- It may be obvious to those that know me that I’m a fan of the written word.
- It may be obvious to those that have met me that I like to quote from what I’ve read.
- It may be obvious to those that have seen my desk that I prefer reading a book to reading on a screen.
Those three things are often complimentary; to refresh my memory of a quote, I can dig out the book and have a quick flick through it to find what I was looking for. In fact, this activity is often enjoyable in and of itself, without a specific quote to search for.
But what if I know the author, but not the book? I may know the context, but not the character. While I’d like to be able to browse through an entire series of novels, it’s occasionally not practical to read 4,000,000 words while searching for the appropriate response to a flame war.
Which is why the Pratchett Quote File has been useful over the years. An online resource that allows you to search the more memorable of the quotes provided throughout the entire body of work produced by Terence David John Pratchett. And TP does some mighty fine quotage, as many people have found over the years.
But the PQF didn’t satisfy enough, really. Because it was in contradiction to point 3 above: I prefer the reading in my hands to the reading off a screen. But Mr Stephen Briggs has corrected that deficiency.
Yes, he’s gone and produced a book called The Wit and Wisdom of Discworld, which breaks down the series into the more witty quotes, and all in hardback form. So I can randomly browse for nothing, or remind myself of the great lines in specific books. This is greatly pleasing to me, but will probably be very annoying to you. Because, you see, he’s also gone and included and index.
A harmless thing, you would think. But it allows me to lookup, for example, flow charts, and be instantly rewarded with Trymon didn’t smile often enough, and he liked figures and the sort of organizational charts that show lots of squares with arrows pointing to other squares. In short, he was the sort of man who could use the word ‘personnel’ and mean it.
In short: you are all in for a new version of IDQCT….; a new, improved version. With approximately 17% more Pratchett quoting.
No need to thank me.
The be-hatted one is in Borders in town the week after next (or perhaps next week) doing another signing session. You should plan your trips to Norwichshire better.
The last time I went to see about getting a book signed, yer man missed the signing because he was admitted to hospital with chest pains.
I’ve taken this to be an omen of some description.