Finished reading a book tonight... I've generally heard good things about the discworld series, but I'd only read one book in the series before (Guards, Guards!), and knowing that the order mostly doesn't matter, I picked one out at random from the library (then checked and learned that one was a pretty direct sequel so picked up the first book instead) and ended up reading Going Postal. Fun enough book, I think, I read it in like, 5 or 6 sittings, but also over the course of over a month because I need to find more time for reading honestly. Reading is fun, I think... I don't actually have much to say, but I wanted to make a semi-celebratory post about finishing the book, so... yeah!
I guess as a tangent, does anyone know of a list of discworld books that tell you which are sequels to other books? Or maybe just recommendations for which to read next. I don't mind jumping around the series but do think I'd like to read more direct sequels sequentially...
Here is the most up to date "reading order" graphic. Going Postal is a pretty good one, and in the top half of the series for me, though Raising Steam is probably of the bottom couple. My personal favorite series are the Witches Novels (though you could probably skip Equal Rites if you wanted to. It's pretty good, but doesn't quite deliver as strongly on it's premise as I would have liked), the Death Novels, and Tiffany Aching (for a "young adult novel" series, it is sooooo good). Monstrous Regiment and Feet of Clay are really good queer coded books with Feet of Clay being a bit stronger of the two, in my opinion. As a standalone read, I'd probably recommend Monstrous Regiment.
One of Pratchett's strong points was making it so reading order is optional. Yes even for direct sequels. I read Light Fantastic first and jumped around a lot after, cause kid me read what they could get.
If pressed, I'll concede that Night Watch probably makes the most sense to read after all prior Watch books, because it kinda is peak character arc for Vimes.
And "Raising Steam" should probably be the penultimate, and "Shepard's Crown" for last.
The other problem with charts like this is it leaves out the non-Discworld books he did, like Nation.
Based on what I've read about Sir Terry, I get the feeling he'd be happy you read any of his books, in whatever order, and hoped you enjoyed them.
