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Congratulations Sir Terry

Terry Pratchett has been knighted. Congratulations, Sir Terry!

While the honour comes from his services to literature, he seems to be shaping up to become a spokesman for Alzheimer's research, which could very well have won him the honour in a few year's time, if he had not got it for his writing.

Comments

Tim said…
Happy New Year.
You might be interested to know that the BBC Radio 7 on the internet is running some Pratchett radio adaptations.Last week there was a 4 part adaptation of Mort and currently theres an airing of Wryd Sisters.
Knowing that you are a fan could you suggest the best book to introduce oneself to DiscWorld. I got overwhelmed by the sheer number of books hes written so any advice would be appreciated.

Finally I noted you had a Jeffery Steingarten book on your TBR list and wondering if you got round to reading it as Ive enjoyed two of his books and would recommend them.
Regards
huey
Bibliophile said…
Happy new year to you too, Huey.

Thanks for the heads-up about the Wyrd Sisters play.

There are several schools of thought about the best Discworld starter novel, but I recommend starting with any of the following: Guards! Guards!, Mort, Pyramids, Small Gods or Moving Pictures. The first two are starter books in sub-series within the Discworld series, and the others are one-offs that connect to the other books in various ways. All of these books can be enjoyed to the full without having read other Discworld books, as can the young adult books in the series. Here is a reading guide for more suggestions: http://www.us.lspace.org/books/reading-order-guides/the-discworld-reading-order-guide-1-5.pdf

I’ve read both of Steingarten’s essay collections, and find them to be thoughtful, informative and entertaining, and I hope there will be more. If you liked Steingarten, you might like some of Ruth Reichl’s writing, especially Garlic and Sapphires.

P.S. I like your blog and have added it to my blog feed.
Tim said…
Thanks for your suggestions regarding Disc World and Ruth Reichl.
My modest blog pales in comparison to your splendid
efforts.
Kind regards
Huey

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