I'll be celebrating my 8th BC birthday on August 29th.

I was introduced to Pratchett thanks to you, fellow bookcrossers !

And this summer I'm reading the books I haven't read so far :-)

To tell the truth, I bought them all online... Er, don't tell my banker ;-)

So, all the books will be turned into international bookrings from September onwards...

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Death

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ResQgeek (USA, USA)
PurplyPup (USA, USA)
biisbsw (USA, USA)
Lintulai (Finland, Europe)
candy-is-dandy (UK, international)

Arrived in the mail today, together with two others. Of course the mail also included two advanced readers copies from the Amazon.com Vine program for me to read and review, so Mt. TBR just got significantly taller. My daughter was also just complaining that she's having trouble finishing "Thief of Time", so it may take us a while to get through all three of these, but I'm looking forward to so great Discworld fun.

What happens when Death retires? In Discworld, he’s given a golden life timer and suddenly finds he will only continue to exist for a finite length of time. How should he use his limited remaining time? He ends up boarding with an old spinster, working as a handyman and along the way learns a great deal about what it means to be mortal.

Meanwhile, the life force from all the creatures who continue to die begins to build up without Death to usher it on. When the oldest wizard at Unseen University, Windle Poons, reaches the end of his life, he finds he’s been stood up by Death, and his soul forces its way back into his body, reanimating it as a zombie, much to the consternation of his fellow wizards. Soon, however, the wizards have other things to worry about as the growing surplus of life force starts causing a great deal of chaos in and around Ankh-Morpork. As the wizards blunder about, trying to understand and address the problem, Poons and his new, undead friends step in to save the city.

While this book was entertaining, and included some truly comic moments, the two storylines were not equally compelling. The threat to Ankh-Morpork was always somewhat vague, as if it was just a vehicle that allowed the characters to engage in some general mayhem. On the other hand, the storyline focused on Death provided a great deal of philosophical meat to chew on, from the nature of death, to the struggles of mortality, and the lasting bonds of true love. This second storyline was far more interesting and compelling for me, and redeemed what was otherwise a mediocre book.

I'll pass this along to my daughter to read and then it will continue on its way.

My daughter is a bit overwhelmed with school work currently and isn't going to be able to read this anytime soon, so we'll look for another copy for her. I'm mailing this along to biisbsw to continue its journey.

The book arrived safe and sound today, thanks biisbsw!