I Just Read About That…

SOUNDTRACK: MY MORNING JACKET-Okonokos (2006).

[READ: Summer 2006] Good Omens.

This book is precisely what this blog is all about.

Fascinating back story: I had read Neil Gaiman’s Sandman graphic novels and really enjoyed them. In fact, they are what got me into graphic novels in the first place. So, when I saw that he had written a book I thought I’d check it out. It turned out to be co-authored by some guy named Terry Pratchett. Now here’s the funny part. There is a fog on my memory. And then suddenly I am reading Terry Pratchett’s first novel The Colour of Magic in a warehouse in Cambridge, Ma. Here’s the really funny part: I am reading The Colour of Magic Compact Edition which is about 3 1/2 inches square. There is really nothing more emasculating than reading a very tiny book. In a warehouse. In front of other guys. The only saving grace is that it was a bookstore warehouse, so the other guys were literate. But then, well, imagine yourself holding something 3 1/2 inches square. And then imagine trying to read it, very intently every lunch break for weeks. And then reading the next three books in the series, all in compact edition. And why, you ask, would you read these tiny books? Because, at the time, Terry Pratchett’s early books were not available in the U.S. But our great bookstore, Wordsworth (R.I.P.) had an excellent British import section, (cf Utterly Monkey) where I learned about fabulous British authors. And, in some weird twist of fate, the only editions of these books that I could get were these tiny ones. And the reason that I wanted to read these books was because in addition to being anal and having to read series from the beginning, (it all comes back to the beginning now) I LOVED Good Omens. And I have since become a huge Prattchett-phile and read all of the Discworld series, and all of his other books all because I LOVED Good Omens.

And yet, as I just discovered, I couldn’t recall a single thing about Good Omens. Not a single plot point. So, I dragged it off the shelf and started to re-read the book only to realize that, in fact, I had never read Good Omens. WHAT? I based my entire sci-fi/humor love of Terry Pratchett on a book I never read??? Preposterous. And, really I have no idea how I didn’t read it at the time.

So, I read Good Omens for the first time. And I really enjoyed it. It had everything. The four horsemen of the apocalypse (including the new one). The end of the world. Bombs. The Antichrist. A witch named Agnes Nutter and much much of the funny.

I’m unclear how two authors write a book together, and you’d think I could tell which parts were “Neil’s” and which parts were “Terry’s” but I couldn’t. Because of the busy life I lead these days, I’m not sure that, had I read this book now for the first time, I would have devoured all of the Pratchetts, so I’m glad I waited because I got to read my favorite book again for the first time.