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Cannot recommend highly enough.
Anonymous asked:
where can i start reading disc world?
(tl;dr version: Either with Guards!Guards! if you want angry urban fantasy or Wyrd Sisters if you want angry rural fantasy, then follow the list for that sub-series)
Oh anon brace yourself, there are in fact several ways people have big opinions on.
These are mine:
1. My least favorite way is from the start in chronological order
the trouble here is the first few Discworld novels were written as these kinda silly goofy fantasy/dnd parodies that weren't even supposed to be a part of a bigger thing and they honestly aren't that good, especially not compared to later books. That's the way I started and I just dropped the series for a few years cause of it, so I really don't recommend it. The author himself said he wasn't that good of a writer back then which is understandable, cause it was like 40 books ago.
2. What I reccomend is in chronological order based on different sub-series
Discworld novels all happen in the same world, but they follow different groups of characters, so you have several sub-series.
I'll post a list here, but it's pretty confusing so I'll also explain two of my favs below.
City Novels (Watch novels and Industrial Revolution novels)
About a huge, terrible metropolis and the people that help it run, stumble and sometimes trip over the years.
People normally split this into watch novels which follow the city watch and are crime procedurals/adventure books with a ton of social commentary and industrial revolution novels which are about the city speedrunning from medieval to industrial era via several inventions and follow different main characters who are mostly all there against their will.
To me, the main character is the city itself and I super recommend reading these from start to finish in order to see how it changes with time.
- starting book: Guards! Guards!
Witches Novels
About three witches doing witch things in a small mountain kingdom, unless they're going on a trip somewhere.
Incredible horrid old lady characters, a lot of exploration of fantasy tropes, some deep emotional beats, very warm human phlosophy and personal responsibility themes.
There's a semi-seperate "YA" series about a younger witch (Tiffany Aching novels), but don't let that fool you, because those hit just as hard as the "adult" ones.
- starting book: Wyrd Sisters (technically Equal Rites, but that's also in the awkward early books period for me)
As for the others, the death novels are also very very good, Small Gods is an amazing standalone book and I'd literally just avoid the Rincewind novels until you're already hooked on the series, but they probably have their fans too.
3. Just pick up a random book you see in the library
A tried and tested method a lot of people swear by, most of the books are standalone enough for this to work, BUT my personal opinion is at least the city books should be read in order (especially Night Watch) and there's several less than stellar books you could pick up first by mistake this way (Color of Magic, Light Fantastic, Interesting Times and Faust being the worst imo).
reblogging in case the recent literary kaiju fight of a poll made people curious
Anonymous asked:
But also... Andreil on the great British bake off (they have celebrity seasons)
Look, I'm gonna be honest.
It's a disaster in two parts.
Neil is there EXPLICITLY because Stuart found out that he had been asked to go do it because he is technically British. Stuart has asked him to be the bane of Paul Hollywood's existence and is willing to do quite a bit to make the man's life hell.
"He knows what he did." is all Stuart will say on the matter.
Neil agrees to come be a Baker on the stipulation that Andrew also gets to come. Andrew has no interest in baking other than what it can produce for him to eat, he has no desire to do the laborious task of baking himself.
Stuart offers him an Aston.
Andrew agrees.
Neil is a nightmare in the tent. He hates desserts. He hates measuring. He has never done a single prep bake. He has no idea what the desserts are during the technical challenge. He just goes with his gut (his iron gut). He produces three straight desserts that Paul will not let Prue eat for fear that she will just straight up die if she eats it. He is a pile of misery upon consuming all three.
When Neil is kicked off in round one no one is surprised. Paul pats Neil on the back as he leaves the tent and Neil just leans in, "Stuart Hatford sends his regards." he says now that the mic has been removed. Paul Hollywood's tan fades but Neil doesn't look back.
Andrew is a nightmare for a completely different reason and that reason is that he very visibly and honestly does not give a single flying fuck about what he's doing but he's doing quite well. He is the most boring man on camera, zero quips, won't interact with Noel and whoever the fuck is the other presenter by this point, just him doing exactly what the recipe requires and then he always makes a point of grabbing whatever Paul and Prue have judged and taking it all back to his station so that he can eat it. He stares straight into the camera as he eats an entire three tier cake. He dedicates every week he is Star Baker to his inspiration: Kevin Day.
Andrew makes it all the way to the Finals with impressive bakes that he basically just decided on 100% by how much he thinks it would upset Kevin to watch him eat it knowing that he SHOULD be doing weight training for the olympics. ("Weight TRAINING not Weight GAINING Andrew! Do you have to hold up two fingers as you eat the entire thing? Can you at least PRETEND it's not to SPITE me?" Kevin wails as Andrew calls him for the post-credit scene where the star bakers call their families usually but Andrew just uses it so everyone can hear Kevin Day lose his mind on Public Access.)
Andrew gets to the finals and his show stopper....it's immaculate. It's gorgeous. It's a work of art. Paul Hollywood is looking at this feat of modern baking engineering in wonder.
He shakes Andrew's hand before he even tastes it and-
"Stuart Hatford sends his regards."
Paul Hollywood is now nervous to eat this cake. Does he look out at the gathered friends and family of the contestants and see Stuart Hatford? Does he remember what he did?
He eats the cake because show obligations and it tastes as good as it looks but he is oddly silent as Prue talks about it.
Andrew Wins and Paul Hollywood stays exactly one entire party's width away from Neil, Stuart, and Andrew during the entire victory picnic.
Andrew gives his post bake-off speech and flat out says it was kind of boring and he wants to go home to America. The next scene is him driving off with Neil in an Aston Martin.
when neil was going to save andrew at the hemmick's house, he knew exactly what kind of wood the door was, and how easy it would be to break through. that's what kind of guy he is. neil doesn't win fights, but he is damn good at a getaway. this is a really good example about how all of neil's knowledge is really selective because of his upbringing. we need more survivalist neil because he shows all these traits in the books, another example is when he hitchhiked from columbia to palmetto. please stop ignoring this because i want to see batshit insane neil on the run fics right now thx
neil, as part of some PR his new team has him doing, is asked to do an episode with Bear Grylls where he takes celebrities into the wild and they have to live solely off what they catch/ forage, and have to survive on just materials they find.
Once someone explains to him who that is and what it will entail, he thinks it would be endlessly hilarious. Andrew tries not to smile at the prospect.
Neil’s hardcore survivalist knowledge and live-or-die attitude completely floors Bear Grylls and he’s at a loss, used to a completely different kind of person on the show. While he doesn’t necessarily have more knowledge than Bear, he will eat absolutely anything and sleep (without actual sleeping) anywhere.
The episode never airs, but they do release clips on Youtube. Mostly of The Office-esque looks into the camera Bear gives when Neil whips out yet another skill he was about to teach him.
Andrew watches them religiously on their days off.
I could see clips of Neil’s episode being spliced with other episodes of the celebs struggling while Bear is just like: “Very few people let alone celebrities are Neil Josten.” As it shows a clip of Neil scaling a tree with just his belt in under 5 seconds and falling asleep perfectly still with his eyes open.
Andrew absolutely buys the entire box set of the season containing them and has memorized the exact time Neil clips show up in each episode.
a twitter thread that actually killed me
Couldn’t get it out of my head so.
This is what makes learning Spanish so uncertain -- I get told some word by Duolingo, that contradicts what I learned growing up along the US-Mexico border, and neither agrees with the words my co-worker from Columbia uses
:D
When I was a kid, we lived in Chile, and my mum had a friend who was from another LatAm country (I don't remember which) and one time she told a taxi driver to "keep the change" but she said "y quedate el pico", which to the Chilean taxi driver meant "and put away your prick"
I’m just sayin’, Marco is probably the only one of these three I’d let anywhere near me with a scalpel.
Okay, these tags intrigued me:
and they’re right: except that maybe most surgeons don’t have Law’s special powers to create a Room and extract the whole heart without the patient kicking the bucket.
Wise and colleagues[ recommend a 2-handed technique for internal cardiac massage: a flat hand is placed under the posterior heart surface, and the other hand is placed on the anterior heart surface. The heart is squeezed from the apex upward at a rate of approximately 100 beats per minute. Caution must be taken not to use fingertips to compress the heart due to increased risk of myocardial injury.
Law played us. He is the surgeon out of the three.
Source of the quote above is here. Still a great drawing and idea, and thanks for teaching me something @werewolfsupersoldier
Hmm, okay, okay… but do they also make the hearts go SPLOOF?
I’m just sayin’, Marco is probably the only one of these three I’d let anywhere near me with a scalpel.
swashbucklin’, corn-shucklin’, wife-cuckelin’, cock-suckelin’ pirate
Neurodivergent Things
Because I'm AuDHD and my brain likes to organize and keep track of my memes.
I love it when characters are immune to psychic attacks/emotional manipulation magic/psychoactive drugs or whatever, but for DEEPLY mentally ill reasons.
Fear gas? I already have an anxiety disorder. Also you don't know the meaning of fear until you have a category 5 autism event in the middle of a social scene and know you'll get severely punished if you act out
Depression aura? Bitch I live an economically productive, nutritionally balanced and physically active life that other people rely on like this.
Haunted? How would my ADHD ass even know?
Pain machine? Hm. If your machine's "10/10" is my "4", I should probably talk to my doctor about better meds.
Oh, we're all mutually unintelligible? This is Tuesday with Autism and Audio Processing issues.
There's something very cathartic about a character facing down the horrors and laughing because the antagonist can't even get close to what they already live with.
It’s the darkly funny version of the “love potion doesn’t work on the person who’s already in love” trope.
Self-loathing potion doesn’t work on someone who beat you to it, villain! HA!
good news guys. i found a falcon nest cam where two wood pigeons come by several times a day trying to build a new nest on top of the falcon nest. the falcon nest with falcon eggs currently inside of it and two parent falcons guarding it
…The shocked expression. :))))))
funnytwittertweets
love wins actually
This works as an answer to the metaphorical problem because the key is for the hedgehogs and prcupines to be a bit flexible about how they position themselves and keep thier spines pointed in such a fashion to minimize poking, just like how in human relationships you have to be a bit flexible and concious of your position relative to others, and to manage your sharp bits to minimize the harm you do to others.
funnytwittertweets
Me: Eating rice a bit too quickly
Frog brain: Only a fish would eat rice like that! Activate fish mode!
i can’t believe i did this instead of homework