You might say, or rather, one might say, that I’ve been on
quite the Terry Pratchett kick lately. This is, in a matter of speaking, true,
but I would consider it more accurate to say my entire life has been one
gigantic Terry Pratchett kick since I was, say, 13. Terry Pratchett was the
author of the first books I purchased after returning home from my mission,
excluding textbooks—they don’t count. Of course, this past summer I expanded my
Pratchett readings beyond the usual Discworld novels, into one of his earlier
works—Strata—and into his YA novels.
I also read Good Omens: The Nice and
Accurate Prophecies of Agenes Nutter, Witch, his popular collaboration with
author Neil Gaiman. And what a book that was, wildly clever in the way only Terry
Pratchett can be. The Fallen Angel, the Cherubim guarding the Tree of Life, and
the Son of Satan starring in: The Apocalypse. If only I was half as clever as
Pratchett and Gaiman are working together; if only I could be half as clever as
either! Any cassette left in a car over a fortnight becomes Queen’s Greatest Hits. That particular
element is made even funnier since all the characters ever want to listen to is
classical stuff. This results in stuff like “The Four Seasons” by Vivaldi being
sung by Freddie Mercury in E flat. Though since I’m not a student of classical
music that might be completely wrong. It was just a for instance anyway. Oh, to
study music again . . .
Anyway, this was not an entry designed to laud the sheer
Awesomeness—with a Capital A—of Good
Omens, especially since I’ve already proved I’m not going to wax eloquent
on the subject, but rather to bemoan a more recent collaborative effort.
Pratchett’s most recent entry, The Long
Earth with Stephen Baxter, lacked well everything I look for when I read
Terry Pratchett. The distinctive wit, satire, humor,
whatever-you-want-to-call-it was missing. In short, though I’ve never read
Baxter before, I assume it read like a Stephen Baxter novel. This is not to say
that it wasn’t a good novel though. It was. It was a great novel. Just not what
I expect when I pick something up with the name Terry Pratchett on the cover.
Thanks to Amazon I now have Terry Pratchett’s next novel on
hold (Amazon emailed me telling me it was coming out). In other news, I now
have the Logan Library eating out of my hand (figuratively speaking of course.
Firstly because a Library is an institution, not an organism, and can only eat
figuratively, not literally. Second because I’m not about to let anyone actually
eat out of my hand. And thirdly because even in the unlikely event that I
offered to have someone eat out my hand I doubt they would want to). They are
ordering five books just because I suggested them. Four are part of Kevin
Hearne’s Iron Druid Chronicles, and
the other is the only book their collection is missing from Rick Riordan’s Trey
Navarre adult mystery series (which I love), Widower’s Two-Step. I actually requested another book as well, the
third installment of C. Alexander London’s Accidental
Adventures, We give a Squid a Wedgie (Awesome title, right? The other titles
are We are not Eaten by Yaks, and We Dine with Cannibals), but they didn’t
order it because apparently the hardcover edition was canceled. But the
paperback is still on for this spring!
And of course I’m reading a biography on Herge (creator of
Tinton) and have a whole stack of books (two actually) of stuff to read from the
library. But school is keeping me busy, and I’ve started watching Cheers, a show which I may find
disproportionately funny, and TV season is about to start, and sometimes I
think I take my media addiction way too seriously. Oh, and I found a whole new
YA series to read, which already has eleven installments. It’s Joseph Delaney’s
The Last Apprentice, which I believe
is part of the horror genre, which is new to me. I found out that Chris d’Lacey
finished The Chronicles of the Last
Dragon with The Fire Ascending,
so now of course I have to read that too. But for right now, I really should
get to some homework (these reflections/responses and lesson plans won’t make
themselves you know!). Also, have I mentioned that I've been intending to cut back on blog post frequency, only to have it happen spontaneously?
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