My favourite things part I

Hi all! This post is about the stuffs that are close to me. Sometimes I think it's a bit sad that everyone have different taste in clothes, fashion, books etc. So in the end, when I say I'm a reader and that I love books, my friends say, 'Really? Good for you! I've not read a book, like, in years!'

The way they say it, sometimes makes me think they think I'm doing some hateful chore to better myself. But I actually read to relax and sleep, unless I read for an hour like ppl take sleeping pills, I toss and turn all night. But seriously, when have you touched a book since? Much less open it and reading it from front to back? Can't remember?

Anyways, the point is moot. Today, I want to talk about my favourite author's books; Terry Pratchett' Discworld series. It'll not be a boast to say I've read every single one of his 28 (till now and 1 illustrated hardcover) novels at least twice. Some I've reread up to five times. This usually happens when I've mowed through all the series again and decided to go back to some of my favourite ones before his newest book comes out. Thankfully, when i knew about him, he already had 10 Discworld books up, that was a golden era for me...Sigh...

The thing is, this guy is a true-blue comedian. Very funny and slap-stick and his books are filled with truer-than-life characters and his fantasy Discworld (which is flat and lies on the backs of 4 galactic Elephants that are in turn, standing on the huge shell of a Universally large turtle hutrlting through space) is a satirical rip-off of our own world. If you ever laugh at something in his books, you're probably laughing at yourself...

Oh yes, before you pple start dozing off, I would like to share some of his excerpts from one of his series, not as good as some of his other works, but good enough to make me a happy person for buying and possessing it.

Thief Of Time Illustrated by Josh Kirby

'Where there is suitable country for grain, pple farm. they know the taste of good soil, they grow grain.

Where there is good steel country, furnaces turn the sky to sunset red all night. The hammers never stop. People make steel.

There is coal country, beef country and grass country. The world is full of countries where one thing shapes the land and the people. And up there in the high valleys around the hub of the world, where snow is never far away, this is the enlightenment country.

Here are people who know that there is no steel, but the idea of steel *but they still use forks, or the idea of forks*. They give names to new things and to things that don't exist. They seek the essence of being and the nature of the soul. They make wisdom.

There are the Listening Monks, seeking to discern within the hubbub of the world the faint echoes of the sounds that set the universe in motion.

There are the Brothers of Cool, a reserved and secretive sect which believes that only through ultimate coolness can the universe be comprehended, and that black works with everything, and that chrome will never truly go out of style.

......In the highest, greenest, airiest valley of all, where apricots are grown and the streams have floating ice in them even on the hottest day, is the monastery of Oi Dong and fighting monks of the Order of Wen the Eternally Surprised. Not much is known about the History Monks, as they are called, although some have remarked on the strange fact that it is always a wonderful spring day in the little valley and that the cherry trees are always in bloom.

....'Why is he eternally surprise?'

And they were told: 'Wen considered the nature of time and understood that the universe is, instant by instant, recreated anew. Therefore, there is in truth no past, only a memory of the past. Blink your eyes and the world you see next did not exist when you close them. Therefore, he said, the only appropriate state of the mind is surprise. The only appropriate state of the heart is joy. The sky you see now, you have never seen before. The perfect moment is now. Be glad of it.''

Ok, so you see the magic of Terry Pratchett? He is a very strange combination of poetic prose, funnyman and philosopher all rolled into one... Better still, his books have plot, are clever and very fast-paced. He is a Great Man, is TP! I hope he'll never retire and live to a very ripe old age...

That's all for today! Incidentally, his books are available in all National Libraries, not complete, but the newer ones are there. It's the best place to keep them, cos he really has too many books, I'll need a new shelf just to fit them in.

out!

AKK

PS your favourite book?