Hey, cats. Hoping for some guidance. In theory, I should be a big Pratchett fan. It's exactly my type of humor and I love a lot of other books and shows that are in a similar vein. I've started The Colour of Magic three or four times in the last ten years and I just can't seem to get through it. Is there a better place to start or is it more likely that the books just aren't for me, no matter how much I feel they should be? Thanks!

I was reminded of this book and re-read (listened this time) to it when I saw the video of a Japanese woman crying while eating her mother’s curry dish. Has anyone else seen this video?

The woman's mother passed unexpectedly, and she had kept her last homecooked meal frozen for five years until she contacted a Japanese reality TV show called 'Knight Scoop' who had a professional Chef revive it and make it safe to consume. It's an emotional video. I have no idea when the original segment aired and so I wouldn't know whether Hisashi Kashiwai was inspired by it with his Kamogawa Food Detectives, or vice versa, but it evoked a similar feeling. Here is a youtube video if you'd like to watch.

I think what made this book so interesting for me is that some of these characters were loveable, some not so much, but each brought you along on their journey in some way or another. They were unique flawed natural human beings and their emotions tied to the food in question were often messy, mixed. The food was an avenue for them to process (or begin to) the convoluted emotions that lay in deep memory/memories and there was a lot of respect paid to the food itself as well. For a fiction novel it did provide a bit of history and cultural knowledge in regards to some of the sourcing of the ingredients and I appreciated that a lot. It's a simple concept for a book but one that I think evokes your own nostalgic memories tied to food. The other day for example, I had the blandest semolina pudding of my life and yet I have such fond memories tied to it I happily shoveled it in my mouth (never taking it for granted).

The final hexagon died out, turning the whole room dark. The floorboards in that far corner squeaked under the weight of something.

I didn’t realize going into the book that there weren’t any chapter markers. I’m a bit curious to know if this is a regular occurrence in the other books by Terry Pratchett?

That said, I could also murder a curry 🍛

This book is about WHO?!

I feel like I've been lied to lol