Discworld Novels, reading in order

[lupinesque]

Joy W, not to be confused with Joywitch, wrote:

  Now that I'm looking to read 
> another, I
> > vaguely remember hearing that they shouldn't be read in the order 
> they were
> > written.  

David, who is rather old, wrote:

> Being rather old, I have read them all pretty nearly in the order 
> they were written, and I see no real reason to read them in any 
other 
> order - oops, that didn't sound quite right: I think you can read 
> them in any order, so why not as published?

Maybe fans tell newbies not to read them in order because they think 
the later books are better and more likely to get people hooked?  I 
think Colour of Magic and The Light Fantastic are two of the weakest, 
despite the Luggage being one of my favorite, ah, characters (though 
on a recent reread I liked them much better than the first time).  
Joy, if you loved Colour of Magic, great.  Just keep on plugging in 
order and you'll have a grand time.

Also, one might recommend another order because different threads 
appeal to different people.  My first attempt to get someone hooked 
came about because of something she said about a realtionship with 
Death--that plus her sense of humor made me lend her one in the Death 
thread.  For the theologically inclined I'd suggest one of those, 
Small Gods, or Feet of Clay; for New Age recoverees I'd suggest 
something in the witches thread; for the political junkies I'd suggest 
something in the City Watch thread.  (Thus far this woman has failed 
to come back to me waving Reaper Man and demanding more, so I'm 
batting zero.)
 
Or maybe all anyone is saying is that you don't *have* to read them in 
order.

> I have the same comment on the Narnia series: people rearrange them 
> into the internal chronological order, but there is no great virtue 
> in this IMO.

I agree with Tabouli--there is a great sense of discovery when you 
have read five books since The Lion, the Witch and the Wardrobe before 
you finally come upon the account of the creation of the wardrobe.  
This came up on this list once before, and someone said that Lewis 
himself wanted the books to be numbered in internal chronological 
order, which to me just proves that authors don't always know best.  
<g>

Amy
who has read them each about 10 times but has never sat down to read 
them in internal chronological order.  Next time.