04-08-2026, 08:30 PM
#19: The Colour of Magic by Terry Pratchett. Pratchett says that it doesn’t matter if one reads the Discworld books out of order, and for the most part, that’s true, but I think reading the second book immediately before the first book was an error. I would have enjoyed The Light Fantastic a lot more if I’d red The Colour of Magic first. Regardless, still enjoyable. The first of the series both is and isn’t typical world building: he was just trying to explain how a flat world was carried on the backs of four elephants standing on a giant turtle swimming through space through the sort of characters that might make sense in that situation. Because I’ve already read so many of these books, I was already somewhat comfortable with the idea and had moved beyond that irrationality to focus on the characters. It would, in fact, have been a little better to read the first book before the second to better appreciate the Luggage.
Before you criticize someone, walk a mile in their shoes. That way when you criticize them, you're a mile away and you have their shoes.