As a fan who tries to find other people to talk to obsessively about books, I know that it’s true that many people our age haven’t even heard of the magnificent Sir Terry Pratchett (well, many who haven’t come into direct contact with one of his books; I’m sure there are multitudes who have at least one friend who keeps nagging them to give in and read one*), but even so, those of us who have are impacted in some way. Speaking from personal experience, as someone who read the first in the series as a fill-in book whilst waiting for my next phase of obsessively rereading and watching Harry Potter, and has now read almost all forty one novels, there is something extraordinarily addictive about the writing. Whether it’s the characters like ‘Nobby Nobbs’, a kleptomaniac night watchman who is forced to carry papers proving his identity as a member of the human race, almost magnetic titles such as ‘Carpe Jugulum’ (Go For The Throat), or simply the sheer amount of content, the Discworld series sucks you in, keeps you there for as long as it takes for you to read forty one comic fantasy novels roughly a hundred times, and then spits you out; a little shaken, slightly bedraggled, and forever a spiritual citizen of Ankh Morpork ( a fictional city at the centre of many of the books). 

 

One of the best things about these books is their subtle (or hilariously blatant) references to the real world. Reading these as a teenager teaches you about the coarser, more cynical sides to life, while adding a bucketload of humour and the occasional overweight wizard to spice things up a bit!

 

if what you look for in a book is wackiness, realism, magic, politics, romance, or anything else really, read Terry Pratchett’s Discworld Series- it's got almost everything.

 

*Trust me, that one friend can make as much noise as a thousand if you let them get 

going and don’t stop them quickly enough!