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"The Lady of the Decoration" (1914), by Harry Clarke.

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"At this time! In this place!" 🪻🥚 Happy Glorious 25th of May to those who celebrate. GNU Terry Pratchett

enchantedbook

"May" by Susan Seddon Boulet

mr-sardelli

Night Watch - A City Wasn't a Place for Cavalry, for Heavens' Sake!

The major hated the map. It was the map of a city. A city wasn’t a place for cavalry, for heavens’ sake! Of course there had been casualties among the men. Three of them had been deaths. Even a cavalry helmet is not a lot of use against a ballistic cobblestone. And a trooper had been pulled off his horse in Dolly Sisters and, bluntly, mobbed to death. And that was tragic and terrible and, unfortunately, inevitable, once fools had decided to use cavalry in a city with as many alleys as Ankh-Morpork.

The major didn’t think of his superiors as fools, of course, since it would follow that everyone who obeyed them was a fool. He used the term ‘unwise’, and felt worried when he used it.

As for the rest of the casualties, three of them had been men knocked senseless by riding into hanging shop signs while pursuing... well, people, when it came down to it, because with the smoke and darkness who could tell who the real enemy was? The idiots had apparently assumed that anyone running away was the enemy. And they’d been the luckier idiots, because men who rode their horses into dark alleys which twisted this way and that and got narrower and narrower, and then realized that it had all gone quiet and their horse couldn’t turn round, well, they were men who learned how fast a man could run in cavalry boots...

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Hana Lock

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Reading through Discworld!

My journey so far:

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jersey

Had to do a double take when I first saw this; I thought the peel was a creature. May I gift you: pineapple dragon?

miloheilo

WATCH WATCH WATCH!!

that’s right they’re ALL here

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Kanoko Takeuhi

竹内香ノ子

eikaronswelt

Since it came up again: Here is my personal Discworld recommended reading order.

First off: You can genuinely read most of the Discworld books in pretty much any order. You'll appreciate some things more if you have the context of earlier books but they are by and large written in ways where you can simply jump in and get 90% of what's going on. The only exceptions to this are The Colour of Magic and The Light Fantastic since they are direct sequels - it's basically one book split in two. I'd also recommend reading The Shepherd's Crown last. It was Pterry's last book and he knew it. You will appreciate it more if it is also the last one for you, that's all I'm saying.

Now to my personal recommendation: Start with Small Gods because it's a standalone and gives some really great world building, context and lore for later books. Plus it's from a later time, which is nice for people who may be put off by early installment weirdness. The first few books are much heavier on the fantasy parody than the social commentary. If you're not enjoying TCoM+TLF for that reason it's fine to skip them - you won't miss anything vital - but they are not nearly as bad as some people make them out to be, just different/not as developed as his later books.

The early Watch, Rincewind, Witches and Death books can be read in any order between series, though you'll appreciate them much more if you stay in order within a series. Starting with the Fifth Elephant I think one should go in publishing order. The first couple books of each series set the stage, but by that time the Discworld is fully developed and consistent. We're starting to see some real growth and changes, with different parts of the world, characters and storylines merging together and affecting later events and/or fully exploring bits that were set up in earlier books such as the golems; especially in Ankh Morpork.

Equal Rites can be read as the first Witches book just as well but I put it after Maskerade mostly because Pterry hadn't fully developed Granny Weatherwax yet and there is quite a notable difference between that book and her more consistent characterization starting with Wyrd Sisters (he himself said one should start with that one). Imo putting ER before the Tiffany Aching books works quite well narratively.

Carpe Jugulum is another one I moved around - timeline wise it takes place more or less directly after Maskerade and several years (?) before Unseen Academicals, but I think the emotional impact will be far greater if you read it directly after UA rather than having a dozen books in between those two and you're not missing anything you absolutely have to know.

Let me know what you think!

mr-sardelli

Night Watch - Old Capt. Tilden

Vimes had mixed memories of Captain Tilden. He had been a military man before being given this job as a kind of pension, and that was a bad thing in a senior copper.

Now Tilden was giving him the Long Stare With Associated Paperwork. It was supposed to mean: we know all about you, so why don’t you tell us all about yourself? But he really wasn’t any good at it.

Vimes stared at the skinny face with its triumphantly bristling moustache and the little faded blue eyes...