"And it started to rain. Not rain generally, but specifically. Specifically on about a square foot of ground which contained Rincewind."

#disctober #disctober2026

Hey all, I'm slowly making my way through the Discworld novels. I started with the Watch novels, then detoured through Death. I decided to read Pyramids mostly because I want to listen to the audiobook version of Small Gods.

Anyways I think I want to branch off again before I return to Watch novels. The plan is to read Colour of Magic first. If anyone has any tips, or would like to share a bit of context you think might be valuable to know (I am younger than the book after all) then I would greatly appreciate it.

Thanks in advance!

Little asides like this are what makes Pratchett’s books so enjoyable 😆

I've been rereading the Witches books and noticed something I somehow missed before.

A surprising number of their villains don't just want power. They want everyone else to behave according to a story they've already written for them.

Wyrd Sisters is obviously playing with theatre and the idea that a kingdom ought to have the right kind of king.

Witches Abroad makes it literal. Lily isn't merely changing events; she's forcing people into stories where there must be ugly sisters, handsome princes, happy endings and all the correct pieces in their correct places.

Then Lords and Ladies does something similar from another direction. The elves don't merely attack people. They arrive with an entire cultural story already wrapped around them: beautiful, graceful, magical, superior. The danger is partly that people WANT the story to be true.

And this made me look differently at Granny.

Her defining trait isn't just that she's powerful or good at headology. Granny absolutely refuses to let anyone else tell her what kind of person she is required to be.

She knows perfectly well what people expect an old witch to look like, so sometimes she uses that expectation. But the important part is that SHE decides when.

She can be the terrifying witch in the cottage when that gets the job done. She can refuse magic when using magic would prove the wrong point. She can deliberately become the person everyone dislikes if somebody needs to make an unpleasant decision. She'd rather be thought cruel than let someone else's idea of "nice" force her into doing something she believes is wrong.

Magrat's arc becomes especially interesting through that lens.

Everyone keeps trying to tell Magrat what kind of witch she is. She's the wet one, the young one, the one with the jewelry and the occult books. Then in Lords and Ladies she gets another role dumped on her: queen, damsel, bride, person who should presumably remain somewhere safe while more suitable people deal with the dangerous part.

And then she puts on armor.

Not because she suddenly becomes Granny. That's the part I love. She doesn't win by finally learning to imitate the "proper" witch. She becomes an extremely Magrat version of dangerous.

Even Nanny seems almost impossible to trap in a role because she'll happily perform whichever version of Nanny Ogg is useful at that exact moment: harmless old woman, filthy-minded grandmother, terrifying matriarch, tourist, musician, diplomat, gossip. Half the time the other person doesn't notice they've been handled until the conversation is already over.

It makes me think the recurring conflict in the Witches books isn't really magic versus magic.

It's narrative authority.

The villains keep saying, in one way or another, "This is the story, and this is who you are in it."

And the witches keep answering, "No."

Which Witches character do you think is BEST at refusing the role other people try to assign them?

Got this a few years ago and decided to share with y'all

Day 12. Toss

It would be a pretty good bet that the gods of a world like this probably do not play chess and indeed this is the case. In fact no gods anywhere play chess. They haven’t got the imagination. Gods prefer simple, vicious games, where you Do Not Achieve Transcendence but Go Straight To Oblivion; a key to the understanding of all religion is that a god’s idea of amusement is Snakes and Ladders with greased rungs.

Terry Pratchett, Wyrd Sisters

#inkoctober2026 #inktober #terrypratchett #discworld

“A voice said: One. One. One, two. One, two. Then the footsteps went back into the distance. After a while, another voice said: One, two, three, four- And the universe came into being. It was wrong to call it a big bang. That would just be noise, and all that noise could create is more noise and a cosmos full of random particles. Matter exploded into being, apparently as chaos, but in fact as a chord. The ultimate power chord."
- Terry Pratchett, Soul Music

I was looking forward to this one!

Just for the record: I'm trying to do this year's Disctober cockatiel-themed. I owe them the inspiration to participate this year, so why not an entire series :)

So, I have feelings about this book. It's a book of shared joy - Pterry's love of Dickens, English history and literature show through like a pure light.

Dodger is a fun character too. He's *kind of* like Nobby Nobs, but maybe Moist as well? Any others you see in Dodger as well?

Anyone else read it and want to talk about it?

You might remember, a few weeks ago I asked for help naming my new bike and got many good suggestions: https://www.reddit.com/r/discworld/comments/1wo3iuv/help_me_name_my_new_to_me_motorcycle/

I narrowed it down to either Lady Margolotta or Greebo, but then decided the colour, aggressiveness¹ and the squinty front really are better suited to a Greebo than to any kind of lady, even a vampire one.

I would have posted earlier, but the motorcycle dealer tried to be a C.M.O.T. Dibbler² , so in order to have some registration issue cleared up, Greebo was with for almost two weeks and I couldn't provide you with a new picture. Now he's home after a wet ride, and is resting³ next to Cherry, waitin for the weather to get better again.

¹ attacked a car trying to lean on it when I brought him home for the first time.

² and failed, I did not pay him extra for something he should have done before giving Greebo to me for the first time.

³ and, as is fitting for a Greebo, sniffing her butt. Maybe I will find a third bike next spring.

I just learned about Dr. Anna Pierce Hobbs Bixby while researching about a plant in my forest. Apparently she was a dentist, midwife and physician for her locals.

She is also credited with spreading information about the link between Snakeroot and milk sickness- something that killed a whole lot of settlers back in the day. She got the information from a Shawnee woman, did some tests to confirm it, and then spread the information.

She ALSO married a second husband who was a legendary outlaw, and there's a legend that she left behind a hidden treasure somewhere.

I was thinking first how the combination of medical expertises reminded me of the witches, the testing reminded me of Magrat, then the second husband being a notorious outlaw made me think of Nanny Ogg.

So I was wondering, who are some local (or not) women you know of who remind you of the witches of Lancre?

ETA- illustration is by Lisa Perrin

Been listening to a lot of true crime stuff lately and it hit me how much Vimes would despise the whole genre. Not just because people are making entertainment out of real crimes, but because of how they always go on about the brilliant detective work or the mastermind criminal.

Vimes knows most crimes aren't clever. Most criminals aren't masterminds. They're just people who did something stupid or desperate, and most police work is just showing up and asking questions until someone tells you what happened. The idea of turning all that into some kind of puzzle for people to feel smart about solving from their couch would drive him up the wall.

Also the way these shows always have to find some deeper meaning or pattern? Vimes would be the first to say sometimes there isn't one. Sometimes it's just messy and sad and that's it. No need to make it into a story with narrative arcs.

I think Angua might actually enjoy them though, in a sort of hate-watching way. She'd spend the whole time pointing out what they got wrong about evidence and procedure. Carrot would try one episode, get genuinely upset about the victims, and never listen again.

Anyone else think about how Discworld characters would react to weirdly specific modern things? Or is it just me being unable to experience anything without filtering it through Ankh-Morpork?

I mean the premise is very fairy tail like, but there is so much death and terror in this! Im not all the way through, but rats are eating eachother and killing injured rats to be kind and biting dog dicks!

Some how, I just feel like calling it For Kids is a bit mislabeled. I swear at least half the disc world books are less horrifying than this!

To be fair, I do understand that Grims Fairy tales are also horrifying and play prominently in the story. But damn!

EDIT: I did want to add that this was a pleasant surprise! I really want to share both disc world and my love of scary stories with my kids when they are a bit older. it just shocked me compared to the wildness of many of the adult books!

also im currently firmly entrenched in toddler world, so my memory of "kids media" has been pretty overwhelmed with happy trucks and morally upstanding pups!

So, I was reading The Fellowship of the Ring after a long time and stumbled upon Gandalf calling Moria "the long dark", prompting a dammit moment.

My question is if STP used this term as a nod to tolkien of if there is some other origin? Can't find any non-tolkien origin but maybe someone knows

Tempest tossed by the Papilio tempestae.

I woke up with a random Kirsty MacColl song in my head and it made me start to think of Soul Music. Its absolutely packed with punes on bands and songs but my favorite is always the Elivish jokes ending with him working in a chip shop. And I wonder what came first the rest of that book or that amazing joke because I can imagine a world where the whole thing was written for the punchline involving a random top 40 song.

My dad was obsessed with Kirsty MacColl and shared a name with Pterry and whenever I read Soul Music or listen to her I remember him and his bringing me a whole stack of Discsworld when I was admitted to the hospital for a whole 14 hours when I was twenty.

I've been wanting to get into Discworld for a while now, but every time I look at the reading order, I get a little overwhelmed.

I've seen a lot of people recommend starting with the City Watch or the Witches, but a friend of mine insists that Rincewind is the best introduction to the series. I'd really like to start with a storyline that will make me want to keep going.I usually enjoy fantasy with interesting characters and good humour. I'm not too worried about understanding every reference right away.

I'm a dentist with a special interest in treating patients with dental anxiety and dental phobia. Recently I saw a new patient for treatment, she was mid-teens with ASD/ADHD/Anxiety, and had really struggled with any sort of treatment in the past.

She was there with her mum in support, and we were slowly building rapport and trust, and easing in to some simple exposures. Her mum reached her arm over to grab her hand for support, and I spotted a tattoo.

Without thinking, I blurted "Oooh, Summoning Dark!"

"Pratchett fan?" "100%"

The drop in tension in the room was instant. Thanks PTerry ❤️

Viva awaiting, but getting closer day by day.

*As was kindly pointed out, I meant epigraph, not epitaph, although we'll see how the examination goes...

I did a thing! Really, Nathanial Gagnon did a thing, but on my leg.

Credit to @NATEGTATTOO

I’m re-reading Guards Guards and I swear I have read it at least ten times but I only just noticed:
Chapter 3. A hooded figure goes to an ominous dread portal and trades a series of code phrases with the door guard on the other side.
The phrases are quite complex and each man says at least 3 full quotes before they stumble and realize that the knocker has the wrong portal and needs to go 3 doors down, right.
Ok, the super obvious thing that I only just caught is that both secret societies must have randomly selected the same six obscure and ridiculous phrases for their secret security codes.
🤯🫢😳😍
TP didn’t just make jokes, he took jokes to the very end, like standing between two mirrors and seeing the jokes inside the jokes for all of eternity!
I wonder if I will ever catch them all!
❤️💔 what if I don’t?!! 😱

So I'm futzing around on El Facebooko, just scrolling, and I come across an article about Greek hoplite armor. Seems that historians were big on it being largely decorative, adequate for the one on one duels that the heroes did, but otherwise whatever. Engineers, however, did the actual build and mess around with thing, and figure that the armor is actually intended to resist compression, such as what happens when you're on the front line of a phalanx. You've got a bunch of people pushing behind you, and the armor is built such that when you plow into a whole bunch of other soldiers on the other side, the guys behind you don't crack your ribs when they are pushing forward. This tactic was known as the othismos, which literally translates as "the shove". Like what might happen in a foot-the-ball game.

It's all the shove, mister.