My Terry Pratchett Obsession, Reading and TV
(Warning: A lot of links in this post. Proceed at the peril of your own time. Or someone else’s if that rocks your boat ;-) )
So I finished Jingo, book 21 of the Discworld series by Terry Pratchett. It’s my 3rd book in from the series in 2 weeks (Pyramids and Unseen Academicals. I am not reading the series in any particular order but then they only vaguely refer to previous books so it’s not a big deal). So yeah, I’m sort of obsessed with Discworld. The series combine two of my favourite genres of stories: Humour and Fantasy. Well I like SF too but it’s been so long since I read SF that it’s been long. So yeah.. But I digress.
Anyway, the best part about the Discworld series is the combination of real world issues with an astonishing blend of humour and poignancy. The humour, in many cases is straightforward but on so many occasions, it just creeps up on you and you’re like, hah, that’s so funny. And then the subtle underlying message hits you that you do a double take.
In addition to reading, I’ve also been trying to watch some TV shows. Primarily The Big Bang Theory which is a brilliant comedy sitcom by the makers of Two and a Half Men. It’s about a bunch of scientists and a cute blonde who is their neighbour. The “scientists” are hardcore nerds and the many of the episodes are themed on “nerdy” concepts. I get a lot of the nerdy jokes and can’t decide if that is a good thing or a bad, I mean with many folks considering me to be a nerd on first meeting (I don’t think I am a nerd because I’m not intelligent enough :-( )
Coming back to reading, I have a huge pile of books left to read (sadly no Discworlds left), a lot of them from Devanshi, and a lot others that I’ve been picking up obsessively but haven’t gotten round to reading. The problem, as I see it is, that whenever I look at a book I want to read, I just want to read another Discworld book and that just evaporates my mood to read. So now I’ve decided, no more Discworld (I plan to eventually own all the Discworld books) until I reduce the unread pile by at least a significant amount (let’s see how long this “resolution lasts.. Hah). Oh and I need to buy a couple of books:
(The second before I watch the movie with the lovely Rachel McAdams)
I think I should dedicate a shelf in my bookcase to all the unread books and then finish them off one by one. An upcoming trip should provide sometime for reading two of the books. Perhaps I’ll also make a list of all the pending books in a next post.
Lastly, I’ve been vaguely following all the iPad hype and thought it would be nice to have one to read my comics (electronic format obviously) but then thought it might not be so nice because of a few reasons:
- Too expensive
- Probably does not support CDisplay
- It’s still the first version so will have a lot of limitations/bugs
- It’s ecosystem is too closed for comfort or usage
- It’s too expensive
Well, that’s a long post. Long by recent standards so I’ll close this now. More coming later.
Ps. Yes, I use a lot of parenthesis.
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I like The Big Bang Theory too. I’m surprised it’s made/produced(?) by the same people who worked on Two and a Half Men, which I LOATHE WITH THE PASSION OF A THOUSAND FIERY SUNS OMG.
I haven’t read any Terry Pratchett at all (except for Good Omens a long time ago)…what should I start with?
Oh, and I’d suggest borrowing The Time Traveller’s Wife to see if you like it first. It infuriated some people, whereas others absolutely adored it. Tell me what you think when you do finish reading it! :D
I’ve not really watched too much of Two and a Half Men so I don’t really have an opinion about it (BBT and Two and a half are both produced by Chuck Lorre)
Good Omens is a brilliant book if you are into satirical fantasy. Discworld is an entirely different setting and many are individual books (with mild references to previous stories)
I’d suggest you start with any of them (I started with Guards Guards! which is brilliant imo) However, if you have access to a library or the full range of Discworld books, then somewhere, I have a reading order as the entire run should be read. If you wish, I can email that file to you..
You’ve read the Time Traveller’s wife? How’s it? I don’t know anyone who has it so I’ll probably buy it anyway :-D
Oh and I also finished The Lost Army last evening and it’s good. Will put a two line review once I’m done with the list of read and to-read books.
(I’m not sure if I’m actually replying to your response, or just starting a new thread. I haven’t felt like a n00b in a while now, hmm.)
Yes, please link me to the recommended order of reading them. I’m sure I can procure them from somewhere…I usually don’t like sci-fi very much, so I’m hoping this will change that! You can just leave at as a comment on some entry of mine back on LJ, instead of e-mailing though? I never check this e-mail. :
I don’t know if I should talk about my thoughts re: The Time Traveller’s Wife before you read it (don’t want to bias you), since it tends to trigger a strong, polarising reaction amongst readers. Suffice to say that while it’s sweepingly romantic, it can also seem annoying. Depends on how you look at it, I guess.
Hi AJ,
I love THM and BBT.. i think they are just Bazinngaaa!!!!…
Can’t get enuf of it.. I wuld hate to see Charlie leave the show…
Well I don’t follow Two and a half men so I am not up to date on that. But the latest ep of BBT was simply hilarious. The script writers are simply doing a brilliant job :)