Like most self-respecting fantasy readers, I’m a fan of Discworld. After first diving in with Mort and then dabbling with Tiffany Aching, the Witches, Maurice, and more, I finally set my sights on the biggest hole in my reading: the City Watch books.
Mr. BooksandTea loves the City Watch books. Sam Vimes is his favourite character. And I knew, after having talked to him and many other friends, that Night Watch was sort of the capstone of the series, where Pratchett was working at the height of his powers. I also knew that the book takes place during late May, in particular May the 25th.
Thus, I hatched a cunning plan. For, you see, my decision to spend 2025 reading Middlemarch is not the only time I have deliberately spread out my reading over a long time period. Also, knowing that I have a tendency to read in big bursts and then not read anything for a while because I get overwhelmed or bored, I decided to take things in small pieces.
So: I started reading the City Watch books at a slow and measured pace over a year ago. Since last March, I’ve been diligently catching up on the adventures of Vimes, Carrot, Angua, Cheery and the rest to the tune of one book every 2-3 months. (Nobby is a baby trans whose egg has cracked, don’t argue with me.)
And now I’m finally here! It’s May 21st and I’m a little over 1/3 of the way through. My math says that if I read 77 pages a day, I will finish Night Watch on the glorious 25th of May. It’s actually incredibly hard for me not to just tear through it all right now, but I waited a long time to get to this point, and don’t want to blow it right before the finish line.
The best part is that the lilacs are just starting to come into bloom, and there are tons in the park near my condo, and on the tree on my mother’s front lawn. I may harvest a few clusters to put them in a vase on the special day in question.
Leave a Reply