Quote:
Originally Posted by eschwartz
[...]You won't regain the cost by further reading -- there is no cost.
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I seem to have expressed myself badly, because my second paragraph was intended to be mostly in agreement with you. I can only say "mostly" because there IS a cost to not reading in order
on first time through: some details will pass you by. Details that are offered in passing, or characters that you know well from previous books who make a cameo in a subsequent book, where the few words offered mean something more to the reader who is familiar with them and mean less to the first time visitor.
Pratchett is very good at this sort of subtle allusion, not just to things like Shakespeare and so on, as already noted, but also back to his own books. He is so good at it that most readers won't even notice what they've missed by not being familiar with the reference - they won't see the cost, but the cost still exists.
Just as you don't have to have read Shakespeare to enjoy "Wyrd Sisters", having even a passing familiarity with Hamlet, Macbeth and King Lear etc. adds some extra spice to your reading.