Welcome to the Discworld

Having recently finished the Mysterious Benedict Society, it's been time to move on to a new book, and having remembered that I myself read the first Discworld book in tenth grade, I found the first story written in that series, "The Colour of Magic."  

I forgot how much I love Rincewind and Twoflower, and of course the Luggage.  And of course the Patrician, who is also one of my favorite characters in that series.  And DEATH.  It'll be fun bringing these characters to Maddie's imagination as we read forward.  I doubt we'll read them all, which would take quite some time in fact.  But this is a good starter kit. Some time ago, we read the Bromeliad series - that was in 2020.  Terry Pratchett has always been my favorite author, and it's good to hear Maddie and Mom giggle from time to time at some of the mishaps of our heroes. 

I myself have not read every single book in this series yet, but slowly I'm collecting a hardcover version of each and every one to proudly sit on my bookshelf.  I'm pretty close to getting to all of them.  My favorite?  Not sure.  I love the stories that center around the Watch, the city guards led by Sgt. Vimes.  But all the other books are so good too.  I might read "Hogfather" just for the fun of it, leading up to the holidays.

Anyway, today is Tuesday and it's a quiet one.  Except for the muttering, of course.  That doesn't seem to ever end.  You know those scenes in "The Lord of the Rings" where the ring calls out some sort of eerie whispering chant from time to time?  That's Nana.  Right behind me as I sit in the driver's seat.  She mutters about wanting to be somewhere else, and it's not really a relaxing whisper.  We've determined that it's largely involuntary too.  It's as if she's dreaming, and she doesn't even realize she's doing it when you've suddenly awakened her. 

It's October, and the houses up and down our neighborhood are decorated, almost like it's Christmas, but instead of green and red, we have orange and purple.  Sudden makeshift gravestones and cemeteries are popping up in people's front yard, as are many, many skeletons.  There's even a skeleton boxing match in one front yard, complete with skeleton referees and a skeleton crowd.  There's a fifteen foot tall skeleton roaming about, and equally tall cloaked figures with pumpkin heads down at the end of the cul-de-sac.  One house has the usual amount of decorations, including a skeleton wedding that Maddie will be anxious to visit.  Nothing is terribly scary or gory, so it'll be nice to see all the kids up and down the street in several days.