WINNER: LITTLE OWL 67-57
Morepork soundly defeated the Barred Owl in a real surprise to most of us. If Morepork makes it through this, he may be facing New Zealand's recent addition, the Barn Owl. Morepork is about 10 inches / 26 cm. It's this small enough to be today's favorite little brown owl?
Little Owl bested Barking Owl to get here today. Little Owl was also brought to New Zealand's South Island in the early 20th century. Little Owl measures in at 8.5 inches / 22 cm giving it the edge in tinyness. Little Owl is all over Eurasia and Africa as well.
Will this flat headed fellow be the winner today, or will the charm and rarity of the Morepork prevail? Upvote your favorite!
Surely the Terry Pratchett association cancels out Truss?
Ahh, speaking about expanding our horizons... I have not yet partaken of Discworld. I see it mentioned all the time online but never IRL so it always ends up slipping my mind. Is there a current appropriate place to start? I feel Guards, Guards is the one I typically have seen mentioned.
Guards, Guards and the stories of the city watch are definitely my favorite thread of the universe. Mort might also be a good intro, I think.
Thank you, kind stranger!
I really like this suggested reading order, 8ve recommended it quite a few times: https://www.discworldemporium.com/reading-order/
I'm a little envious of you, getting to experience all these lovely books for the first time! Terry Pratchett has such a brilliant style of writing. He manages to lampoon everyday life annoyances and foibles, into a bizarre setting but it still seeks to be perfectly relatable.
Also in reply to your other comment... You're doing a brilliant job here! The vibe is perfect 😁👏
Thank you! I haven't gotten into too many series overall because I'm always afraid of getting invested and then it either just disappears or will take a dive in quality or the author just seems to lose interest. I've just heard about Discworld for so long having been an Internet nerd that I need to finally see what it's all about.
I like that we're a small enough group that we can keep it loose and talk about tangents like this and it's no biggie. If anything, I feel it keeps something like this from falling too deep into being a niche group.
If that's your concern, I'd like to add some context about Discworld.
Firstly, it's not really just one series -- it's a group of books all set in the same world. Some sets of books follow the same group of characters, but there's a few that are standalone. Monstrous Regiment is my favourite of these. Without spoiling it, it's about a girl who joins a regiment of soldiers to find her brother, also missing in the war. While not a Discworld book, Good Omens was a collaboration between Pratchett and Neil Gaiman that's a very fun book to read.
I'll also give a rough characterisation of Pratchett's writing. It's built on using humour and a strong sense of right and wrong (which most people on Lemmy are broadly likely to agree with) to make a point, while also telling a compelling story.
TLDR: Monstrous Regiment good standalone Discworld, Pratchett funny with big heart.
I did a bit of browsing at lunch, and I followed some of the guides and saw there were quite a bit of individual separate storylines that were highly recommended, which I liked, since it sounds like after I finish one, I can either dive deeper into that story, it hop to another of in feeling into a different "flavor."
Downloaded Guards! Guards! since most people said they enjoyed that one. All I got to read was the dedication at the beginning, but I liked the writing style. Don't know when I'll get to really start since I'm very into the One Piece arc I'm in (another series I finally gave into starting this year) and I also got the What an Owl Knows book from the author I've plugged here a few times, but I definitely want to check out Discworld before the end of the year.
Thank you guys for your advice, and thanks Morepork for helping get this subject brought up!
An excellent point. Really I should be doing all I can to not even think about her, so I'll take that advice!