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Terry Pratchett: The Wit & Wisdom Of Discworld compiled by Stephen Briggs
01/12/2007 . Source: Phil Jones 
pub: Doubleday/Transworld Publishers. 304 page indexed hardback. Price: £14.99 (UK), $34.95 (CAN). ISBN: 978-0-385-61177-0. Buy The Wit & Wisdom Of Discworld in the USA - or Buy The Wit & Wisdom Of Discworld in the UK  check out website: www.transworld-publishers.co.uk and www.terrypratchett.co.uk
I'm always a bit dubious of spin-off or compilation books where large series are concerned. As far as 'Discworld' is concerned, it is quite a large one at that, the series that is. I think you have to ask yourself does it add or aid to your overall experience or cynically is it just another search for more cash? I think, though, with this book it's more of the former.
Stephen Briggs has in the past provided us with maps including the streets of Ankh Morpork, a Discworld companion book and numerous play adaptations of Discworld books. So it follows that our friend Stephen Briggs is fairly well-versed in the Discworld Universe. So we have a book full of the juiciest tidbits from the very first book 'The Colour Of Magic' to the recent 'Making Money'. So as to speak, we have a fair amount of material to go at.
This then makes for a rather good coffee table item for our Discworld fans out there, but it also acts as a rather good introduction to the style, humour and imagination of Terry Pratchett. For example, plunging inward into the bowels of the book:-
'Meat pies! Hot sausages! Inna bun! So fresh the pig hasn't noticed They're gone!' - Moving Pictures
'He... liked my singing. Everyone else said it sounded like a flock of vultures who've just found a dead donkey'- Pyramids
'The librarian ambled back down the aisles. He had a face that only a lorry tyre could love'- Sourcery
There are plenty of short clips from the books along with longer passages which provide the evolving humour of 'Discworld' books. It's not an exhaustive book but rather Stephen Briggs favourite excerpts. A complete book would have course been huge. One point of note is the cover. Impressively, like an aged Victorian book.
What you don't get is the longer more complex and involved jokes which would in effect spoil many of the books if you haven't read them. Actually, regarding spoilers I would say you could read this book with relative safety. You're not going to run the risk of finding out major plot-lines or elements if you haven't read a particular book in the series. It's really designed for just dipping in whenever you fancy a bit of TP. Like I said earlier, it's a good way to introduce yourself to Terry Pratchett - sort of Pratchett-lite. It also gives you a quick way to wander through Discworld.
Phil Jones
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