I feel like most of my life I’ve spent catching up. When I was growing up, a lot of popular culture seemed to pass me by. I was quite content just to mess around with a computer, or go out and play football, without really getting into films, TV, music, that kind of thing. I used to be really into kids books before I was a teenager (mainly Enid Blyton…) but when I’d grown out of those books I never really started reading anything else to replace it.
On top of all that, when I finally did get into music (I bought my first CD aged 15), it was mainly dance music. I would sometimes listen to the radio – I have fond memories of listening to the radio while revising in the summer, the radio made it somewhat bearable! – but my tastes were actually pretty narrow and so I didn’t really like the same kind of music that everyone else liked.
As a result of all this, a lot of “firsts” happened at uni for me:
- I first saw Star Wars (the original trilogy, not that there are any other Star Wars films of course… 😉 in my first year at uni;
- I caught up with a whole load of pop music I never listened to the first time round – at cheesy tunes, to start with, quite a few of the songs I didn’t really know! (although at the time I was too scared too admit it… fortunately they played the same ones a lot, so after a few weeks I knew them pretty well!)
- I first listened to the Hitchhiker’s Guide to the Galaxy (the whole radio series) in my second year at uni, and then read the books the following year.
Anyway, I feel like I missed out on a lot when I was growing up – not really through any fault of my own, but these things just passed me by – but these days I feel like I’ve pretty much caught up. There are still “classic” films I need to see and so on, but I’m getting there.
All that said, there is still one thing which has been niggling at me like a sore thumb (yes, I know I’m kind of mixing my metaphors there…) It’s something which virtually every single one of my friends (and I do mean that literally) is into. I’ve never read any Terry Pratchett.
There were people who were into Terry Pratchett at school, but I just never got round to reading any of his books. Then I had friends who liked his books at uni, but – again – I just never read them. It’s something I’ve kind of been putting off for a long time, and there were a lot of other things to catch up on, so it’s just lingered there without me really thinking about it.
Anyway, I finished my reading list recently (amazingly enough), and I decided to start reading some Terry Pratchett: the prevarication will continue no longer! Phil has got three of the Pratchett books, and I am currently working my way through “Lords and Ladies”. It’s not the ideal place to start because it’s in the middle of a series, but I’m enjoying it so far!
He seems to have a brilliant sense of humour – just right for me to appreciate: quite witty, understated, very English! – and very tongue in cheek. In short, I’m enjoying it so far!
So long may the journey continue. I’m hoping to eventually read all of the Discworld books, although that will take some time. Still, good things come to those who… read Terry Pratchett books. If they enjoy them.
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