[Manabi]

Sorry for the length, kind of late to replying so there's several people I wanted to reply to.

Originally Posted by davidfor

I haven't seen the later books cheap, which is either a sign that people enjoyed them and kept them, or, an indication of how many people bought the first, but never continued. My son has said exactly the same thing, and, Fantasy plus humour is exactly him.

I believe it's actually because the later books are more likely to be kept for re-reads, so they don't get traded-in or sold to used book stores as often. I found a significant part of the first 35 or so used, but there's a huge used book store in Knoxville, TN that I could go to. I don't think I paid more than $5 for any of the used ones, including a few hardbacks.

Originally Posted by Uncle Robin

It was an interesting exercise to watch him find his way into the world he was making. One upside of that for me was reading Mort as my 4th Discworld novel. DEATH is possibly my favorite character ever from any series, so much as I enjoyed the City Watch (LOVE Vetinari), I am pleased I read them in publication order. But join a jihad over it I will not.

You can still experience that by doing a re-read of them in order later. I did that a few years back and it really was interesting watching him find his way into the world, as you put it. Honestly, I think you appreciate it even more in a re-read because you pick up on lots of things you don't the first time, because you know about what happens later on.

Originally Posted by gmw

The last two or three books were not as well edited, it seemed to me, not as tight.

That was mainly due to the Alzheimer's. He wasn't able to do as many polishing passes as usual and on the very last one he died before completing all the polishing passes. However, I think Raising Steam is less a lack of polishing due to Alzheimer's and more of a deliberate change, because that novel takes place over a longer time span than any of the others.

Originally Posted by latepaul

If someone were looking for a recommendation of where to start I'd ask what kind of thing they like to read, and try from there. One possibility might be publication order depending on the person.

That's what I do too, suggest a starting point that seems best for that person's interests.

Originally Posted by JSWolf

When going into a series, I do go in at the first book. I don't want to spoil the series by reading a book out of order.

Depending on the series it's really not a problem to read them out of order. I read the second book in the Ringworld series first, because it was the only one I could find and I was really wanting to read the series. I wasn't confused and it didn't spoil anything of consequence in the first book.

Spoiler:

I did know that Nessus would survive one of his eye stalks being cut off, but I would have known that was coming anyway. He was too major a character to kill off so late in the novel.

The Discworld series is fairly unique in that nearly every single novel is stand-alone. The story is fully finished, any villains are dealt with and no major plot elements continue into other novels. Characters grow in each novel, but that growth isn't critical to understand the next novel. The only exception I can think of is the first two books, which are basically one story. You can pick up and read any Discworld novel besides The Light Fantastic and not be confused about anything that happens in it, because all the characters are introduced and explained in the course of the novel itself.

Originally Posted by JSWolf

That chart is for a reread, not a new read.

That's incorrect, it originated on the L-Space fan site and was intended as a reading guide for people wanting to start on the series, and as a help for people working through the novels who wanted to keep track of which book to read next in the various sub-series. I used an earlier version of that particular guide to keep track when I was reading them. All the various reading guides they posted were like that.

I also want to point out that if you try to get someone to read a 41 novel series and are talking about rereads at the same time, you're likely to scare them off. Reading 41 books set in one universe is not a small task, no matter how much you love reading.