Highly paid stunt linguist

That my fine feathered friends is a quote from Equal Rites the third book in the Discworld series by Terry Pratchett. I've begun rereading the Pratchett books, in order of publication this time, and I must say they are brilliant. It isn't that we have a dearth of books in the home, in fact we're in imminent danger of library floor collapse. But all that really means is that we'll have a two story library.
The real reason for rereading Pratchett stems from the fact that he is one of the greatest social satire writers alive. Although the genre says sci-fi, it is only the setting for the allegory that is fictional. The characters are drawn from the round-world, earth, no doubt.
I've already gotten through The Color of Magic, The Light Fantastic and the aforementioned Equal Rites this week, showing both that they are fast and enjoyable reads. The first two deal with the inept, cowardly, but hugely amusing Rincewind the Magician. These are travel novels in the finest tradition, just not the most common of locations. There are references to Laurel and Hardy (Rincewind and Twoflower or briefly Rjinswind and Dr. Zweiblumen), Conan the Barbarian (Cohen the Barbarian), the Lord of the Rings, ancient scientific beliefs (they are on a flat world remember), mimetic isomorphism and business theory (The Guild of Assassins), Boris Valejo's bare chested dragon riding women (the dragons of Wyrmwood), Freud (did I mention naked women on large dragons?) and many other interesting corrolaries to our everyday world.
The third book is the first of the many "witches" books which are really just stories about Granny Weatherwax (even the Tiffany books for kiddos). This book is a wonderful retelling of the standard feminist epic. The list of topics that are investigated here is too long to type, but a brief mention must be made of the joy of reading the interpretation of the special theory of relativity and the retelling of probability.
Again, I'm not a sci-fi fan, but I do love these books - and I can't wait to see the Hogfather movie once it's available on this side of the pond. Next up, Mort, the first of the "Death books." I can't wait.