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Originally Posted by hildea
I started with Lords and Ladies, which is in the middle of the Witches subseries, and had no problems understanding and enjoying the book. Sure, there were probably subtleties I didn't get then, which I got on later rereads when I knew Discworld better. I'm pretty sure there were also Shakespeare jokes I didn't get -- I had seen Macbeth, which is probably the most important one for that book ("When shall we... um, two meet again?" ), but it would have been better if I also had more than a superficial knowledge of A Midsummer Night's Tale. There are also references to a Norwegian fairy tale, Schrödinger's cat, and probably a lot more I haven't recognised.
I read the first books later, and they are OK, but not as good as the later ones.
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I've read some series where it was the later books that were not as good as the earlier books.
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Most of the time, I don't mind spoilers. There are some exceptions: I've read a handful of books where there was some twist or surprise which I'm glad I got to unspoiled. Those have never been about character arcs, though. One was a secret the narrator was hiding from the reader, in another the protagonist made some scientific discoveries (in an alternate world with alternate science) which literally had me gasping out loud!
I started Bujold's Vorkosigan series at probably the worst point both spoilerwise and being dropped into the action at a place where context matters (Memory). That's what happens when you run out of reading material while staying for a couple of weeks in a tiny town where the only bookshop is a shelf in the grocery store. I enjoyed the book, and inhaled the rest of the series as soon as I got hold of them.
To be painfully obvious, people's tastes differ. Someone who strongly dislikes spoilers should - obviously - choose a different reading order than someone who doesn't mind them.
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But one thing that I don't see being mentioned when others are mentioning starting from someplace in the middle is that there can and most likely will be spoilers and/or things they won't get without having read previous book(s).
Carpe Jugulum is a very good example of a book that there will be a number of spoilers and things you won't get because you've not read the previous books.