Bookish pleasures

[resonant]

There should be a word for that nice warm feeling you get when you finish a good book. Postliterary?

Anyhow, I finished Terry Pratchett's Thud in about a day and a half. It made me laugh until the spouse glared at me and put headphones on, and then it made me cry a little bit in a restaurant, damn it, because I'm just susceptible to that sort of thing.

And now I'm wishing that everybody in the world would slash Grag Bashfulsson. With anybody. I'm not picky.

(Oh, and Pratchett wrote a little history of the game on the official website of the game of Thud, which is why I love the internet.)

Comments

[shocolate.livejournal.com]

Wasn't it brilliant?

I needed more Carrot, because I always need more carrot, but I coped.

And thanks for the link - Hnaflbaflsniflwhifltafl - awesome!!!!

[naomichana.livejournal.com]

Literary afterglow.

I am giving Thud to my husband once he finishes his latest work crisis, and as a sign of my boundless love and devotion, I'm not even reading it first...

... oh, wait, that was in Stupid World. :)

[isiscolo.livejournal.com]

Who is the person in your icon?

[calathea.livejournal.com]

I honestly think the whole Night Watch series is the best stuff Pratchett has written, ever since he turned the focus of the stories from Carrot to Vimes. Vimes is so interestingly ambiguous, compared to Carrot. Thud! is amazing too, up there with my Night Watch favourites like Jingo, and Feet of Clay (which I *sob* over every time I read it). I love that Pratchett writes on so many different levels - the level where it's Nobby smelling funny and having a pole-dancer gf, and the level where it's actually a sophisticated commentary on how good people can allow extremism to develop within their normally moderate communities. (This latter particularly poignant to me since I work in south Leeds, literally a couple of blocks from where the July London bombers lived).

[flambeau.livejournal.com]

You do know yuletide is currently taking fandom suggestions right? :)

[gurrier.livejournal.com]

Yay for Pratchett! Thud! is open right by my keyboard - I haven't been able to put it down since I got it at the library yesterday.

But I have to say I'd enjoy it more if it had been properly proofed. This copy's full of mispellings and continuity errors. Angua is "Captain Angua" in one place, "Sergeant Angua" elsewhere; "Brakenshield" on one page is "Brakensheild" twice on the next; someone puts "on candlestick on a stool".

[helvirago]

and then it made me cry a little bit in a restaurant

Me on a plane. For me it was just the very first time he goes to read "Where's My Cow?" I just got all teary.

THAT'S. NOT. MY. COW!!!!

Goodness, I love the Pratchett.

[the-star-fish.livejournal.com]

I picked up Going Postal to re-read t'other day, and I noticed a blink-and-you'll-miss-it mention of the game, which Vimes was playing ... yay for continuity.

Haven't found a copy of Thud yet, but I'll try library on Friday. Mmmm, new Pratchett.

[byandby.livejournal.com]

I'm seriously hoping that Grag Bashfullsson will be mentioned in other books. I could dig his character. Vimes' devotion to his son was just wonderful.

*hugs the whole Watch crew*

The book was fantastic.

[soho-iced.livejournal.com]

Thanks for this - I haven't bought my copy yet and it reminds me that I do actually love Pratchett. My dad loved the series right from the start - "The Light Fantastic" was the only book I remember him reading to us - and I am now custodian of the family set of hardbacks. I agree the Night Watch books are one of his best series.

[http://users.livejournal.com/ari_/]

Blair Sandburg from The Sentinel

[an-ugly-beauty.livejournal.com]

Heya, I recently friended you cos I've been reading you for awhile and I think you're infinitely cooler than I am. I like being added back, but it's no big deal if you don't want to. :)

[resonant8.livejournal.com]

Yeah, Carrot and Angua were more in the background than I like. But it still made me very happy.

[resonant8.livejournal.com]

[giggling]

[resonant8.livejournal.com]

Yeah, ari_ beat me to it. That's Blair, the first of many, many Kick-Ass Scholar crushes.

No, wait, actually I think Ursula LeGuin's Sparrowhawk was the first. Blair was just the first after (1) puberty and (2) the discovery of slash. (Which did not come as close together as I might have wished.)

[resonant8.livejournal.com]

Yes, I agree; I like many of the Discworld books, but I adore the Watch books.

I started reading Pratchett expecting it to be comedy -- like, books whose whole purpose is to be funny. And so it was a really pleasant surprise to find that they were real books that happened to be written in a funny way.

[resonant8.livejournal.com]

Yeah, I already broke several rules on account of leaping in to nominate Barbara Hambly's Ben January books without reading up on the whole thing first, alas.

And I'm not sure I could bring myself to make a post listing only Grag -- and if I start listing Discworld characters I'd like to spend more time with, I'll be here all night!

[resonant8.livejournal.com]

I missed a lot of those, but the Brakensheild thing brought my reading to a screeching halt while I went, "O-kay, I guess this means it's I before E on this page, but E before I on that one?"

[resonant8.livejournal.com]

Me too! It got to me when the cube finally got to give its speech. Of course, I'm relating all this to American politics a little too much for comfort ...

[resonant8.livejournal.com]

Wow -- that's clever! I haven't read Postal for so long that I missed that part.

[resonant8.livejournal.com]

I'd like to see Mr. Shine show up in future books, too. And of course I'm drooling for more of the Patrician, who may be my very favorite, if it's possible to have just one favorite.

[resonant8.livejournal.com]

Wow! What a great memory.

I'd also love to see someone slash Rincewind and Twoflower.

[resonant8.livejournal.com]

Welcome! You know, fandom is the only community in which I have ever been cool.

[isiscolo.livejournal.com]

Wow, now I understand your Sentinel stories a bit better. Yum.

My discover of slash came approximately 25 years after puberty. I think I'm just making up for lost time, now.

[flambeau.livejournal.com]

Yeah, I put those in last year. :)

And yes, if you want to see this person slashed you should probably add at least one more character unless you really want to tempt fate... of course, with yuletide, there are no guarantees anyway. *g*