Night Watch
One moment, Sir Sam Vimes is in his old patrolman form, chasing a sweet-talking psychopath across the rooftops of Ankh-Morpork. The next, he's lying naked in the street, having been sent back thirty years courtesy of a group of time-manipulating monks who won't leave well enough alone. This Discworld is a darker place that Vimes remembers too well, three decades before his title, fortune, beloved wife, and impending first child. Worse still, the murderer he's pursuing has been transported back also. Worst of all, it's the eve of a fabled street rebellion that needlessly destroyed more than a few good (and not so good) men. Sam Vimes knows his duty, and by changing history he might just save some worthwhile necks—though it could cost him his own personal future. Plus there's a chance to steer a novice watchman straight and teach him a valuable thing or three about policing, an impressionable young copper named Sam Vimes.
Stats for nerds
11recommend
18mentions
14people
2015–2026years
61% recommend39% neutral
Mentions per year
What Hacker News says
- I’m not sure when it started but I seem to read Pratchett’s Night Watch at least once a year on average for the last decade.
Don’t think i’ll stop anytime soon. :)
- Read books.
East of Eden and Grapes of Wrath by Steinbeck, for example. Or collections of Sherlock Holmes stories. Or Asimov's Foundation series (skip the last couple of books!). Or Night Watch by Terry Pratchett. Or Parliament of Whores by P.J. O'Rourke.
Or go through lists of famous opening lines of novels and maybe pick up a novel that you really like the beginning of ("It is a truth universally acknowledged, that a single man in possession of a good fortune, must be in want of a wife", "It was the best of times, it was the worst of times [...]", "It was a bright cold day in April, and the clocks were striking thirteen", etc.).
It doesn't matter what it is, as long as the writing is good and you like reading it.
(And don't bother looking everything up. It shouldn't be necessary and it makes the reading process dull.)
Another option is to watch TV.
Watch something you never used to watch before, such as Grand Designs or Would I Lie To You (start with the clip "I accidentally bought a horse" on the "WILTY? Nope!" channel as it has fantastic subtitles... which you WILL need). Or maybe A Bit of Fry & Laurie, for example the sketches about language and the sketch with the pretentious tourists (it's on youtube as "A Bit of Fry and Laurie S02E04 Czech"). Or Jimmy Carr hosting I Literally Just Told You (season 1 episode 2 -- the others are not as good). Or Carr hosting The Big Fat Quiz of the Year/Decade/etc or 8 Out Of 10 Cats Does Countdown.
A third option is radio/podcasts.
The Unbelievable Truth (hosted by David Mitchell), for example. Or In Our Time (hosted by Melvyn Bragg) -- start with some of the older ones as Bragg is no longer as sharp or as clear in his speech as he used to be just five years ago.
- Another sort of weird one is Small Gods which is intensely good and definitely very message driven. Small Gods, Pyramids, Soul Music and Night Watch are probably peak pratchett when it comes to actually being fantastical - a lot of his writing is very grounded but in those books he really leaves the beaten path to explore something very... odd.
- Legitimately, one of the best quotes about this is from Terry Pratchett' Night Watch book:
>Don't put your trust in revolutions. They always come around again. That's why they're called revolutions.” Commander Sam Vimes
- I personally hate self improvement books/management, so here are some narrative books that I loved and got lost in
1) The tiger's wife - To me it has a brilliant full universe. Its comprised of a overarching narrative broken up with lots of short stories.
2) night watch/ making money / going postal - terry pratchett Fun stories with full characters.
3) THe pigeon tunnels - john le carre, Again composed of short stories, not overly spy-y just fascinating character studies, with a bit of history.
4) differently morphous - Yahtzee croshaw this one is a scifi comedy, 100% worth getting in audiobook form
5) rivers of london - ben aaronovich, policeman who was all set for a life of being a desk clerk accidentally becomes a wizard policemen.
6) harry potter, obviously :)
- Just finished with Terry Pratchett's Night Watch. So good.
