Start with “the Colour of Magic” (first Discworld book). If you don’t like it, you probably won’t like the non-Discworld books, either, as they all have the same twisted sense of humour, although some are more serious than others. If you do like it, there are lots more to follow up with.
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A good question for Cafe Society. Everyone has a different idea for where a person ought to start reading the series; usually the best place to start is either at/near the beginning of one of the sub-plots or one of the stand-alone books. Small Gods is a popular starting place since it really is a stand-alone. Pyramids is another good choice. Going Postal and The Truth are two more recent stand-alones; they do have cameos from long-running characters but you really don’t have to know much to get them. I like to start people on Guards! Guards! because the Watch are my favorite characters, but I (correctly) suspected my mother would be more interested in the witches, so I think she’s reading Maskerade…
…We really need a thread for this. 
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People can be psychotic about laundry. I am kind of psychotic about my own laundry, but I wouldn’t do more than whine quietly if someone moved my laundry to a clean counter. I have been known to grit my teeth when one person takes up every washer and dryer in the place. I know it’s more convenient than doing one load at a time, but I would personally try not to take up more than half the machines in one room, even if it meant I was there an extra hour and a half.
Anyone who thinks “everyone can just accommodate ME” can bite my pubes.
Your finished laundry is getting removed from the dryer, your unattended shopping cart is getting moved out of the aisle, and I’m going to help the next customer behind you if you can’t get off the phone & order when it’s your turn. I only wish I were strong enough to pick up double-parked cars and toss them aside.
June 1st. I move to a house with its own washer and dryer, after two years of shared facilities. Which was in itself a huge culture shock after 8 years or so of owning my own place…
Our facilities sucked as well - 4 washers, 4 dryers, except NEVER in two years was every dryer operational, and often only two were. So there was always a sait for dryers. I figure 5 minutes is long enoug to wait before moving someone’s clothes out to the folding area, or 10 if I am in a nice mood. Still there are those people who act as if you have personally affronted them by doing it. No, honey, I wasn’t trying to cop a feel of your underwear… it’s 11 pm already and I have to get up for work tomorrow and having some clothes might be nice.
June 1st cannot come quickly enough…
I’ve used communal laundry rooms for years and I agree with everyone who is saying that if your dry laundry is just sitting around in the dryer when I need to use it, it’s getting moved. You pay for your time and then move along. And yes, I always set a timer so that I get to the dryer a minute or two before it stops.
But I’m puzzled about the folding etiquette. It seems like a nice thing to do, folding someone else’s laundry, but is it really? I figure the polite thing to do is touch someone else’s clean laundry as little as possible. I would be kind of grossed out if some stranger had put his/her hands all over my towels. Plus, what if you start folding what looks like linens and then find some unmentionables? Folding just seems like a major laundry room faux pas to me–as counterintuitive as that may be.
Where do you find a city where all the apartments are not designed for washers and dryers? It was posited that the problem was a “geographic one” where people in large cities are “forced to use shared laundries and laundromats.”
I was just wondering which city it was where everyone was forced to use shared laundries and laundromats?
I understand the frustration expressed here, but really, if you’re not going to take the proper precautions to guarding your laundry, you can expect this to happen from time to time. It’s as if you parked your convertible on a busy street in Detroit and left the keys in it with the top down. Sure, nobody SHOULD steal it, but since there is no shortage of people who are willing to take advantage of that situation, I sure as hell wouldn’t do it.
Thanks. And thanks to** Little Plastic Ninja** as well.
ETA: Just ordered Colour of Magic from Amazon.
There have, indeed, been whole threads on Where to start with Terry Pratchett:
Which Terry Pratchet book should I read first?
Would I like Terry Pratchett’s Discworld series?
Did I do this wrong? (RE: Terry Pratchet)
Sell me on Discworld, please
In particular, The Colour of Magic is his first Discworld novel (of many), and it’s not his best—the consensus is that he got better later on in the series. This one’s more of a parody of earlier fantasy literature (things like Conan the Barbarian, Fafhrd & the Grey Mouser, etc.). You don’t have to be familiar with those to appreciate TCoM, but it helps.
EDIT: Oops, looks like I had this thread up before I went to sleep. I thought it was one of the ones I opened new this morning. Everything I was going to say has been said, so I’ll delete my post. Sorry!
Having lived in four different apartments in Denver, and having spent a great deal of time investigating each time I moved, my educated guess is that about 1/4 of the apartments in Denver can accomodate washers and dryers. Most of those that can, they are included. Seriously, do all the apartments in Farmington have water hookups for a washer and a vent for a dryer, and electrical hookups for both?
I don’t know, I live in a house. We sure don’t have a lot of laundromats here, though.
Greetings from San Francisco!
I do believe the island of Manhattan will be along shortly to drop in and say hi, as well.
Many of the moderately priced apartments in Austin do not have washer/dryer hookups. Generally the ones that do are in the Dell/other tech companies part of town where people have the money to buy their own appliances. I suppose it’s possible that some apartment complex south of 51st street and under five years old has W/D hookups…
I’ve done my time in laundromats. I’ve actually found that one of the better things you can do for yourself as far as they go is find a hippie laundromat – the Ecomat in Austin is quiet, professional, and not very full of psychos (unless you count the occasional crazy homeless dude lurking around the coffee shop behind it).
I fold the clothes I take out of dryers, because I’d feel bad if I just tossed them in a heap and they got all wrinkled. Well, I fold shirts, towels, etc - I stop short of folding someone’s delicates because I don’t want to handle a stranger’s underwear any more than they want me handling them.
Well, to be honest- most apartments in SF aren’t allowed to have their own in-apartment washer & dryer, but of course houses can and nearly all condos.
Right, but what is an apartment dweller supposed to do? Apart from make friends with a house-dweller, that is…
Man, reading this thread confirms my belief that private laundry facilities might be the single greatest aspect of home ownership.
From my previous experiences of stays in dorms/apartments/hotels, I guess I overly inconvenienced myself, expecting other folk to be assholes if given the opportunity. So I would do my laundry at odd times - really early in the morning or late on a weekend night. And I would stick around (always bring reading material) in case a machine - or fellow launderer - malfunctioned.
Just saying, you may consider it inconvenient to hang around the laundry room. But IMO it is more reliable than depending on the good will of strangers.
Dinsdale, you are so right, there is NOTHING about home ownership that is better than the private laundry facilities. After divorcing, I have lived in an apartment for two years now and there is nothing more painful and time consuming and just plain irritating than sharing malfunctioning laundry facilities with a bunch of strangers.
13 more days… 13 more days…
Most buildings have a laundry room, as has been the subject of discussion here.
Did you rewet their clothes for them.