Yesterday the wife and I headed to the neighbouring town, as she was in need of some clothes and it has the only mall within eighty kilometres. Also the only bookshop. Yeah, I know.
I was browsing the shelves, not looking for anything in particular, and as is my wont I gravitated towards the fantasy section. This particular chain has never heard or either Jim Butcher or Neil Gaiman, but they often have significant markdowns on the titles they do stock, and I was pleasantly surprised to find not one, but two of Terry Pratchett’s more recent publications at half the regular price. Considering the great man’s passing this week, I took it as a sign.
I also picked up The Unlikely Pilgrimage of Harold Fry by Rachel Joyce. It’s not a Pratchett, but I’ve seen many references to this novel online, it looks like a fun read, and it was also half-price, so why not?
As I’m feeling all melancholic at present, I think I’ll be putting my current read (a non-fiction book on Quantum Theory) aside for now and first read Dodger.
While we’re talking about reading, head on over to The Book Notes Project for a fun questionnaire on what you’re reading at the moment.
if all else fails...use a hammer 
I like Pratchett on his own, do not have much liking of the Long-anything series. A great man died.
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Yeah, a lot of people don’t like his collaboration with Baxter. I wonder how much of it is that it isn’t as comic as the Discworld. Did you ever read Pratchett’s pre-Discworld Sci-Fi trilogy? I haven’t been able to get hold of them myself, but I wonder how many Discworld fans like those as well.
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What do you think of the Pratchett / Baxter combination? I rather had the sense Baxter was just riding on Pratchett’s name … I didn’t find whatever I read of theirs especially compelling.
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As I said in when I reviewed The Long Earth, I haven’t read any of Baxter’s solo work yet, but it is clear this isn’t pure Pratchett. The novel has a much more serious tone which, I’m given to understand, is Baxter’s trademark.
There’s a short story in A Blink of the Screen, Pratchett’s collection of shorter writings, that is pretty much the seed of the Long Earth series, and if you read that you can see that Baxter clearly had a strong hand in developing the concept further. I also don’t think Sir Terry was the type of person who would merely let you ride his coattails if you co-wrote a book with him.
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Happy reading. My entire Pratchett collection is back home in SA, which just adds to my sadness of this great writer’s passing. May have to visit Amazon for a Kindle version of some of my favourites, just to scratch the now very strong Discworld itch.
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I can’t imagine being that completely separated from my books. I think indulging a little on Kindle is completely called-for 🙂
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Absolutely! It is difficult to be so far away from my books. I often think of this or that character or event in a book and then I would like to re-read, which is of course very difficult if your books are in sunny SA and you are not. Thank Goodness for Amazon and my Kindle.
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Except for the injustice of having to buy a book on Kindle that you already own on paper.
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To be honest, I enjoyed The Long Earth Series less than most. It was flat. (Pun intended) 😉
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The Long Earth is quite unlike Pratchett’s other work. I don’t know how it compares to Baxter’s. But I thought the premise was interesting, and while I won’t count this series among my favourites, I enjoyed the first one. I’ll see how it goes with the second.
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I won’t say anything then. 🙂 If by chance you have a goodreads account, feel free to look me up there.
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I don’t have a Goodreads account, I’m afraid. I really don’t have time to keep track of yet another social media service (my Google+ and Twitter are already pretty much on auto-pilot and I’m on Tumblr only as an avenue to promote the blog but I actually have no idea how it works 😉 ) But if I ever do venture over there I’ll do so.
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