Oh man. I’ve only actually ever read one of his Discworld books, but this is still sort of distressing news: Terry Pratchett announces he has Alzherimer’s disease. He seems pretty upbeat about it, though, which is good:
I would just like to draw attention to everyone reading the above that this should be interpreted as “I am not dead.” I will, of course, be dead at some future point, as will everybody else. For me, this maybe further off than you think — it’s too soon to tell. I know it’s a very human thing to say “Is there anything I can do,” but in this case I would only entertain offers from very high-end experts in brain chemistry.
Oh, and that one Discworld book was The Colour of Magic. I know, I know, it’s not the best one. Lots of people have told me I should skip ahead later in the series. But, see, I liked it. I had a copy lying around, and I am something of a completist anyway, so…
Here’s wishing Pratchett all the best. As he says, this isn’t a death sentence exactly, and he hopefully has many, many productive years still ahead of him.
If you liked The Colour of Magic, you should definitely keep reading, because they just get better from there on. It’s incredible to me how consistently good the series is, and how it maintains not just humor and fun, but real depth, book after book after book. Pratchett’s one of those authors you somehow just seem to expect to keep on writing forever… Which makes this news incredibly depressing. Well, even more incredibly depressing than news of this sort always is.
I have the second book — The Light Fantastic? — I just haven’t gotten around to reading it yet.