It was sometime in the mid-1990’s when a co-worker, knowing my love of reading, handed me a paperback edition of one of the “Discworld” books (I don’t even remember which one) by Terry Pratchett and said, “You’re gonna love this!”
But I didn’t.
I mean, I read it, but I didn’t love it. I didn’t even like it.
Twenty years later one of my best friends, upon hearing this, loaned me the first two “Discworld” books and urged me to try reading the series from the beginning to see if I liked it more than just reading one book out of order.
I did, read them I mean, but I still didn’t care for it.
The humor (British, you know) I know did not appeal to me. But more than that, it would be hard for me to point to one specific thing and say “That! That right there is the culprit causing my dis-enjoyment.” The stories and characters I read by him just held no appeal for me.
I know that to fans of the series and the author, that statement means I am now persona non-grata. But you can’t like what you don’t like.
Now, another 20 years later, I have read the biography of Sir Terence David John Pratchett in the form of “Terry Pratchett: A Life With Footnotes by Rob Wilkins” and not much has changed. And yet some has changed.
I wanted to read about the late Terry Pratchett in the hopes of understanding why I never cared for his books and also in the hopes of perhaps sparking an interest in trying to read them again. I may have succeeded in the first and I definitely failed in the second.
His life story was moderately interesting but my overall impression is that he was an irascible old man for most of his life. Even well before his very sad diagnosis of early-onset Alzheimer’s disease in 2007. I do not hold that up as a bad thing for I myself am an irascible old man. But I wonder if that seeped through to the stories I read and left that impression on me in the world he created. Something in them never spoke to me the way other fantasy stories did and do, so maybe that was it.
But reading his biography, as much as I hoped it would, never provided any spark to entice me to try reading the books again. And do not misunderstand me; I am glad for all those who found magic in his words and stories. It is one of the highest desires of a reader to find stories that you enjoy, that grab you and don’t let you go, that make you fall in love (even if for just a little while) with the people and beings who inhabit those stories and worlds. I’m glad that Sir Terry could do that for so many people. I just wasn’t one of them and apparently never will be.
Despite not caring for his books, his death in 2015 due to complications from Alzheimer’s Disease left me in a state of mourning. Reading Mr. Wilkins describe the 8 years between his diagnosis and his passing was incredibly distressing, knowing the effect it had upon his family and friends. And upon him. There are very few people any of us would wish such a thing upon.
If you were a fan of Terry Pratchett’s work, you should read this biography. If you have never read one of his books or perhaps never even heard of him until now, you should read this biography. And even if you were someone like this writer, who did not care for his books, you should read this biography.
It’s a good book.
