0625: "Collections"

[FCN]

The problem is that she violated the maxim of quantity in the first panel when she referred to "building a kindle collection," since the label "kindle" is overly specific for her intended meaning.

[joee]

Hi glasnt!

proper title, image, link, alt, comment
but seriously... is it that important to be the thread creator?

Also, I bought my first Discworld book less than a week ago

[CrispyCrew]

Finally, a reference to Terry Pratchett! For those of you just starting, what awaits is nothing short of a novelized narcotic you never want to quit. Embrace and enjoy.

By the way, the Turtle Moves.

[CrispyCrew]

Oh, and, a thought springs to mind. Assuming, as Pratchett argues, magical books communicate with one another when held in close physical proximity (see: the library at the Unseen University), and in fact swap data across one another, AND assuming that Pratchett's books are in fact magical (I challenge you all to find an argument proving they are anything but), then what terrible portents have we for a DRM-laced Kindle storing Pratchett novels in close electronic proximity?

Do they spontaneously corrupt? CAN they be corrupted, as a question of pure mathematical logic? Do they beget diluted Pratchett novels a la Good Omens? The possibilities seem endless. It's an unknown that demands experimentation.

[sourmìlk]

In response to the title text, if you factor in Pratchett's theory of L-Space, you probably wouldn't need a whole lot. It would depend on the size of your book collection as is, but if you had a healthy (or not-so healthy) amount of fantasy novels, some Dave Barry, maybe a couple of Mark Twain books, and at least one of Shakespeare's plays you likely wouldn't need any space for Discworld books as you could just extrapolate their contact from all those other books.

I think you'd need quite a bit more. I'm pretty sure that Terry Pratchett says that the necessary amount of books required to actually make a sizable dent into L-Space is far more than can be kept in a single household. That being said, you'd need Hex or a similar magic computer in order to actually find out what the content of the books were, unless, of course, you had librarian training.

Yeah, I just recently finished reading the entire series.

[glasnt]

Do they spontaneously corrupt?

It seems that you have corrupted your kindle library. We can reinstate it for you for a one of cost of $29.95. Do you want to continue? Yes/No


(Doesn't kindle have system where you can buy a replacement device and reinstate all your library onto it via wifi or something?)

[CanvasWolfDoll]

The answer to the alt-text?
"All of it."

[Meloncov]

I misread it as "Sometimes I mistake you for a universe that cares" and thought it incredibly sweet, in an odd sort of way.

[Troger64]

Sometimes I have the same confusion, but then I remember comic 137:
FUCK. THAT. SHIT.

i keep it handy on my photobucket

[phillipsjk]

The...DRM means I'll probably lose them? We may be edging just a bit into the realm of paranoia there...

No, it is not paranoia. It has happened on several occasions. I am surprised nobody got the reference to the remote deletion of books by George Orwell because the copyright has not yet expired in the US:
Amazon Erases Orwell Books From Kindle - New York Times
Mysterious George Orwell refunds -Amason.com Forum

Dang, my page-topper got bumped by the merge.

[frostkiki]

(Doesn't kindle have system where you can buy a replacement device and reinstate all your library onto it via wifi or something?)

i think that all of the books are saved at amazon so you can just have them redelivered via whispernet

[Mavrisa]

Ahh man I love Terry Pratchett novels.. I'm sure I haven't read at least half of them though... and most of the ones I've read don't belong to me so I can't answer the alt-text Can anyone recommend their favourites?

[Brace]

The proposed solution is inadequate

[Heustess]

To answer the question in the mouseover text: a little less than 4 ft of shelf space.

A bit over 9 feet of Pratchett books, graphic novels, comics, games, plays, maps, cookbook, diaries, calendars and statues for me. I am not compulsive about collecting. Nope, not me.

[Ithica]

Randall you silly man, you seem to have forgotten to try writing a joke, once again.

You forgetful silly sausage you, here's hoping you'll at least take the time to write a bad joke next time

[Auz]

Isn't the alt text more a reference to the fact that Pratchett is dying and there are only a precious few more Discworld novels? That is how I took the alt text at least and it made a decent night into a sad one =(

[VectorZero]

That's how I read it too.

[milN]

Kindle books have DRM? Yuuuuugh...

[DistinctlyBenign]

Woo~ I have every Discworld book. At least until Unseen Academicals comes out in October. And all mine are actual books, I don't own a Kindle.

I'm starting to read his other books too, I'm on Good Omens right now.

EDIT:

Isn't the alt text more a reference to the fact that Pratchett is dying and there are only a precious few more Discworld novels? That is how I took the alt text at least and it made a decent night into a sad one =(

What? Pratchett isn't dieing, he has Alzheimer's. That isn't a fatal disease.

[SoWhy]

Finally, a Terry Pratchett reference. Now I can die in peace

Btw, I got all of them too. In neat little thingies called "books". Cool things

@DistinctlyBenign: Have fun with Good Omens, imho it's one of the best books he (co-)wrote^^

@Auz: No, he isn't dying, but Alzheimer's can make it difficult for someone to write books. And Sir Terry is 61 already, so we have to accept that we will probably not have new DW books our whole lives

[AL_]

@ Moz You don't need to read them in order. At all. ever. Just pick up whichever are available.

Hmm. Whilst most of them do make sense on their own, and I certainly didn't read them all in order, I'd argue that The Colour of Magic and The Light Fantastic are really a two-part story. There's also as pointed several definite threads of character progression.

Also: new book. October. Wizards. Association Football. A title that's a reference to a small Scottish club. Get a hard copy, that way it'll only be destroyed when the religious crazies rise up and burn all the books, or the heat death of the universe approaches. Hopefully the latter.

As for Alzheimers: whilst it isn't fatal as such, when it comes to wriring, it is carrer shortening. Saw him give a talk with Jack Cohen, one of co-authors of the Science of the Discworld* books recently. Cohen had a stroke last year. The combination of a stroke surovor and someone in the early stages of Alzheimers made for a rather disjointed talk- audience participation consisted mainly of people shouting out the words they couldn't quite remember.



*The very antithesis of "Science of Star Trek" or "Science of Star Wars" type books. Go read the series. They're about real world science, explained using Discworld. Contains much Wizards and Hex.

[Bnty]

Had to post since I'm currently in the process of collecting them. I've read almost every Discworld book via the library (hence why I haven't read one or two). But I now regret that, and I hit up the used book store every so often to see if I can buy them so that I can actually own them for reading whenever. I've only managed to pick up 9 so far because I don't want to pay full price for a new copy (I gave in and got 3 that way anyways).
The Alzheimer's thing is such a shame.

I'm starting to read his other books too, I'm on Good Omens right now.

So good! If you haven't read Neverwhere/American Gods/Anansi Boys, you should give those a shot too, especially Neverwhere. Obviously different than Pratchett since they're Gaiman books, but they're great.

[Zenexer]

Woo~ I have every Discworld book. At least until Unseen Academicals comes out in October. And all mine are actual books, I don't own a Kindle.

I'm starting to read his other books too, I'm on Good Omens right now.

EDIT:

Isn't the alt text more a reference to the fact that Pratchett is dying and there are only a precious few more Discworld novels? That is how I took the alt text at least and it made a decent night into a sad one =(

What? Pratchett isn't dieing, he has Alzheimer's. That isn't a fatal disease.

Not fatal? Who told you that? Hopefully not your doctor. Alzheimer's is almost always fatal. The only time it isn't is if you jump off a skyscraper before the disease has a chance to kill you.

From Wikipedia:

Life expectancy of the population with the disease is reduced.[9][179][180] The mean life expectancy following diagnosis is approximately seven years.[9] Fewer than 3% of patients live more than fourteen years.[10] Disease features significantly associated with reduced survival are an increased severity of cognitive impairment, decreased functional level, history of falls, and disturbances in the neurological examination. Other coincident diseases such as heart problems, diabetes or history of alcohol abuse are also related with shortened survival.[179][181][182] While the earlier the age at onset the higher the total survival years, life expectancy is particularly reduced when compared to the healthy population among those who are younger.[180] Men have a less favourable survival prognosis than women.[10][183]

The disease is the underlying cause of death in 70% of all cases.[9] Pneumonia and dehydration are the most frequent immediate causes of death, while cancer is a less frequent cause of death than in the general population.[9][183]

[FastlerTheGreay]

What? Pratchett isn't dieing, he has Alzheimer's. That isn't a fatal disease.

He is alive. That's fatal.

[pbnjstowell]

Can anyone recommend their favourites?

Witches Abroad. Great linguistic humor and abuse of fairy tales.

Also...
Gah! They're all good!

I've got mine stacked so they take up less space. But not less preference.

['; DROP DATABASE;--]

See, the trick is, if you really can't find a DRM-free version and really can't live without it, to just buy it and strip the DRM yourself. Make regular backups as you always would and there you go. I always say to use that as a last resort though, as buying a DRM-encumbered product tells the seller you're OK with DRM; they don't know you're removing it.

I feel an urge to clip out the bleak portion of the last frame and put it on a badge... then wear the badge to work until someone calls security or a psychiatric task force.

I'll just stick to sigging it.

I'd make it my status on Facebook as well, but I just changed it and want people to actually see it before I change it again. Maybe in a few days.

[Max2009]

I love Discworld. I have read all of them at least twice.
I also own every Discworld book in print, and they are made out of paper. (mulched trees, remember?).
They all sit nicely on one bookshelf. Double tiered.
On the shelf above that I have most of the Stephen King books that have been printed.
One day I'll design a matter-antimatter generator based in L-space.

[skellious]

I HAVE the complete collection (and have had for some time), the answer is about 5 ft for all the paperbacks, 7ft if you include all the maps, handbook (all editions), quizbook, books only available in hardback and so on.

[Kapplar]

You don't leave space for Discworld, you get an empty bookshelf fit all your Pratchett on there and then if there is any remaining space, fill it up with any other tat you may have (Gaimen is my fav space filler)

[cephalopod9]

I SWEAR THAT IMAGE WASN"T THERE WHEN I POSTED

Sorry, I did go back and edit it because it was taking a little while to find a good picture. (Tho' technically it looks like you posted 3 minutes after the edit, but still possible to miss if you'd started your post already)

[Dylan]

I totally dig that Randall loves Pratchett's work too. I have a paperback copy of every single book he's ever written, I think.... Some of them are from before they were available in the US. It's, well, amazing how popular he's gotten in the last few years.

[Raptor Jesus]

I love it, if there is any stick person that could be me it would be that girl... if she was a guy because I have too many existential crises (And for all you grammar Nazis that is the correct plural form of crisis)

Someone needs to make a facebook quiz for which xkcd person are you! Haha

[Nomic]

I've read some Discworld books and liked them all. My friend has a big collection and I've been loaning them from him. I can probably do that more often now that he moved closer so I don't have to take a 2 hour buss ride to see him.

[Nyerguds]

Yay for OPer.

I feel an urge to clip out the bleak portion of the last frame and put it on a badge... then wear the badge to work until someone calls security or a psychiatric task force.

"Maybe if this badge is witty enough, someone will finally love me"?

[Sebastian]

That's so brilliant !
Finally there is XKCD strip with discworld and Terry Pratchett. (I always knew that there will to be one.)
The actual comic wasn't that funny but I love the alt-text.
I have in fact every Terry Pratchett book (not only the discworld stuff) as real books.
They fill the biggest shelf in my room.
I have space left for about 10 more books, hopefully I'll need more.

Has anyone of you ever thought about a xkcd comic with some discworld characters ?
Might be quite funny.

Sebastian

[St_Fred]

I just picked up The Light Fantastic from the local library a few days ago since I couldn't find The Colour of Magic. I'm new to the series, so I'm probably missing a lot, but hopefully not too much.

I read TLF first and, other than being wtf at the beginning, don't feel it spoiled me in anyway... I have since read all of them, plus every other book Terry has written except for Where's my Cow? and Science of the Discworld III. Also, I would love to make my collection complete with a Rhianna Pratchett, but they are hard to come by.

[jules.LT]

I HAVE the complete collection (and have had for some time), the answer is about 5 ft for all the paperbacks, 7ft if you include all the maps, handbook (all editions), quizbook, books only available in hardback and so on.

I have the same, plus some French translations from before I read them in English (I bought the English ones too since then).
Since I have a finite amount of shelf space, I piled them up on one shelf

As for the video games magazines collection, I ditched those some time ago, since I'll never read them again. Discworld, on the other hand, I read an average of three times each.

My advice for beginning: "Good Omens", "Guards! Guards!" or "Small Gods"

[Mossy]

I should have registered in the past, but this comic really forced me to. Pratchett!

Can anyone recommend their favourites?

I'd definitely go with The Monstrous Regiment and Going Postal, if you haven't read those two. They're prime examples of his later work (alongside Night Watch and Thud!, I think, but story-arch fanatics might not like to learn all of the changes that happen to the Watch before reading those books...)

Well, Randall beat me to a complete collection, if only barely and in different mediums and despite the fact that we weren't conscious of each others' collections...(but it's the thought that counts!). And really, I think that I'm still only missing The Truth, which I have read...

[SirMustapha]

The strip wasn't at all good, but Gee Willikers Terry Pratchett!
[/not me]

[nirvana_grace]

Pratchett is dying. Someday even the names Shakespeare, Caesar, and Khufu (. . . dare I say it? even "Munroe") will be spoken for the last time. The universe doesn't care.

But I do. I know those names. I grok in wonder at their accomplishments. I mourn the loss, even as I rejoice at having seen them. Sandcastles they may be, but such magnificent ones!