I’m reading through Discworld. I don’t really like the witches stories, but I feel bad about skipping them. I felt bad about skipping books in the Shadows pulps, and that has even less continuity (and a hell of a lot more books, which is why I’m only up to about the 25th one).
Assuming the series isn’t heavy on continuity, do you have a problem skipping books or episodes?
Oh, shoot, your poll confused me. In the OP you ask:
Well, I don’t have a problem with that, so I clicked “no”. Then I noticed that the question in the actual poll is:
Well, I can, so I should have clicked “yes”.
So, well, yes. Or no.
I can stop reading a series of novels or watching episodes of a show, but there is no skipping. First episode/novel first, then the next ones in order until it’s done or I’m done with it. The X-Files, Brothers and Sisters, and Ally McBeal are the only notable exceptions I can think of that involve shows I’ve ever seen more than a handful of episodes of, but even then I went back and watched from the pilots fairly early on.
I voted yes. In fact, the Discworld series is an example where I recommend that new readers skip around.
Sorry.
I hated the Rincewind books. Well I hated the first two, skipped them and read the entire rest of the series, and then considered reading a couple when I was bored and desperate for more Discworld. Still haven’t read them all because I don’t like 'em, but might eventually complete out of a sense of purity and completionistism. So obviously my answer is skip around to your heart’s content. Though if you don’t want to be spoiled about your favorite character’s story arcs you might want to ready the individual categories (Death, watch, witches, etc) in order. And skip reading the blurbs or advertisements in the back. But it isn’t necessary for enjoyment or comprehension of each individual book. Though after you finish it ban be fun to go back and reread and pick up on all the references to the others you missed the first time.
But I feel bad! I’m doing it wrong! (Oddly enough, it’s worse with the Shadow pulps. Which is dumb.) I have issues.
In the specific case of Discworld, this is the advice I’ve often heard: that there are several sub-series that should be read in order (see Reading Order Guide here).
As for the broader question, well, much of my childhood reading consisted of books read in more-or-less random order from series that were not continuity-heavy, so yeah, that doesn’t bother me.
Not only can I not omit books, I also can’t read them out of order. If some of them are bad, well, sometimes you have to slog through the bad ones to get back to the good stuff.
In the specific case of Discworld, you could skip all of the witch books and it would make little if any difference in your ability to understand or enjoy the rest of the series. Nanny Ogg shows up in a very minor role in The Thief of Time, but IIRC that’s it as far as significant overlap with other Discworld novels. It would be more difficult if someone wanted to skip all the Watch books, as Vimes and other Watch characters play significant supporting roles in some of the later non-Watch books like Monstrous Regiment. I wouldn’t recommend reading the later witch books without reading Wyrd Sisters first (the even earlier Equal Rites could be skipped with little consequence), but if you dislike the witch books in general then there’s no reason to read them.
I can do it with something that IS continuity-heavy, even - I’ve been known to skip whole arcs in comics series, if I’ve fallen behind and want to catch up quickly. (Usually only 3 or 4 issues, after falling 5 or 6 behind.)
Exactly this. I’m not sure how many other series are like this, but Discworld can be skipped around without losing much.
I think that the best way to approach this is to consider that Pratchett has written several series, and most of them are set on Discworld, but really don’t have much in common. The Tiffany Aching books are definitely a subseries of the Witches arc, but in general, if you skip reading a particular series that’s set on Discworld it won’t affect your enjoyment of the series that you do read.
Personally, I love the Witches.
I am obsessive enough to need to read a series in published order, if I am to read any of it at all.
As I buy almost all of my books at thrift stores. library sales and the suchlike, my normal state it to be partway through at least five series, with later books sitting on the shelf in the celler until I find a missing volume.
