Discworld Book Reading Guide

 To help you select a book if you have not been privileged to read a Discworld book in the past I am sharing a list of books with their main themes as well as my favorite characters.

 Wizards:

• The Colour of Magic Tourist Twoflower and his hapless wizard guide, Rincewind have a madcap adventure. Available on DVD and as a Graphic Novel.
• The Light Fantastic Bumbling wizard college dropout Rincewind, along with his tourist companion Twoflower continue their journey and need to save the world.
• Sourcery A sourcer tricks Death and enters his own wizard staff, which is passed to a 10 year old boy.  The inept wizard Rincewind must save the world from the "Apocralypse" (even though an inebriated Pestilence, War, and Famine cannot remember the proper term for it) planned by the Sourcer
• (Faust) Eric A variation on the Faust theme.
• Interesting Times When the Agatean Empire requests the Great Wizzard, Lord Vetinari of Ankh-Morpork sends a pathetically inept wizard named Rincewind
• The Last Continent Rincewind's arrival in Fourecks (a very Australian sort of place, with brief courses in theoretical physics and evolution thrown in for good measure) has distorted the space-time continuum, and he has to sort it out before the whole place dries up and blows away.
• The Last Hero Aged warrior Cohen the Barbarian has decided to go out with a bang and take the gods with him. With the remnants of his geriatric Silver Horde, he's climbing to the divine retirement home Dunmanifestin with the Discworld equivalent of a nuke--a fifty-pound keg of Agatean Thunder Clay.  A 40,000-word "Discworld Fable" rather than a full novel; illustrated by Paul Kidby.

 Witches:

• Equal Rites Celia Imrie is a young girl who believes she can become a wizard and an aging crone who is wise to the chauvinistic world of magic.
• Wyrd Sisters Three witches become involved with local politics when a mad duke assassinates the good king, whose son escapes.
• Witches Abroad A small sect of blundering witches sets out on a remarkable journey to the city of Genua to stop the prince’s marriage.
• Lords and Ladies Worlds are weaving closer to one another, with unpredictable results.  Only the three wacky witches can ensure that the worst does not happen: the return of the elves.
• Maskerade A twist on Phantom of the Opera with 3 meddling witches.
• Carpe Jugulum  Suave and deadly vampires plot to take over and the tiny kingdom of Lancre which is defended by its witches
• The Amazing Maurice and His Educated Rodents The perfect Pied Piper scam when a streetwise alley cat, Maurice, and his cohorts decide to con the town of Bad Blinitz.
• The Wee Free Men Tiffany’s little brother has been spirited away by the evil Queen of faerie, and it’s up to her to get him back safely.  The Nac Mac Feegles, or the Wee Free Men, (small, blue, and heavily tattooed, the Feegles love nothing more than a good fight except maybe a drop of strong drink!) assist while she learns to be a witch.
• A Hat Full of Sky Tiffany leaves home to become an apprentice to Miss Level, an older witch with two bodies and one mind.  The Nac Mac Feegle or "Pictsies" -- tiny, super-strong blue elves with Scottish accents and Yosemite Sam attitudes are there to help.
• Wintersmith On the last day of autumn Tiffany crashes into the Wintersmith who proceeds to court her.  All the attention from the Wintersmith causes a deadly winter.  The Nac Mac Feegles help Tiffany try to find spring.

 Death

• Mort Death takes an apprentice who’s youth interferes with the duty and makes a mess of things while Death is out trying to “find himself.”
• Reaper Man The “Auditors” fire Death from his duty.  Not only are people (and all other living things) not dying, Death has to find a new way of life, as it were.  Personally, my favorite book in the entire series. The Death of Rats comes into being here too!
• Soul Music Death’s granddaughter takes over the duty and after not collecting the soul of Buddy Holly makes a mess of things that only Death can fix… if they could just find him.
• Hogfather The Auditors hire an assassin to eliminate the Hogfather (Similar to our Santa) Death tries to stand in as the Hogfather and suggests his granddaughter Susan not get involved… knowing she will help get things straightened out.  Available in the USA and Great Britain as a DVD.
• Thief of Time The duty of the Monks of History is to see that tomorrow happens. A totally accurate glass clock has been built to trap time and stop it, which makes the Auditors happy and would put Death out of a job.  An apprentice, the "thief of time" needs to set things straight. To add chaos to the mix, there's the Fifth Horseman of the Apocalypse--the one who quit before they became famous.
• Small Gods Where there are gods galore, there are priests, high and low, and... there are novices.  Brutha is a novice with little chance to become a priest--thinking does not come easily to him, although believing does.  But it is to Brutha that the great god Om manifests, in the lowly form of a tortoise.
• Pyramids Teppic, trained at Ankh-Morpork's famed assassins' school, across the sea from the Kingdom of the Sun where he must return to build a suitable resting place for his Dad -- a pyramid to end all pyramids.

The Watch

• Guards! Guards! A dragon is magically summoned and trying to take over Ankh-Morpork.  The watch is for the first time seriously assembled and set to serve and protect; each guard with their own entertaining history and behavior.  Lady Sybil cares for smaller swamp dragons and becomes involved with Captain Vimes.
• Men at Arms Corporal Carrot, an adopted young dwarf, is newly in charge of the recruits guarding Ankh-Morpork.  After learning that Ankh-Morpork, kingless for generations, has a sovereign ruler, Carrot must decide if he is really the man who would be king
• Feet of Clay Commander Vimes of the Watch must investigate a puzzling series of deaths, with help from various trolls and dwarfs.
• Jingo An island suddenly rises between Ankh-Morpork and Al-Khali, capital of Klatch. Both cities claim it. Vimes has to find out who shot the Klatchian envoy before war breaks out.
• Moving Pictures Victor and Gaspode the Wonder Dog must order back to a star struck Discworld. And they're definitely not ready for their close-up in Holy Wood where the click click of moving pictures isn't just stirring up dreams.
•  The Fifth Elephant Captain of the Ankh-Morpork City Watch, Samuel Vimes is sent as ambassador to Uberwald where he is caught up in an uneasy truce between dwarfs, werewolves, and vampires in the theft of the Scone of Stone (a particularly important piece of dwarf bread) and in the old werewolf custom of giving humans a short start in the hunt and then cheating.
• The Truth Ahhh, the newspaper business.  When Lord Vetinari is accused of attempted murder, the City Watch investigates the peculiar circumstances, but inquiring minds want to know what really happened.
• Night Watch A freak accident hurls Commander Sam Vines back into his own past, where he must assume a new identity and watch his younger self struggle to rise in the ranks of the City Watch of Ankh-Morpork while tracking down a dangerous criminal and finding a way to return to his own time.
• Monstrous Regiment Polly becomes Private Oliver Perks, who is on a quest to find her older brother, who's recently MIA in one of the innumerable wars the tiny nation of Borogravia.  Perks and her/his comrades are among the last able-bodied recruits left. This collection of misfits includes a vampire (reformed and off the blood, thank you), troll, and macabre Igor, who is only too happy to sew you a new leg if you aren't too particular about previous ownership.
• Going Postal The post office hasn't been open for 20 years since the advent of the Internet-like clacks communication system but the Patrician pulls a convict in to step in to a race with the dysfunctional clacks system to see whose message can be delivered first.
• Thud Sam Vimes and the Watch must forestall a riot-cum-war between the city's dwarfs and trolls, and solve the murder of a dwarf in a tunnel under the city.
• Making Money Moist von Lipwig, who reorganized the Ankh-Morpork Post Office is assigned the same duties at the Royal Mint, as well as maintaining the safety of the largest stock holder, a small dog.

34 Favorite Discworld Characters – these links connect to books the characters appear in

• Bill Door aka Death when he finds a job working on a farm.  Death as himself turns up in all the books…sooner or later.
• Bone Rat the Death of Rats, one of his replacements when Death is fired
• Lord Vetinari Patrician of the city Ankh-Morpork, previously an assassin
• looks
• Granny Weatherwax a no nonsense witch who never backs down; can be found still on her bed with a sign saying, “I ain’t dead.”
• Nanny Ogg a jolly witch with loads of children; the epitome of eat drink and be merry
• Magrat Garlick a young witch who wants to practice the old ways… sort of
• Nac Mac Feegle 6” blue men with red hair – live to drink and fight
• Rob Anybody Leader of the Nac Mac Feegles
• Daft Wullie Nac Mac Feegle
• Big Yan Nac Mac Feegle
• Tiffany Aching A child shepherdess and wee hag (witch); friend to Feegles
• Granny Aching Shepherdess and hag (witch), granny to Tiffany
• Commander Vimes head of the watch
• Lady Sybil Married to Sam Vimes, keeps dragons
• Captain Carrot a 6 ½ foot tall dwarf (adopted) member of the watch
• Sergeant Angua Female member of the watch; also a werewolf
• Sergeant Detritus member of the watch; also a troll
• Reg Shoe Member of the watch; also a zombie
• Sergeant Colon Member of the watch; not too bright
• Corporal Nobbs aka Nobby Nobbs, member of the watch who likes to pinch things. All things. Not known for his tact or being couth
• Great A'Tuin a galactic turtle with four elephants on his back that support the Discworld
• Lord Downey head of the Assassins Guild
• Mister Teatime Assassin hired to kill the Hogfather; down right creepy! 
• Archchancellor Ridcully Head of Unseen University; too intelligent to be considered bright
• Rincewind Bumbling wizard college dropout; Wizzard is on his pointy hat
• The Librarian was turned into an orangutan and refuses to be returned to his former self
• Ponder Stibbons Geek, nay, Nerd of the Unseen University
• Gaspode the Wonder Dog A talking dog with a mind of his own
• Cohen the Barbarian a geriatric anti-Rambo hero who is far fiercer than he looks
• Silver Horde Cohen the Barbarians extremely aged companion hero’s
• Leonard of Quirm Brilliant inventor
• Foul Ole Ron lives in the street and yes, he really smells.
• Duck Man another street dweller, totally unaware of the duck on his head
• Throat Dibbler (aka Cut My Own Throat Dibbler, aka CMOT Dibbler) Street vendor of disgusting meat pies and entrepreneur
• Igor any laboratory or medical assistant; patched together from pieces of other Igors. They always lisp, whether it comes natural or not.