One of my absolute-favourite-all-time-authors is, without a doubt the great Sir Terry Pratchett.
I ‘discovered’ him thanks to an online friend, she said he was a fantastic author so I went out and (randomly) bought “Going Postal”, the 33rd Discworld novel and my first. I read it straight away, despite having a backlog of oooohh at least 12 other books ‘to be read’, and had to admit my friend was right, he was an amazing author!
Obviously I started collecting his works straight away (no mean feat as I live in Spain but collect books in my native English, hurrah for the internet!) and I soon picked out my favourites. Strangely, even though it was my first, “Going Postal” is not one of my favourites. I loved -and still love- Vetinari, but my absolute favourite characters are Nanny Ogg, Granny Weatherwax, Death, Mustrum Ridcully, Sam Vimes and, of course, the unforgettable “Nobby” Nobbs.
Pratchett´s dry observations about society, our worries and our issues are hilarious, poignant and right on the ball. His books are a mix of sarcasm, wit, magic and pure genius. They can be read as a series or alone, and you can expect to find observations on ANY subject, ranging from football, dancing, foreigners, Hollywood, death, science, fairy tales, rock’n’roll, hierarchy, literature, modern-day films and much more. I couldn´t possibly pick out my favourite Discworld books, so don´t even ask! 😉
A person who since 1983 has written two books a year on average, sold over 75 million books worldwide in thirty-seven languages, has an asteroid named after them, was the UK’s best-selling author of the 1990s, and is currently still writing despite suffering from Alzheimer’s disease, is a genius in anyone´s book surely. The cherry on the top of the cake is his fabulous collaboration with Neil Gaiman (another great) with “Good Omens”, if you haven´t read this book I´d totally recommend it, Terry´s wit combines perfectly with Neil´s dark humor, you can really see a bit of each author in the story.
My Pratchett collection is sadly almost, but not yet, complete. I am missing his children´s novels, The Dark Side of the Sun, Strata, the Tiffany Aching novels, Snuff, and The Fifth Elephant. I will also be looking to add The World of Poo to my collection when it comes out on the 7th of June this year.
So, if you know of the great Pratchett, which are your favourites? And if not, what are you waiting for??
By the way, I know I said I was going to wait for a few days until I posted for the first time.. But you know what Fridays are like 🙂
The Stylish Bookpython 