Inspirational

Not just the quote from Mr. Pratchett which rings true for me but also the docu-drama last night 'Terry Pratchett - Back in Black' which was a form of biography where instead of lots of celebrities waxing lyrical about the dearly departed, we had an actor playing Terry Pratchett and recounting his own life interespersed with clips of his fans attending Discworld conventions and occasionally stating their own thoughts on the man.

I was moved, so much so that I purchased two books there and then - 'The Night Watch', a classic Discworld novel and 'The Shepherd's Crown', the last book he ever wrote. I've read the former, not the latter. This will be the first time I've ever knowingly read a book a second time. I suspect I have read more than one a second time simply because I couldn't recall the detail even though every chapter had a familiarity about it. Anyone else done that? 

I loved the fact that he was so driven by a desire to show people who put him down how wrong they were. His headmaster for example who told him at age 6 that he would never make anything of himself and these unbelievably snobbish booker prize panelists who dismissed his books out of hand. The female panelist said that she gave up at page 150 and could never imagine a female reader taking to the books (try telling that to the legions of girls that come dressed to his conventions as female characters from the books) or the male panelist who said he doesn't even write properly because he doesn't use chapters. I've read prize winning books - BORING!

Funniest thing I hear though has to be the fact that 30,000 of his fans signed a petition demanding that DEATH send him back. It could almost be a storyline from one of his books.