The titles are:
"Reaper Man", "Small Gods", "Wyrd Sisters", "Moving Pictures"
Went to an adorable book shop and found these guys. I haven't read Pratchett yet but I feel it'll be right up my alley
I'm pretty sure I see "Small Gods" and "Wyrd Sisters" recommended a lot and I know you can't really go wrong, but of these which would you recommend the most? Since this is what I have I'll read them all eventually
Regardless I'm excited to have gotten physical copies because my library has long wait lists for his books
Edit: Thanks for all of the discussion! This post brought me a lot of positive on an otherwise rough day. I've decided to start with "Small Gods"
I just want to say again thank you to everyone who responded to me or to someone else. It's been a joy hearing what each person has to contribute to the conversation
Even if they fall flat (which I highly doubt) all of your enthusiasm came through and that really in itself means so much. It was truly touching
Personally I'd start with Reaper Man, but they're all really good.
If you don't already know, Pratchett liked to build multiple ongoing series within the broader Discworld universe. Basically if Discworld is the MCU then within it you get your Captain America movies and your Iron Man movies and so on.
In the case of Discworld, the big ones to know about are:
What you have acquired is the second book of the Death series (Reaper Man), the second book of the Witches (Wyrd Sisters), and two largely standalone books (Small Gods and Moving Pictures). The first two can both be read without reading the preceding novels in their respective series, but it might not hurt to try to track those down first. You'd be looking for Mort and Equal Rites respectively.
In general Discworld stands up fairly well to reading out of order, and you certainly should not try to read the whole thing chronologically (the first two books, especially, are pretty bad). The best approach is to pick a single sub series and read that in order. If you start with those four, based which you like best I'd continue with that series or a related one. Reaper Man or Wyrd Sisters, continue with that series. Moving Pictures, you'll probably want more stuff set in Ank Morpork like the city watch and the Moist Von Lipwig / "Industrial revolution" series. Small Gods is mostly its own thing, but you'll get more of that vibe with Rincewind.
Honestly? Once you acquire a taste for it, I recommend reading Discworld in publication order. You’ll catch more of the cross-references, more inside jokes, and the books consistently get better and better (until The Embuggerence, which did diminish quality a bit).
But it is quite the undertaking, and not for everyone.
I started reading them when Mort was the newest one. I quickly acquired the first three, and bought each new one as soon as it came out. He was putting out two books a year for a while there, and it was always a thrill to see a new one on the shelf. I too recommend reading them in publication order.
Wyrd Sisters is one of my all time favourites, and my well worn copy is the one I chose to get signed by the man himself when he came to Brisbane many years ago.
The Discworld has been part of my life for so long that I sometimes forget there are people in the world that have never read any of them. OP is in for a treat.
I know people lump Equal Rites in with the witches series because it's got Granny Weatherwax in, but I'll still propose every time I see it listed that it really shouldn't count as such. Granny is not the same witch in Equal Rites as she's depicted in the later books, and quite a few rather important details of the later books get retconned in or out by the time of Wyrd Sisters. At the time of Rites, the series is still in its early installment weirdness phase.
In Equal Rites, Granny is somehow explicitly stated to be the only witch around Bad Ass, which is inexplicably isn't located in Lancre yet. Nanny Ogg is conspicuously absent, and the backstory hinted at for the time before Granny became a witch is wildly different than what is stated in the later books. For instance, none of the events of Witches Abroad and prior events with her sister could possibly have happened to the Equal Rites version of Granny. She isn't the protagonist of Equal Rites, Esk is. Otherwise, by the same logic half of the Tiffany Aching series should also be in the same cycle merely because Tiffany stays at Granny's place and trains under her for a while just as Esk did.
I really don't think reading Equal Rites first is necessary to begin at Wyrd Sisters.
Personal addition: Equal Rites is not as good as usual Pratchett’s books, I am tempted to say one could just skip it.
Whole heartedly agree, I don't really consider the first 3 Discworld novels to really be part of the main series so much as proto-Discworld books. Almost nothing that takes place in them is even mentioned again barring "What I Did On My Holidays"
Well, Esk does eventually come back for an appearance in one of the Tiffany Aching books. The incident that turned the librarian into an orangutan is seen in The Light Fantastic, as a side effect of the Octavo breaking its containment. The Last Hero is basically a direct continuation of Rincewind's earlier adventures with Cohen, and he winds up on the expedition partially because he's known to be the only person (other than Twoflower, who is absent) to go over the edge and return to tell the tale. Other than the lone remaining sailor from the Maria Pesto, anyway, and he only lived long enough to gibber his one line before keeling over dead. Prior to launching Leonard's great kite, the circumfence around the edge of the Disc near Krull briefly becomes a factor in that the wizards have to blow it up before the craft gets snagged during its launch, and nobody except Rincewind seems to know anything about it in advance.
There are probably other little cameos and callbacks I've forgotten. But yes, the first couple of books were very weird. Pratchett seemingly hadn't formed his final vision for what kind of world the Discworld would be, and it's still riffing heavily on well known fantasy adventure tropes and works like Conan and Fafhrd and the Gray Mouser.
Thanks for the very thorough reply! Yeah I realized I ended up with a mishmash but that's what was at the shop
I put a hold on the first two books of the sub series you mentioned so I'll wait on those two. I'm certainly looking forward to finding which one hits me the best. I've always loved weird, silly, absurd books and with every recommendation I've seen given for Pratchett makes me think these would be just right
You ended up with an exceptionally good mishmash.
If you just read the ones you have randomly, you'd still be very well off. Pratchett was very dedicated to having almost all of his stories function as standalone entities. I'd agree with maybe picking up Mort and reading it before Reaper Man, but, you're going to have a good time regardless and it's more of a thing where you'll just have more of the background setup for you coming into the next book.
Like I said, mishmash is OK, you can definitely read most Discworld stuff out of order and not struggle. Pratchett was great at treating every book like it was the reader's first.
And yeah, weird is definitely his thing. He's a genuinely phenomenal writer, and if anything I think he's still kind of under-appreciated.