What book are you reading?

[Brickistan]

I’ve actually felt that way since around the time of Nightwatch. To me, that was when the series suddenly changed tone, going from light-hearted fun’n’games with the occasional clever wordplay thrown in, to a much darker and more sombre tone with no humour whatsoever.

Harsh to say there's no humour whatsoever, as far as I remember there's plenty in Night Watch, Thud!, Going Postal...not to mention the repeated appearances of the Nac Mac Feegle since The Wee Free Men.

Unseen Academicals was really very poor, though, and I was a bit worried about how good Snuff would be. Overall, it's a considerable improvement: not as good as the best Discworld novels, but then, did we necessarily expect that. You could argue that we've been spoiled by the quality of the first 25 or so Discworld novels, and that the sub-standard ones since then are actually still better than most of the guff that gets published nowadays. Except Unseen Academicals. That was crap.

Anyway, currently reading The Man in the High Castle by Philip K. Dick.

To be honest, I can’t remember smiling, let alone laughing, at any point during Nightwatch. Thud! might have had a few smiling moments but I also found that rather dark. Going Postal was just... Bad... Not funny in the slightest, just stupid...

My personal opinion, of course...

I do agree with you on Unseen Academicals though. That one was just about the worst book in the series – perhaps even worse than Monstrous Regiment. And that’s saying something...

[Rhodmhire]

I'm stumbling over Watership Down by Richard Adams and The Time Machine by H.G. Wells. Reading them both at the same time when I have no time to do anything to begin with isn't working out well for me.

I still have, like, twenty books I still haven't read, too.

The Time Machine is the shit. I just read it last year. Pretty easy afternoon read, too.

Currently, I'm reading Dracula by Bram Stoker.

Yeah my problem with books is that I always read one and then I decide that I'll "put another on the waiting list," which is my way of lying to myself and just putting the other book down to start reading that other one. Then I do it over and over again until I have, like, five or six books I've read a fourth of the way instead of two or three that I've finished.

The Time Machine definitely ain't too long, it formats on my Nook at only around a hundred pages or so. I could finish it in an evening if I actually read for an hour before bed like I keep telling myself I should do.

If only.

[Zaras]

I have to get started on Peter Ackerman and Jack Duvall's A Force More Powerful: A Century of Nonviolent Conflict. Whoopee.

[Izzyshipper]

I felt that way about Unseen Academicals, although I enjoyed I shall Wear Midnight. But yeah, I actually on the same boat as yourself, but I'll post if it gets better.

I’ve actually felt that way since around the time of Nightwatch. To me, that was when the series suddenly changed tone, going from light-hearted fun’n’games with the occasional clever wordplay thrown in, to a much darker and more sombre tone with no humour whatsoever.

Mind you, Nightwatch was an excellent book (in my opinion one of the very best in the series) but it was still a shock to read such a dark story. Compare Guards! Guards!, for example, with Nightwatch. Both are rather dark, one dealing with a drunkard well and truly down on his luck and the other with outright revolution. And yet, Guards! Guards! managed to deal with Vimes’ problems without going overly dark whereas Nightwatch...

Oh well, just my opinion. Please do stop me if you’re not interested in my ramblings...

I’m looking forward to getting hold of I Shall Wear Midnight. A friend of mine has it and thinks it’s the best Tifanny book (not that they were ever that good) so it can’t be entirely bad (I hope). But I’m still waiting for it to be released in the large softcover binding so it will match the three previous books standing on my shelf...

Nightwatch was a less humourless book but as you said it was a fantastic book. I think Pratchett may have sacrificed some of the humour to get deeper plot lines across however they are still fairly funny books.

I suggest whole heartedly I Shall Wear Midnight, although to be honest I would prefer another "proper" Witches book, as they where my favourite ones.

[I V Stalin]

Harsh to say there's no humour whatsoever, as far as I remember there's plenty in Night Watch, Thud!, Going Postal...not to mention the repeated appearances of the Nac Mac Feegle since The Wee Free Men.

Unseen Academicals was really very poor, though, and I was a bit worried about how good Snuff would be. Overall, it's a considerable improvement: not as good as the best Discworld novels, but then, did we necessarily expect that. You could argue that we've been spoiled by the quality of the first 25 or so Discworld novels, and that the sub-standard ones since then are actually still better than most of the guff that gets published nowadays. Except Unseen Academicals. That was crap.

Anyway, currently reading The Man in the High Castle by Philip K. Dick.

To be honest, I can’t remember smiling, let alone laughing, at any point during Nightwatch. Thud! might have had a few smiling moments but I also found that rather dark. Going Postal was just... Bad... Not funny in the slightest, just stupid...

My personal opinion, of course...

I've often found with Discworld novels that it's not so much individual jokes or funny bits (like, say, the bit about the poop deck in The Last Continent), but more a continuous barrage of tiny things that added up make the whole very funny. Like, for example, I've just opened Night Watch at random (honest, though obviously you'll have to take my word for it), and on the first page I read is this exchange between Vimes and Sergeant Knock:

Vimes: "Sergeant, we don't hand prisoners over without a receipt, understand? Never! What happens to them afterwards? Do you know?"
Knock: "They get questioned, we takes 'em up there [Cable Street] for questioning."
Vimes: "What kind of questions? How long it takes two men to dig half a hole?"

So there are still good bits, though perhaps fewer. I'm probably biased becase Night Watch is one of my favourite of the Discworld series.

I do agree with you on Unseen Academicals though. That one was just about the worst book in the series – perhaps even worse than Monstrous Regiment. And that’s saying something...

Oh, damn, yeah, I forgot MR. That was pretty bad. Yeah, alright. MR and UA are tied worst Discworld books.

[Candlethree]

"Inside Out" by Nick Mason, about Pink Floyd.

[Something with wings]

I’ve actually felt that way since around the time of Nightwatch. To me, that was when the series suddenly changed tone, going from light-hearted fun’n’games with the occasional clever wordplay thrown in, to a much darker and more sombre tone with no humour whatsoever.

Mind you, Nightwatch was an excellent book (in my opinion one of the very best in the series) but it was still a shock to read such a dark story. Compare Guards! Guards!, for example, with Nightwatch. Both are rather dark, one dealing with a drunkard well and truly down on his luck and the other with outright revolution. And yet, Guards! Guards! managed to deal with Vimes’ problems without going overly dark whereas Nightwatch...

Oh well, just my opinion. Please do stop me if you’re not interested in my ramblings...

I’m looking forward to getting hold of I Shall Wear Midnight. A friend of mine has it and thinks it’s the best Tifanny book (not that they were ever that good) so it can’t be entirely bad (I hope). But I’m still waiting for it to be released in the large softcover binding so it will match the three previous books standing on my shelf...

Nightwatch was a less humourless book but as you said it was a fantastic book. I think Pratchett may have sacrificed some of the humour to get deeper plot lines across however they are still fairly funny books.

I suggest whole heartedly I Shall Wear Midnight, although to be honest I would prefer another "proper" Witches book, as they where my favourite ones.

I shall wear midnight wasnt bad, but i liked the older Tiffany Aching books, which had much more Nac Mac Feegle. I agree that a proper Witches book would be nice

[Coccygia]

I have just started Snuff, the latest (and perhaps last? ) Discworld book. I like it already: it starts with a description of the goblin religion, Unggue, which is based on saving all bodily secretions.

... WTF?

The Goblin Anti-Defamation League will hear about this.

Actually most goblins don't save all their secretions (it can get quite time-consuming and expensive with all those unggue jars) just earwax, fingernail and toenail clippings, and snot. Water is regarded as simply passing through the body with little change, and similarly food passes through, undergoing a slight change of state.

[The Cat-Tribe]

Just finished Pratchett's Snuff. Not his best, but I disagree with the many who say he is declining. Some are better than others, but that is all. Also just finished James Lee Burke's Feast Day of Fools

Reading Charles Stross's Rule 34; Stephen Holmes and Cass R. Sunstein's The Cost of Rights: Why Liberty Depends on Taxes; and China Miéville's Embassytown.

[Thurask]

I just finished Syrup, so Company's next on the list.

Fucking Kobo app. Decided to kill itself the day I start Company.

[Austross]

The Dhammapada.

[Stattr]

1984- George orwell
The Beothuk Saga- Asswini
Ink excahnge- melissa...

[Something with wings]

Just Finished The Rum Diary by Hunter S Thompson, about to start on Down and Out in Paris and London by George Orwell

[The Truth and Light]

I am in the process of reading two right now. One is Julius Caesar, by William Shakespeare; and the other is called Of Mice and Men.

[Thurask]

I just finished Syrup, so Company's next on the list.

Fucking Kobo app. Decided to kill itself the day I start Company.

And now it's back after a week. Awesome.

[I V Stalin]

Revelation Space by Alistair Reynolds.

[Finium]

Inheritance by the honorable Christopher Paolini.

[Libaries]

The Complete Works of William Shakespeare By: William Shakespeare

[Charlotte Ryberg]

I am studying Thing of Beauty by Mac Low and Tardos. It turns out to be pioneering sound/text poetry, some of which were developed using a computer. I'm sure a computer was certainly necessary when compiling the word list for the Vocabulary For Anne Tardos exhibition in Autumn 1979. Using my name, the Scrabble OWL (the one without offensive words and trademarks) returns 1,962 Words: the longest: Sanatoriums.

[Kalessin]

P.J. Farmer: To Your Scattered Bodies Go

[Nanatsu no Tsuki]

Muddling my way again, through some of Brandon Sanderson's The Way of Kings. It's not a bad book, but it takes some time getting used to it and some of the main characters.

[Arabian Democracies]

Well, I just finished Jennifer Government, so I think I'll start Syrup.

somebody had to...

[The Rich Port]

Phallic Worship In Pagan Societies by Emilio Grevas.

... I think I weirded myself out a little bit there.

[Smudgedonia]

Pegasus bridge stephen e ambrose

[Zaras]

Transnational Democracy in Critical and Comparative Perspective: Democracy's Range Reconsidered by Bruce Morrison.

Unfortunately it doesn't seem like it has a lot that'll help with my essay.