93. ‘The Colour of Magic’ by Terry Pratchett

I find that readers of Terry Pratchett either really like him and have every one of his books proudly displayed on their bookshelves at home, in hardback. Or, they have read one, didn’t really enjoy and haven’t read another since.

Until this book I fell into neither camp as I’d never read any Pratchett. Fantasy novels don’t really do it for me (more on that later) and so I’d never felt the urge to pick one up. Saying that, I do quite like him as a person in interviews and have heard that the humour is quite good and so was slightly intrigued and ready to see what I was missing.

                                                    This is the cover of my first copy which I left on a Virgin Pendolino to London. Doh.

The Colour of Magic is the first book in the Discworld series. Set in a paradoxical universe not too dissimilar from the world in which we live, the novel follows the wizard Rincewind -who knows just the one spell - as he is tasked with looking after Twoflower, the Discworld’s first tourist from another world. Twoflower wants to experience and is excited by everything in this new world, which leads to him often acting like a fool and getting them into all sorts of trouble and misadventures. He finds the good in everything, even when faced with death (as they often are), and rather than see the danger, gets excited about everything much to Rincewind’s annoyance. The two characters end up on a fantastical adventure to the end of the universe, quite accidentally, and encounter everything from men made of water, dragons, barbarians, Fate and Death.

The book is quite funny and Pratchett clearly has a dry sense of humour which I enjoyed, however I just didn’t really ever connect to the narrative or the characters. I liked some of the aspects of the world in which they live, like Twoflower’s ‘picturebox’ acting with the same principals of a camera, only images are painted by a little tiny man who lives inside of the box and who happens to run out of pink meaning all pictures there on in to be in black and white. So it offers a different look at the world. But the novel doesn’t actually offer many resolutions - we don’t know what happens to Twoflower in the end, and the characters seem to move from place to place and dimension to dimension without you really actually caring….or maybe that’s just me!

And this is the problem I mostly have with fantasy novels - they are pretty easy. I don’t mean this in the sense that they are easy reading, I mean that without the restraints of the actualities of the world in which we live, the author is able to make anything up in order to aid their narrative or get the characters out of a tight spot. Rincewind and Twoflower at one point are facing certain death (well this happens a lot actually) and are free falling off the back of a dragon, plummeting to their death from space, when without warning they find themselves inexplicably on an aeroplane in the real world and on their way to America. Then, just like that they are back and then they happen to be out of their little predicament….!

I just it frustrating that anything can be changed or happen at any time. It’s just unrealistic….’Well obviously,’ I hear you cry,’ its fantasy, that’s the point!’ and I know, I know but it just doesn’t float my reading boat. Just as well there aren’t loads of Pratchett on this list eh?....oh…wait…there are….maybe they get better as we move on!

94. ‘The Alchemist’ by Paulo Coelho

I’ve read The Alchemist once before when I was about 20 or 21. I remember reading it on the bus on the way to work, getting off at my stop with one page left to read and thinking that I was so fed up with it I wasn’t even going to bother reading the final page (and therefore actually finding out what is actually discovered) and so I didn’t. Looking back I think the reason I disliked it so much was the importance people gave it - how life changing it was and soul searching, which basically just encouraged lots of eye rolling from me.

However, I must be getting less cynical in my old age or something as this time around I quite enjoyed it. I wouldn’t say I would read another Coelho but there was a definite decrease in the eye rolling and I even read the final page this time, so much better second time around already!

This is such a simplistic story, yet does grapple with the larger aspects of life (I can feel your eyeballs starting but stick with me here). It’s basically about a young boy who has his life as a shepherd pretty much sorted, but he discovers that whilst he is good at his job and likes his life, he yearns for more. It is about following your dreams and hopes in life and encourages the reader not to give up on these at any age, or fall at the first hurdle. He overcomes his struggles and continues in his quest to make his life changing discovery.

I can certainly see why people would read this and find comfort in it, especially if they are changing their life in some way, but it does tend to err on the side of the self-help at times. I however was just reading it for entertainment sake and it was not too bad! Yes it was quite puke inducing airy fairy twaddle at times, but if you just go with it and understand that this is what it is, then it’s enjoyable. Characters do talk to the wind though, and the soul of the earth and the soul of the sun which was a bit weird, and there was definitely still some eye rolling at this - I mean I’m less cynical, but I’m still me!

But all in all this was a good simple story which is quite encouraging and about living life to the full.

And there’s not much wrong with that.