Roadrunner Twice

Okay: I've seen a bunch of suggestions (often with infographic) for how to read the Discworld books, and I disagree with the whole pile of them. Please don't read Discworld in a linear or parallel-linear order!

Look, Pratchett has always known you'd be picking his books at random from the spinner rack/secondhand store/library shelf. (Though arguably that's less true than it's ever been.) He purposefully wrote to welcome newcomers, and a moderately good reader of either fantasy or humor can start from pretty much any book and get up to speed on the fly without much effort. He'll fill you in on what you need to know, and the later books (by and large) don't spoil the experience of the earlier books. There's almost no wrong way you could contrive to read these.

Well, there is one wrong way: read the weakest (and least representative) books first, i.e. start from "the beginning" (s). I cringe for real every time someone says to start with Color of Magic.

So forget that! Here are the two best ways to read Discworld:

• Start with the books your friends enjoyed the most, so y'all can jam about them afterwards. Then do whatever.
• Start with solid, representative, mid-series books from the various sub-groupings of Discworld books. Then do whatever.

The Modified Thriftstore Order of Discworld

Well, if you're taking that second path, you might like the names of some solid, representative, mid-series books. I can do that!

In the lists below, I think all the books in the #1 slots are really good and would work well as starters. Read one at random, then read another one at random.

Going Postal and Night Watch are my favorite Discworld books (along with Small Gods), but they actually do benefit from a bit of context, so hit those after you've read a couple Watch books.

After that, follow your nose or just grab whatever's checked in at the library!

Witches:

1. Witches Abroad, Lords and Ladies, Maskerade, and/or Carpe Jugulum, in any order.
2. The Tiffany Aching books, in published order. (They're about a young person growing up, so their continuity is stronger than normal for Discworld.)
3. Equal Rites and Wyrd Sisters, if you're really feeling it.

Watch:

1. Feet of Clay and/or Men at Arms, because they're solid, they're representative, and they're the two whose outcomes tend to get referenced constantly in later books.
2. Night Watch is the best Watch book, but it works best after you've read one or two other ones.
3. Remaining Watch books in any order, although Snuff would probably be weird if you read it before Thud.

Others:

1. Monstrous Regiment and Small Gods are good overall starters.
2. Going Postal is GREAT, and it's best after you've read one or two Watch books.
3. The Truth, Moving Pictures, Making Money (don't read before Postal), and Unseen Academicals are all nice breaks from the Watch or Witches books, once you've read a few of each.
4. TBH, I consider the Rincewind books to be deep cuts — they have a different sensibility from most of the other books, a combination of fatalistic misery and straight-up unhinged wackiness. I know a ton of people would disagree with me, but I say leave them 'til you've already done some exploring.
5. The Death books are also deep cuts.