Day Zero Project: Read all the Discworld Books

Way back in 2010 I set myself a little challenge, which I decided to include on my Day Zero Project list because as I’d already started it, it seemed like it’d been an easy one to complete. I had acquired every Discworld novel published and so aimed to read them all, in order of publication.

And I managed it.

It took me quite a while, although considering I made my list in 2012 and I finished the challenge in 2013 I maybe didn’t do too badly, although there were quite a few of the books that I’d actually read the year before.

There were quite a few of the Discworld books that I’d read before, but I tended to read them by character series (so I’d read a few of the Death books, a few of the Witches books, a couple of stand-alones, etc.) rather than from beginning to end. Whenever I recommend the Discworld books to people I always suggest that they start with one of those strands rather than with The Colour of Magic and The Light Fantastic. Considering they’re the first in the series, they’re really hard to read and get into.

I discovered quite a few things while I was reading these books:

• The Rincewind books are probably my least favourite.
• The Amazing Maurice and His Educated Rodents, Soul Music, Monstrous Regiment and Going Postal will always be my favourites.
• I own two signed first editions, one is The Amazing Maurice and His Educated Rodents, the other is Hat Full of Sky. I didn’t even know the latter had been signed until I started reading it!
• There is no bookcase wide enough to hold all of the Discworld books side by side and still fit in my living room.
• Pratchett books are full of brick jokes, making it impossible to record all of my favourite quotes because it would necessitate copying out half the book in some cases.
• My favourite series within the series is probably the Watch books; I like the way that the character of Sam Vimes changes from his first introduction right through the series.
• I need to go back and reread them all again at some point because I think you get much more from them on a repeated reading.

Have you ever tried to read every book in the series? Which are your favourites?