Hm, in the absence of Guards, Guards, I’d suggest Wyrd Sisters.
Of that list, I would say that ones it would be difficult to start with (because of the missing back story) would be Jingo, Maskerade, Thief of Time, The Fifth Elephant, Hogsfather, A Hat Full of Sky, Going Postal, Feet of Clay, and Night Watch. I guess that’s a lot of them, isn’t it?
Small Gods is a good standalone one. Wyrd Sisters or Witches Abroad are good ones from the “Witches” subseries. I agree it’s a shame you’re missing both the first two of the “Guards” subseries (Guards! Guards! and Men At Arms) and that the books ENugent lists probably wouldn’t make a heap of sense without it.
I’m a bit of a Pratchett neophyte myself, with about nine books under my belt. What does “YA” stand for, in this context?
The Young Adult books: Tiffany Aching, Johnny Maxwell, Amazing Maurice, and the Bromeliad stories.
How old are you, Sofaspud? I’m not getting why **DrDeth ** is suggesting you read kiddies books first.
I love the DW books, but I totally get where you are coming from. The beginning of each book fizzes with fresh ideas and jokes which are (IMHO) so good that I forgive the books then tending to somewhat run out of steam.
Basically, TP is brilliant at (in descending order):
hilarious descriptions of (and wry, satirical observations about) people, life, buildings, culture, technology etc.
ideas for intriguing and bizarre plot setups
By the time TP has reached the latter part of each book he’s done the plot setup and he’s finished describing the characters and setting. All he’s got left to do is finish off the plot. And that, he’s not so good at. Indeed, it is a function of the bizarreness of his plot setups that as you say he often seems to struggle to find a way to end them convincingly.
Well, apart from Death being in the first three books, yes. He was limited to short walk-on parts, but he had some good lines even in the earlier books, like in The Light Fantastic where he deigns to explain to Rincewind why, contrary to expectations, he thinks it horrible that people are rioting and killing each other in large numbers.
“I’d have thought you’d be all for it.”
NO. THE DEATH OF THE WARRIOR AND THE OLD MAN AND THE LITTLE CHILD, THIS I UNDERSTAND, AND I TAKE AWAY THE PAIN AND END THE SUFFERING. I DO NOT UNDERSTAND THIS DEATH-OF-THE-MIND.
When I first read Pratchett, TLF had just come out, and it and TCoM were all we had. And we liked it! True, he has improved as he’s gone on, but the first two were none too shabby or I might never have started on the rest. There were some good gags even then…
(Twoflower the suicidally innocent tourist has just introduced War, Famine, Pestilence and Death to a card game that is fairly obviously bridge. He and Rincewind are making their escape from Death’s house)
Rincewind: How long do you think that will keep them busy?
Twoflower: I don’t know. Probably until the last trump…
Pratchett is the better writer by a distance. Rowling just got lucky enough to start a craze.
I’ll choose to disagree, IMHO “Colour of Magic” is not good. In fact it was so poorly done overall that I ignore TP for decades. I agree that as he came into his own, he is better than Rowling. I am not a huge fan of Rowling in fact, but fair is fair. Pratchett’s early books were nothing special and Rincewind is at best a very poor version of the hapless Arthur Dent.
Sofaspud, I would seriously consider either seeing if your local library has *Guards! Guards! * or start with *Wyrd Sisters * as it was the best of his books from the 80s. This was a well done book. It is heavy on Macbeth allusions, so I might be prejudiced in favor of it.
Jim {Sorry about the debate}
I call ‘meh’ on Guards! Guards! It starts the Watch subseries, which is by far my favorite, but the book itself isn’t terribly good IMO. You don’t have Men At Arms, either, which makes things a little tougher, but frankly I think if you read Feet of Clay, Jingo, and Fifth Elephant, you’d get a good enough sense of what the Watch is. Pratchett makes liberal use of exposition and has a few key points about certain characters he likes to drive home in each and every book, so any of them do well to get you knowing the characters.
The only caveat is I’d wait until you’re familiar with Discworld to read Night Watch; easily my favorite of the entire series, but it does help immensely that you’re familiar with the characters.
I do vote for Small Gods as a good introduction to Discworld. It doesn’t really involve Ankh-Morpork, which is where about half the books if not more take place, but it’s good for establishing the Discworld mindset.
Thing is, “young adult” books aren’t children’s books. They’re aimed at the teenage market, but good fiction in that category is good fiction for anyone, young or old. I’m almost finished with the third Tiffany Aching book, and it’s excellent.
Another author who wrote mostly for the young adult market was Rosemary Sutcliff, whose stories of Britain – pre-Roman conquest, Roman occupation, post-Roman withdrawal, up through Norman conquest – are very good, definitely very readable for any adult who enjoys historical fiction. Her Sword At Sunset, a retelling of the Arthurian saga, gets classified as adult fiction, but it’s very much in the spirit of the YA books. Damn fine read, that.
I wrote a term paper comparing and contrasting it with Le Morte d’Arthur and another Great Lit[sup]tm[/sup] Arthurian work for a college lit class, and got an A from a professor who agreed it was an excellent exploration of the themes.
Seconded; that was delightful.
I have a copy of The Eagle of the Ninth about the place - I read it as a ten-year-old and shelled out for a copy of my own some time in my thirties. And lurking somewhere in my Dad’s house is Brother Dusty-Feet, set in Elizabethan times and focussing on a travelling street-theatre company.
Kind of “dark”, though, isn’t it? I mean, don’t get me wrong, I LOVE it, but I’m not sure I’d recommend it for a first TP read. I read 'em in (publication) order and loved 'em all (although Hogfather, Eric and Jingo are not high on my list.)
Another vote for Small Gods. As a standalone, it really helps set up the Discworld without being too exposition-y. And I thought it rocked even if it dragged on a little after the middle.
IMHO they are not just for kids. They also leave off the worst of the puns and word-plays. Better crafted than some of the Pratchett books, too.
I’m a successful teacher, using methods espoused by Susan (daughter of Death). 
If I was a policeman, Captain Vimes would be my role-model.
Lord Vetinari, the Patrician, is obviously the inspiration for all politicians (‘Vetinari believed in one man, one vote. The Patrician was the man and he had the vote.’
I’m confident you will enjoy reading about these characters (and many more 
).
I adore Terry Pratchett’s books. But didn’t get intot hem for years, because I started with the first one, and at that time I didn’t like it, so it took the nagging of a friend to get me going again. Now he’s my favorite.
I’m a great fan of reading things in order – I love watching the way characters change and develop – but agree that for a newbie, reading by story arcs may serve you best. If you like a closer correlation with/satire of the so-called real world, go with the Vimes arc. My favorites are the Granny Weatherwax and the Death arcs, but my inclinations are a tad more metaphysical in the practical, commonsense sort of way. In other words, I’d like to be Granny, but often feel as clueless as Death when he tries to understand humans.
IRC: Granddaughter of Death
Good to see *Colour of Magic * had that effect on others.
Jim
Just out of curiousity, how much swords-and-sorcery fantasy had you read before CoM?
I am a long time Tolkien fanatic, I read the following authors before TP: Moorcock, Fafner & the Grey Mouser {Fritz Leiber}, Conan, Nancy Springer, Norton, Robert Adams, Piers Anthony, Terry Brooks, Cthulu, Christopher Stasheff, the Worm Ouroboros {E.R. Eddison}, Lloyd Alexander, L. Sprague de Camp, Lynn Abbey, Marion Zimmer Bradley, Edgar Rice Burroughs, Lewis Carroll, Lin Carter, Jack Chalker, Susan Cooper, Stephen Donaldson, Lord Dunsany, Alan Dean Foster, Craig Shaw Gardner, Katherine Kurtz, Robert Heinlein (Glory Road), Tanith Lee, Ursula K. Le Guin, Madeleine L’Engle, George MacDonald, Julian May, Anne McCaffrey, Patricia McKillip, H. Warner Munn, T.H. White, Robert Silverberg, Clifford Simak, Sheri Tepper, Roger Zelazny & others.
I have in the last 20 years tripled that list.
I am a fantasy & Sci-Fi fanatic, you might not agree with me, but when I say the first book was a boring parody, I at least speak for experience with a wide range of comparisons.
Jim
That’s strange, because I’ve hardly read any fantasy yet I liked Colour of Magic and Light Fantastic. I haven’t gotten around to reading any of the other Discworlds yet, but if everything is better than those then I’ll have to at some point. I also read Good Omens, which I enjoyed.