Title: Thief of Time
Author: Terry Pratchett
Number of pages: 384
Genre: fantasy
Book Number/Goal: 23/50
My Rating: 4/5

Review:
This is a Discworld novel where the main characters have to save the world from a devious plan to stop the time. The best part of the book is language - it's witty, elegant and very quotable. Also, the subject matter leads to wonderful philosophical insights into the nature of time, history and what does it mean to be a human. Unfortunately all the characters are either boring or annoying (though the Auditors are kind of amusing), and the mysteries are not really intriguing - it didn't keep me on the edge wanting to know what comes next, the plot seems to be only a framework for humor and interesting sci-fi concepts. Anyway, the fun and thoughtful parts make up for the boring parts, so overall it's still worth reading.
Title: Hogfather
Author: Terry Pratchett
Number of pages: 384
Genre: fantasy
Book Number/Goal: 5/50
My Rating: 4.5/5

Review:

It's a Discworld novel about an attempt to eliminate the Hogfather (an analog of Santa Claus). The writing style is awesome! The book is light, amusing, hilarious at times, and full of profound philosophical insights - I especially appreciate the thoughts about the relationship between reality and imagination, and about the nature of belief / religions. Of course it's a comedy and not a philosophical treatise but every joke contains a bit of truth ;)

What I found lacking is the plot - it's totally unengaging and seems to exist only as a way to stick all these wonderful quotes together. Same for the characters - there's a lot of them but only one is intriguing/loveable (Mr. Teatime, the Assassin) and he doesn't appear often enough. (Though the God of Hangovers deserves a mention, too)

I think all Discworld books are more or less like that, and that's why I could never get into Pratchett. I had enjoyed "The Wit & Wisdom of Discworld" which is simply a collection of quotes without any pesky in-between scenes. But I see that it makes sense to read all the original books, at least for a lot more quotes which can't be included in such a small collection.
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