Discworld "extras"- worth it?

So I’ve finished reading (and re-reading) all the Discworld books in chronological order, beginning with The Color of Magic and finishing up with The Wee Free Men. I’m hooked, and can’t wait 'til October. In the meanwhile, I’ve been looking into the “extra” books, like: The Discworld Map, The Discworld Companion, The Science of Discworld, A Tourist Guide to Lancre, Nanny Ogg’s Cookbook, Death’s Domain, and The Streets of Ankh-Morpork, as well as the yearly Discworld diaries.

Are they worth it? Some of them are a bit expensive, and not easy to find. Living in the relatively Pratchett-impoverished US, I’d have to get most of these through amazon UK or online auctions. Anyone read any of these? What did you think? Thanks.

For the books set in the city, I find the map of Ankh-Morpork to be handy. I have a lot of trouble getting the geography straight in my head without a visual reference. Though, you’ll look like a total dork with a fantasy book in your hands and a big-ass map spread out in front of you for reference. Life is full of trade-offs. I don’t have the map of Discworld, so I don’t know how useful it is for adventures outside of the city.

The Science of Discworld is WONDERFUL!!! It is not a book, a la The Science of Star Trek, that explains how the physics of Discworld might work. Instead it is a wonderful exploration of our own world (Roundworld). The chapters alternate between chapters of a novella in which the Wizards of Unseen University accidently create and explore Roundworld (written by Pratchett) and chapters explaining in plain, nonfiction language what the fiction chapters are hinting at regarding the way our world works.

You do not need to read the book to learn more about and/or better appreciate Discworld. You just need to READ THIS BOOK! I bought five from amazon UK when they weren’t available in the US and gave them away to friends and relatives. I gave one to the local library. I bought Science of Discworld II while it was still in hardback, also from the UK. It is not a wonderful book, merely a really good one.

Can you tell I liked the book? (The bit about evolving circuits on a programmable microchip alone was worth the price. If anyone’s interested, I can look up some online references to that.)

The maps are very well done.

The maps are pretty good, but really only fanboy stuff. They add something to the experience, but they’re not literature.

‘The Science…’ is a good read. Not as good as the novels, but if you’re a member of the SDMB you should enjoy it.

The Science… II’ absolutley sucks. Longwinded, patronising and outright incorrect/outdated in several places. It’s very poorly written, meandering and pointless. The story is dull and obviously only there to provide context for the lecture, unlike the first ‘Science’ where the story was entertaining by itself.

Buy it only if you want the complete collection.

If you’re a witch fan, Nanny Ogg’s cookbook is a gods-send. The pictures are wonderful and it’s a delightful read. The recipies include:

Primal Soup
Bread and Water
Carrot and Oyster Pie (carrot’s so’s you can see in the dark, etc)
Wow-Wow Sauce
Lord Downey’s Mint Humbugs (with arsenic to taste)
Sticky Toffee Rat Onna Stick (with the cutest picture of dwarf kids. Oh my gosh.)

The rest is an extremely funny Almanack.

I agree that Science2 was sub-par. The Disworld story with the elves had a feeling of uninspired writing. I still enjoyed it though.

Why not try some of the non-DW stuff. “Johnny and the…” and the trilogy “Truckers, Diggers, Wings” are wonderful stories. I take it for granted that you have “Good Omens”.

Thanks for the input everyone. I’ll be picking up the first “Science…” book and Nanny Ogg’s Cookbook. Probably also the Ankh-Morpork map. It may be sad, bu I love maps of all kinds. I can entertain myself for hours with a simple Rand-McNally road map.

I’ve read the “Johnny…” books and I’ve read Truckers. The “Johnny…” books were good and I enjoyed them, but I lost interest after finishing Truckers and so never bothered with Diggers or Wings. Good Omens is one of my favorite books. I’ve even got a copy of The Unadulterated Cat, which was cute and fluffy.

I’m just on a major Pratchett kick at the moment. But any other good sci-fi/fantasy recommendations are always welcome.

I also recommend the “Heroes” book. I forgot what it’s called since I’m at work but it’s a pretty nice read. Very nice drawings with an actual story.

I second the Truckers, Diggers and Wings trillogy as well as Good Omens. I haven’t been able to find the book “Johnny and the dead” but “Only you can save mankind” is a pretty fun read.

My 2 cents:

The maps are fun, but get somewhat less interesting (or perhaps have less to say) as they go along. Ankh-Morpork was the first and best, and it’s quite engrossing. Discworld Mapp is also nice, and the kind of thing you think about framing and putting up on your wall (but, then, you think, I’d have to buy another copy of the map for the bookshelf!) Tourist Guide to Lancre isn’t as interesting or useful as a map (since it’s of a much smaller area), but the little booklet that comes with it is amusing. And Death’s Domain is the most disposable – it’s a pleasant little read, but probably not worth what you’d have to pay for it in the States.

As others have said The Science of Discworld is one-half a Pratchett story and one-half an odd popular science book; both halves work well. Science of Discworld II: The Globe is not as successful, and can be avoided without missing much.

The Discworld Companion is really for the very serious fans, but it’s pretty big, and fairly useful if you find yourself wondering which books have references to Bloody Stupid Johnson. There’s a new second edition just out in the UK (which I haven’t seen yet), which I assume is much like the first edition, only bigger. Given the cost of getting a hardcover from the UK, this is probably only for the more fanatical Pratchett fan, though it is excellent for what it is.

It is possible to cook from Nanny Ogg’s Cookbook, but I wouldn’t recommend it. The ingredients and measurements are all English, so there are instructions such as “Take a swede and set your gas cooker to three.” On the other hand, it’s often screamingly funny, with such recipes as Carrot and Oyster Pie (“Carrots so’s you can see in the dark and oysters so’s you’ve got something to look at”), Bloody Stupid Johnson’s Individual Fruit Pie and Nanny Ogg’s Maids of Honour (“take your eyes off 'em and they end up as tarts.”).

The back cover also has one of my favorite Nanny Ogg quotes: “They say that the way to a man’s heart is through his stomach, which just goes to show they’re as confused about anatomy as they gen’rally are about everything else, unless they’re talking about instructions on how to stab him, in which case a better way is up and under the ribcage. Anyway, we do not live in a perfect world and it is foresighted and useful for a young woman to become proficient in those arts which will keep a weak-willed man from straying. Learning to cook is also useful.”

This is being distributed in the US by Trafalgar Square, so you might be able to find it in larger bookstores or the on-line sellers (or you could try to special-order it).

The yearly desk diaries have a little bit of text (two dozen or so pages) and some good black & white illustrations by Paul Kidby (who also illustrated the Cookbook, the Maps and the new Companion, as well as doing the art for The Last Hero). But what they are, really, is a desk diary, so I’d only recommend getting the current year (at best), and then only if you actually need a desk diary.

If you do go after them, you can often get UK books cheaper in the US by ordering them from a Canadian bookseller – indigo.ca and Amazon.ca are possibilities.

Not much to add here that hasn’t already been covered – I own (and highly recommend) “Science” and “The Last Hero,” and while I enjoyed “The Ankh-Morpork Map,” it’s definitely a fanboy thing.

Do give “Diggers”/“Truckers”/“Wings” another try. Pratchett’s non-Discworld books have been rather mixed (I’ve got 'em all), but the Nomes Trilogy is a good read overall. And definitely read them in order, since it’s really a novel in three parts. And the “Johnny Maxwell” books are also worth hunting down; I enjoyed all of them, especially “Johnny and the Bomb.”