Degrees of Affection

I've only started reading Pratchett seriously but I did love his Amazing Maurice, so I put a hold on this at the library before it came out. I'm not a huge fan of short stories but on the whole I rather enjoyed this.

One of the running categories of stories I liked were the ones about the town of Gritshire. They were often humorous, usually contained something that gave me a pause of thought (turn of phrase, etc.), and I always looked forward to the next one. My favorite had to be the time traveling bus.

Now, those of you who know anything abut Gritshire must remember that Even Moor is where all the mystery comes from; it is always misty there, and strange lights are seen at night - p. 244

But the stories that grabbed me, caused me to reconsider basic ideas, and had me waiting impatiently for more - in short what I've always thought Pratchett would do when I read him - were the ones about the Carpet people. What a brilliantly obvious idea! It seems so simple, so "of course!" and yet I'd never considered the carpet anything but something always there. Hidden in plain site. I'll admit, after reading the first one, I stepped differently once or twice. ;)

The idea of a tiny civilization living deep in the weave of a carpet, sailing across a hardwood floor to the land of Rug, and common objects to us being mountains to them was amazing.

Oh look, there's a whole book about them. To the library!

While this book as a whole didn't quite grab me as I expected it to, it introduced me to the Carpet people (*hugs book*) as well as gave me a chance to see Pratchett's early writing and see how he's grown as a writer.