell a story, Tolkien built a world.

The Illuminatus! Trilogy, Robert Shea and Robert Anton Wilson - Guaranteed to impact your life. This book is packed so full of ideas, you can't read it without finding a new perspective on something, whoever you are.

Men at Arms, Terry Pratchett - or just the Discworld series generally, of which I have read the first 31 books.

Various rulebooks, sourcebooks, novels and short stories of the Warhammer 40,000 universe, Rick Priestley, Andy Chambers, et al. - For its sheer scope, and provided you disavow everything after about 1998, this is the greatest fantasy setting since Tolkien.

Orgy of the Blood Parasites, Jack Yeovil - If you don't want to read this just on the strength of that title then I can't help you.

I can never, ever remember the best ones when quizzed like this. Same goes for best movies etc.

Ones I have liked of late are (in no order):
The Dark Tower series: Stephen King
The Book Thief: Marcus Zusak
A Heartbreaking Work of Staggering Genius: Dave Eggers (Currently reading another of his books actually)
The Mars Trilogy: Kim Stanley Robinson
LOTR: Tolkien
Hitchhikers Guide to the Galaxy: Douglas Adams
Many Discworld novels: Terry Pratchett
Dune: Frank Herbert
The Dressmaker: Rosalie Ham (An Australian gothic novel, just brilliant, I'd love to see this made into a film)
2010: Arthur C Clarke (Yeah, I like it better than 2001, sue me)


But inevitably someone will mention some book and I'll go 'AAAH, yeah, LOVED that one'!... so yeah, there are many others that I'm sure should be here, and probably in place of others here... (I just scrolled up and added some that others had put, because I'd forgotten them)...

Catch 22 : I just wanted to say that for all the praise that this book gets, I couldn't get through it. He made his points, set up his things, and then seemed to repeat the same damn jokes/observations over and over and over again to the point where I just stopped reading it... sorry, but it bored me. Good start, lost me soon after.

1. Dune by Frank Herbert

2. Ender's Game by Orson Scott Card

3. Number9dream by David Mitchell

4. Oryx & Crake by Margaret Atwood (and yeah that's the source of my name)

5. Hmm i wanna include Diamond Age and Cryptonomicon (Neal Stephenson),
Night Watch (Terry Pratchett),
Pattern Recognition (William Gibson),
Lord of the Flies (William Golding),
Starship Troopers (Robert A. Heinlein)
1984 (George Orwell)

I'm so glad someone mentioned it - my list was running too long.

In reply to this comment by kulpims:
- the Discworld series by Terry Pratchett