Which was your first Pratchett Book?

Everyone remembers the first Pratchett book they picked up. For me it was The Carpet People and it was the summer of 1992. I was absolutely enchanted and shortly afterwards, somebody bought me Reaper Man as a gift. I quickly got hold of the back catalogue and have been gobbling them up ever since, eagerly awaiting the next installment of genius.

The first Pratchett book I read was The Colour of Magic in 2001. I picked it up because I was curious about the Discworld - it's possible someone at university told me about it, but I'm not sure. Anyway, I didn't like it that much, so I didn't read any of the other books until a year later, when someone urged me to read Mort, so I picked up a copy at the library where, of course, they only had the German translation. I liked that one better, but also realized that for me Pratchett would only work in the original. Once again, about a year passed and in the mean time I discovered Neil Gaiman and thus, at some point, Good Omens. And well, a lot of people told me to read Pratchett, so at long last I gave it a third attempt and that was the one that did it. I chose Guards, Guards at the behest of a friend, and Small Gods because it looked interesting, and then I was hooked. I still haven't read all of the Discworld novels - my guess is, I've read about 60 %. I'm a bit of a chaotic reader in that I rarely stick to one series for a long time. I kind of wander from book to book. I do love them dearly, though, and I have to admit it's also good to know there is always an unread Discworld book here if I feel like reading it.

I think I was colour of magic first, though its far from my favourite. I can't remember why or even when I started it. I haven't read any of the truckers et al.

I've read the vast majority of Discworld several times, but wait until they are out in paperback before buying the next. I'm still missing eric and maurice and from my library though I have read them.

Guards! Guards! was my first, and I've only read about 5, but I am on watch every time I hit the thrift store...

I have read about.... six Pratchett books but I am definitely going to read more. My first book was Wee Free Men. My favourite charachter is definetly Rimcully. He rocks!

I really liked Reaper Man, though I thought Mort was good too. No one can replace Death though... =P

Colour of Magic was my first. It was given to me as a gift by a friend of mine who is a major fan of Terry Pratchett. I read it and found it to be hilarious and rushed out to get all the books of his I could find. Sadly when I moved from England to Canada, I left most of my books behind and planned on replacing them. So far I have managed to replace Eric, Good Omens, Colour of Magic, Where's My Cow?, The Art of Discworld, Wee Free Men, A Hat Full of Sky, Night Watch, Going Postal, Hogfather, Thud!, Monstrous Regiment and Wintersmith.

Out of those, I have only read the first three. I keep telling myself I will read the rest when I have them all, and in order but I should probably just jump on in.

My favourite character is definitely Death. I adore his sarcasm. I find The Luggage hilarious too though. Back in England I read the first 6 or 7 discworld books along with The Carpet People, Diggers, Truckers and Wings. I also had Soul Music on VHS which was brilliant and a really wicked illustrated play of the same. I really need to work on replacing my collection. By far Terry Pratchett is my favourite author.

Color of Magic. My then boyfriend, now husband, bought it to me in 1994 on a recommendation; he went to the local SF Bookstore and asked for something to buy his girlfriend ;-)

Based on my views of the cover art I put off reading it for a couple of months, but when faced with a rather long flight I brought it with me. I think I embarassed and annoyed most of my co-travellers (the trip was work-related) by laughing out loud on more than one occasion...

When I came home I bought every Discworld book published on a "read one/buy next"-basis. When the backlog was cleared I went on to buy them as they got published.
Several of them have been reread more than once, and I enjoy most characters, but I really REALLY like the Patrician/Vetinari character a lot. He's bad, evil, shrewd, manipulative... and quite nice in person.

Good Omens introduced me to Pratchett's wild view of the world. Next was The Color of Magic then The Light Fantastic & I am most definitely hooked. If only I could find them in the Library or in used bookstores I'd be further into the series. Buying every one of them will blow my book budget unless I limit myself to 1 or 2 a month.

Way back in '82 I read Strata and then promptly forgot all about Pratchett.

(edit lives up there - got the title wrong - whoops!)

One of my friends realized I liked Humor in my fiction and handed me a Copy of the Rincewind omnibus. Can't have too much of the stuff now. I even own Where's My Cow? My in-laws thought I was nuts asking for a kids' book. Then they read it. heh.

The newer stuff has turned more toward the YA fiction side of things, but it's still well written.

Equal Rites a good way to start I think, being a budding feminist as the time. ^-^

EmmMIB: Agree. I stumbled across Equal Rites about five years ago and immediately went into a Pratchett binge. It was a great intro. I backpedaled to Color of Magic right afterwards and was somewhat let down. I've never really cared for Rincewind.

I'm sorry, this slighty irrelevant, but I would like to correct myself from earlier. Ridcully (I spelled his name wrong before) is not my only favourite charachter. I forgot DEATH!!

Right now I am reading Good Omens, which is really good. On a sad note, however, one of my best freinds read Wintersmith (Their first Pratchett book ever)..... Without reading Wee Free Men or A Hat Full of Sky, meaning that they have no clue to whats going on!! GRRR!! I won't let them live it down for years!

The Color of Magic was my first, followed by Light Fantastic this was in urmm *quick math* '91-92 somewhere in there. Bought them in the UK after a recommendation from my mother's bridesmaid's (from 30+ yrs ago) husband. Been hooked ever since, but I must say the cover art on the UK ones are infinitely more fun then the American cover art.

Ever since those first I've been hooked and have since read nearly all of the Discworld books + carpet people and the Bromelaid series (Truckers, Diggers, Wings)

The first ((Pratchett)) book I read was (The Hogfather). I laughed so much I cried! Each year since the breakup of my marriage,10 years, my ex-husband gives me the lastest release. Not sure what his point is, but who cares? A lot of the others have have borrowed from libraries or got from secondhand bookshops, they are all great fun. I am fascinated by the way that Discworld resembles our own and yet not. I am sure I would fit in well, almost certainly one of the witches; a cross between Nanny Ogg and Agnes Nutter. Then again maybe not!

I started with The Truth, which was weird. My library pretty much only had the new ones. Then I started at the beginning using ILL, until I hit Eric, which my library network didn't have. Then I started buying them.

The first Pratchett book I read was Good Omens, which I got because I chose a 'relativity of good and evil' sort of theme for an english assignment in high-school and it seemed both relevant and fun. If that doesn't count (since the book was co-written), then the second was Small Gods, which I chose to start the Discworld series with because it was a stand-alone rather than part of a mini-series, and because I like religion-based satire. :P

The first Pratchett book I ever *read* was The Colour of Magic. At the time, it was storngly reocmmended to me by an online community that I read the books in order, although this was rather difficult whe I checked them out formthe library -- some books didn't make sense,a nd I was spoiled for a few things, but it wasn't a bad experience overall. (P.S. to charlenemartel, you don't need to read the books *too* linearly, but I highly recommend the Discworld reading order guide for spoiler-avoidance and continuity and so on.)

The first Discworld book I ever owned was The Truth -- it was the only one I hadn't read in the airport Borders. My collection's grown rather hapazardly, and is now on the largish side, although it's still far from complete. And there's rather a lot of Discworld things you just cannot find in the States! The Truth is also the only one I've gotten signed . . . a good friend of mine is a bookstore owner, and he has a few connections!

First Pratchett for me was really Good Omens, and then I found The Color of Magic because I've got a thing with starting series at the beginning. I think I skipped around a fair bit after that - I know Feet of Clay was one of the earlier ones I read.

My first was Small Gods, which I picked up in a local bookstore. Feet of Clay was the second, I think, and it bugged me that I couldn't get the earlier ones--it was before they were out here. So I went to amazon.uk and ordered way too many of them.

Small Gods is still one of my favorites.

I am new to Pratchett's creation known as the Discworld. I first read The Amazing Maurice and His Educated Rodents which got me hooked on Pratchett. I have since read The Color of Magic and I believe I am now a fan. I liked Color of Magic but it is my understanding that they only get better. Looking forward to getting many more Discworld books.

The first was Equal Rites: Discworld - my mother bought it for me in an airport, I was about 8 and in retrospect understood only maybe a third of the jokes.
Then when I was 11ish I went and started reading the discworld books in as close to publication order as the library allowed. It would still be a few years before I had the money to buy them for myself and more still before the delights of hardback first editions.

I think I retain a soft spot for equal rites for what it taught me as a young girl as well as for the jokes and despite what now seems such a shallow portrait of her excellency mistress weatherwax

#21 zannybuck - You're right - they only get better! The first two in the series are my least favourites, but Pratchett has barely put a foot wrong (in my opinion) since then. you're in for a treat! Hope you'll enjoy them all!

My first was The Colour of Magic and I've been reading them in publication order since then.
I have bought Interesting times but not read it yet.

I was in middle school (I'd say probably 6th or 7th grade, since I remember having most of the books read by the time I was in high school) and it was about midnight and I was complaining to my mother I didn't have a book to read. So she got out Witches Abroad and read me the part where Greebo eats Dracula.

I was in love.

After that, she gave me the Guards! series, and then I went back to the Witches before I finally decided that there wasn't a book this dude had written that I didn't love.

I now own nearly all the Discworld books (mostly in used paperbacks), except for Pyramids and Small Gods, which seem to be hard to come by used. And, of course, the horribly expensive The Last Hero & Where's My Cow.
-CD

Guess I've said this elsewhere, my first was Hogfather, checked out from the library in case I hated it. I learned about Pratchett from online folks. I loved Hogfather and promptly started buying/checking out more. It was my intention to only buy used paperbacks or hardbacks, but it's very hard to find any Pratchett in used stores, so every couple of months or so, we go buy some more.

#14 - I love a question brought to mind by your post: Where would you fit in the Discworld. If it hasn't been asked already, I'm going to start a thread with that question.

#18 - Thanks for the readings guide! I like that better than reading them in published order.

My first one was The Colour of Magic since it seemed somewhat logical to start at the beginning back then when I didn't know anything about the Discworld. Well, my copy had about 30 pages missing and I didn't like it anyway. I don't think I even finished it...?
However, friends of mine kept recommending Pratchett, so I decided that since I liked the character of Death, I could give it another shot and read Mort, which then was my official start as a Discworld-fan.

My first was The colour of magicway back in 1988 or so, and I was immediatly hooked. I have been buying all I can find after that and buying the movies. Wyrd Sisters and Soul Music, I dont know if there is animated versions of any of the other books.

The first book I read was Soul Music. A friend sent me the "people of the day/children of the night" quote and I was hooked immediately.

I'm not sure what my first book was but I think it was The Wee Free men and I have loved the witches and the feelgels ever since.

My first was Equal Rites. I came across it in the library while I was in high school and haven't looked back since. Strangely, it's one of the few Discworld books I don't actually own now. I'll have to fix that!

The story really drew me in back then - but hasn't the series and the characters come a long way since this book was written?

Mine was either Soul Music or Wyrd Sisters because both of those had just been on television. Soul Music is still a favourite.

I know it was expensive but I just love Where's My Cow

@ jguy7500: I have a very similar story. My first discworld book was Equal Rites too, and I got it from a library, and it's also one of the few ones I don't own now.

Yeah, my reading order of the Discworld series probably wasn't the best. I started somewhere in the middle, reading whatever was at the library, then I read the latest ones, then I returned to the beginning. For example, I read Thud! before I read Guards, Guards. Yeah, I only started reading the books recently, but I've probably only not read about 5 of them :P I'm working on it.

My first one was Mort, found in the bookstore completely by accident. I was randomly looking through the fantasy section and liked the cover. Or something like that.

Then I read the Death books, Witch books, then the rest, mostly in order. The Death storyline is still my favorite.

I started with The Wee Free Men and, loving it, went on to finish the Tiffany Aching series: Hat Full of Sky and Wintersmith

All wonderful. Next is Colour of Magic.

Looking forward to Good Omens.

Though the first two times I had T. Pratchett recommended to me was through The Fifth Elephant, the first one I actually read was Small Gods. I still savor that book, especially the climactic scene: What an imagination it takes to combine all those details into one moment!

The Colour of Magic was my first book, which I really didn't like. I was too new to sci-fi/fantasy and didn't get all the in-jokes.

It's been twenty-five years. Sheesh. I need to read it again!

I have a soft spot in my heart for Pyramids, mostly for the scene where the little kid tries to sacrifice the goat. Cracks me up even now.

Truckers, probably on the basis of having seen Cosgrove Hall's animated adaptation. Then its sequels, then The Colour of Magic...

Amset, @34. I guess you liked Equal Rites if you came back for more?

I hadn't actually thought about this book for a while, until I answered this question. Then I decided that I had to fix this, so went out and bought it. New paperbacks cost a lot of money! But after re-reading it, it was worth the money.

A friend loaned me Good Omens, Soul Music and Small Gods and told me I MUST read them. Read Good Omens first and have been hooked on Gaiman and Pratchett ever since. I think I read Soul Music next followed by Small Gods shortly after. I have since then bought and read every single Pratchett book available, heh.
I am glad I did not start out with Light Fantastic, it is good but not nearly as funny or gripping as the later books. I might not have stuck with the series if I read it first and that would have been a shame.

My first book was Mort, given to me by a boyfriend at the time. I loved it and bought another after I read it. We swapped the first couple of books, and I've been catching up on them ever since. I hope to be entirely caught up within the next few months.

Sourcery followed closely by Equal Rites - after that I think that I had to start from the beginning and have never looked back!

I started with Hogfather after seeing the Christmas TV version followed by Thud! and anything I could get here in Hungary, and nowadays I discovered Amazon's relative cheapness and vast collection and started from the beginning.

I started at the beginning with The Colour of Magic when it first came out in paperback ... 1983 ... and have bought and read every one of the "main" Discworld series as it's been published in paperback.

My technical first book was Moving Pictures however for some reason at the time (possibly being that I was 13 and not into that stuff) hated it. However soon after I read Truckers and I was hooked. I devoured the Bromiliad series then remembered the forgotten Moving Pictures lurking under my bed and read that wondering how I could possibly have hated it the first time round. Then went to the start and have been hooked ever since!

My first book was The Fifth Elephant. I only bought it because the title made me laugh. It was back in 2001 and we were in Jamaica for the week. I had brought 3 books long books with me, but finished them by the 4th day. I went to the hotel gift shop to see what was there and found the book.

Hooked from the get-go. I had no idea about Terry Pratchett or these Discworld novels. In fact, it wasn't until about a month after we got back that I realized it was series (I don't read the inside pages of the books and most of the time I don't read the back cover). I just happend to see Wyrd Sisters and Moving Pictures tucked behind the Dan Simmons book I was checking out. Then it dawned on me it was series. I immediately bought The Colour of Magic and The Light Fantastic and I've been a fan ever since.

There was a rough patch in the fall of '02 when I couldn't get Mort, Sourcery or Eric and had to special order all of them. I walked around like I was going through detox not being able to read my Pratchett books. I had to check out the kid Discworld books to get my fix!

Soul Music, A friend reccomended it to me from the school library when I was 13, It was actuallty one of my first fantasy books

Soul Music, A friend reccomended it to me from the school library when I was 13, It was actuallty one of my first fantasy books

Good Omens, which made me laugh so hard I read it twice, then forced it on everyone I knew. Oh, I also borrowed it from the small library at the academy where I taught at the time and never gave it back. Yet another literature-induced crime.

Thud was the second. Then this summer I had surgery and hence had a lot of time on my hands but wanted to keep the reading light-ish, so I read a ton of Pratchett. Perfect. Helped me heal.

I know I started with the Colour of Magic and that I gave that away several years later to get someone else started. Consulting my bookshelves I find my copy of the Light Fantastic dates from 1986, so I probably bought both in the mid-80s in the days The Forbidden Planet was a small shop in Denmark Street, London and I suspect I just came across it on the shelves there. Over the years I've introduced several people to Pratchett books and I like to think that as a result the world is a slightly happier place.

My first book was The Colour of Magic, and I didn't like it. It was shortly followed by Mort, which I loved. I'd consider Mort my first proper Discworld book.

My first one was Colour of Magic. I liked it, but I wasn't blown away, by any means. I'm so glad I kept going!

The first Pratchett book I read was The Amazing Maurice and his Educated Rodents. I wasn't sure what to expect and so was a bit put off at first. Reaper Man was the book that sucked me in, I just love the Death character.

My first Pratchett book was Diggers in August 2012 and less than a year later I've read over 20.

I read The Last Continent because it was about Australia.

Not a good one to start with but somehow I persisted and caught the bug. Now I read and re-read them and find something new to laugh at every time.

I think that Wyrd Sisters and read the witch series first would be the best introduction for a beginner.

I got Small Gods and Thief of Time as a birthday present back in middle school. For the life of me, I can't remember which I read first, but they were really great ones to start with. I was hooked right away. By now, I've read and re-read the books so often that they look much older than they are. My copy of Small Gods is thoroughly yellow and falling apart.
Pratchett books are the only books I will dog-ear. I like to mark the truly beautiful quotes in his books--of which there are so many--and for me, it's a sign of ultimate respect.

#47: That sounds terrible! I feel depressed every time I go to B&N and they don't have any new Pratchett books.

My first Terry Pratchett book was the Light Fantasitic, it was a amazing read.

The first for me was Guards! Guards! 15 years ago and maaaan have I been hooked ever since..

Mine was The Light Fantastic. In 1986 I was newly arrived in Bamberg West Germany serving in the Army when I ventured into the Stars and Stripes bookstores and found a delightful book.... :)

My first was Good Omens which I reread now and again, and had to find more pratchett and gaiman. well at that time I could only find Small Gods Lords and Ladies and Soul Music. As for Gaiman all I could find was a graphic novel the book sales person showed me. At the time I thought they were comics and passed. Well that changed! When my dh and I went to England I discovered all the other books in fantastic Kidby covers and was in heaven. bought them all and shlepped them home. So now Im hooked on both

My first was Nation, followed by Good Omens. I am now exploring his Discworld books.

Good Omens, Small Gods,Soul Music

My first book was Masquerade, I picked it in the bookstore because I liked the cover... It waited on the shelf for a long time until I started it... There was a cartoon series made for "Wyrd Sisters" and "Soul Music" and they never played the last episode of "Soul Music" so that was the second book. After a few random books I started reading them in order of publishing. And now reread them based on series (Guards, Death, Witches etc...)

Looking at my old files, I can see that my first Pratchett book was Johnny and the dead. I remember as a young teenager scouring my local library for sequences of "SF/Fantasy" stickers on the spines -- that meant a prolific author with usually multiple trilogies and series. Sir Pterry's books took up an entire shelf, but the entirety of the Discworld, neatly labelled with sequence numbers, looked daunting, so I started with a non-series book first. I rated this one an 8/10.

Then I just read my way through Discworld in publication order. I found The colour of magic and The light fantastic good but a bit weird (7/10), but Equal rites (8.5/10) I liked so much I read it twice, and that's the book that I credit with making me a Pratchett fan. Other early favourites (as evidenced by near-immediate rereads) were Wyrd sisters, Pyramids, Witches abroad and Small gods.

In hindsight, much of the trope-poking in the first two volumes must have gone above my head, because I was not familiar with much of the classic fantasy they were riffing off. I do remember recognizing the Fafhrd and the Gray Mouser segments and realizing there must be more going on.

During my initial Pratchett infatuation I also read Only you can save mankind and Strata and The dark side of the sun. I see that Good Omens was a read-it-twice book during that time, too.

That was a good year :)

My first Pratchett was The Colour of Magic book club edition. I was fascinated by the luggage and gladly read everything else I came across by the author, starting with The Light Fantastic.

I have those book club editions, still, and heard Terry speak at a book signing in Austin, TX for Monstrous Regiment. He signed the book club editions, although he said he normally didn't, attributing it to my 4 year old daughter's blue eyes.

I think my first was Strata because I'm more of an SF reader than fantasy, then later I tried The Colour of Magic. Neither made me want to read more, then years later I read Small Gods and was hooked.