Hello hello hello! I originally intended to take this week off from blogging, as I had a lot on my plate and wanted to focus my time and energy elsewhere. Then one of the things that was on my plate came off it . . . and I remembered that I had a half-finished post that I'd been saving for March Magics, so here we are! For those who don't know, March Magics is an annual, month-long celebration of the writings of Diana Wynne Jones and Terry Pratchett. I typically don't participate aside from using the event as an excuse to read Howl's Moving Castle, Chrestomanci, or some Discworld, but this year I'm squeezing in a post or two on the blogs and socials as well! As some of you might remember, I finally finished reading the Discworld series last year, after having procrastinated on Night Watch for an embarrassing amount of time. And now that I've read the whole series, I decided that it's a great time to share my favorite Discworld books — a list that, for the most part, also functions as a set of excellent entry points into the series for those curious.

The Best Books of Discworld

1. Going Postal. The chances of this book not taking first place were exactly nil. It has all the things I love about Discworld — the clever use of tropes and archetypes, the masterfully crafted plot, the brilliant characters, the humor — packaged with some of my favorite character and storyline types. Moist von Lipwig is a character in much the same line as The Music Man's Professor Harold Hill, and when what should've been a death sentence lands him instead in a government job, well . . . magnificently masterminded chaos ensues. Plus, even though it's fairly late in the series, it's a good entry point for the Discworld novels — it gives you the background you need on Ankh-Morpork and its significant inhabitants, and I'd argue it has some of Pratchett's best writing.
   
   
   
2. Guards! Guards! I may love Moist von Lipwig . . . but he's only my second favorite Discworld character (tied with the Patrician). My favorite? Sam Vimes. Vimes is a character of contrasts, a transplant from another genre who works astonishingly well in the fantasy city of Ankh-Morpork. And while Guards! Guards! shows him at his lowest . . . it also shows how he went from that lowest point onto the path that we see him on for the rest of the series. As a bonus, it's also a very good starting point for the series — early enough that you don't really need any background knowledge, but far enough in that Pratchett really had a feel for what he was about. (It's also where I started the series, so you know. There's that.)
   
   
   
3. The Wee Free Men. The Tiffany Aching sub-series in general is pretty good, but the first book — featuring a very practical, no-nonsense young Tiffany and her first encounters with the wild and riotous Nac Mac Feegle — is definitely my favorite. It's got Pratchett's take on fairies and fairyland, a main character who sets out to defend her family and her home, and just a lot of excellent moments and insight. It's also very short, so if you're after a quick read, this is it.
   
   
   
4. Hogfather. This is probably my most-read Discworld book, even if it doesn't take the top spot, as it's often one of my yearly Christmas reads. When the Disc's version of Santa Claus goes missing, Death must temporarily take his place while Death's granddaughter Susan (who is somewhat along the lines of a goth Mary Poppins) figures out what's gone wrong. Also featured are the wizards of Unseen University (whose extensive and mostly food-oriented holiday celebrations are interrupted by the goings-on), send-ups of a vast variety of Christmas tales, and what happens when you have a great deal of belief and nowhere for it to go. While it's a very secular take on Christmas, it does have worthwhile themes — and it's just generally a fun read.
   
   
   
5. The Fifth Elephant. This is the one book on this list that I wouldn't necessarily recommend as a starting point, simply because it's both late in the Discworld series as a whole and midway through the City Watch subseries. So, while it can be read first without issue, you'll enjoy it more if you have a little context for, well, most of the characters. That said, I do love this book. There's lore, intrigue, a genuinely clever mystery, and Sam Vimes being, well, Sam Vimes. The one thing that sours the story is that there are some LGBT themes running through parts of the story, but there's also some great themes about power and tradition and culture and lines that you shouldn't cross, so I feel it balances out.

Have you read any Discworld books? If so, what are your favorites? And will you be doing anything to participate in March Magics? Please tell me in the comments!
Thanks for reading!