Listened to this
http://www.bbc.co.uk/programmes/p00944ry Terry’s Desert Island Disks. It was recorded back in 1997. It’s a grey miserable day here today but hearing him talk about himself and the Discworld has strangely cheered me up.
If you want to start reading the Discworld series I suggest you start with “Mort” which is where, at least for me, his unique style, imagination and characters really begin to shine through.,and its a particularly good introduction to one of the Discworlds greatest characters " DEATH ". The earlier novels before that tend to be a bit referential to existing fantasy, ie Dragons of Pern, Swords in the ……(Fritz Lieber) series, Conan ,Tolkien etc. They are good but really anything after them with The City Watch and The Witches is usually quite brilliant.
I personally would recommend “Guards, Guards,”,” Men at Arms,” “Feet of Clay, “ “Jingo”, “The Fifth Elephant“, "The Nightwatch" and "Thud"in the Sam Vimes series ,and “The Wyrd Sisters“, “The Witches Abroad“ and “Lords and Ladies“ with Granny Weatherwax and co. And then you’ve also got “Going Postal”, “The Truth” and “Reaper Man” to rejoice in as well. All of those I found to be outstandingly entertaining stories . The rest vary between fair and quite good and only a very,very few of them didn't ever hit the mark with me, though with the the last few ,as that horrible illness took its toll on him , did became a bit repetitive plotwise.
I’d try to read them by publishing date as it helps to watch the characters and places, particularly the Patrician and Ankh Morpork ,evolve wonderfully . For anyone with younger family members the Tiffany Aching series is an excellent witching in training alternative to "Harry Potter". Sadly it looks like the final one in that series “The Shepards Crown” will now not be finished, but there is some hope his daughter might complete it.
Oh and please give "Good Omens" a go. Its a very clever riff on the horror films by the same name about what would happen if there was a terrible mix up and "Damien" got a more rural and human up bringing. It was written with Neil Gaiman and the adapted radio series was on at Xmas and they did a brilliant job with it!!!!
Its some comfort to think that although the man is now gone so much of his imagination, thoughtfulness and great humour will still continue to exist and light up peoples minds through his stories. "Mr Shine, he be diamond!!!!"