Today, I discarded (added to recycling bin) the articles I’d torn out–and impressive (and heavy) stack of around 600 articles and columns–that I’m 99.99% certain I’ll never read.

That frees up some space. {Since I never attended library school, I never even considered the possibility of donating to “my archive”–I wrote a LOT, and I’d like to think people found my writing useful–but I didn’t write For The Ages in any case.]

Sir Terry Pratchett is dead now. His works will live on for a very long time, I suspect. Chief among his works: the 42 (I believe) Discworld books, including–VERY MUCH including–the half-dozen Tiffany Aching adventures.

I’ve read (and own) all 42, twice I believe, and a few of his other works. Later this fall, I’ll start another read–and, given that I only read one Pratchett for every 6-8 library books I read, this is likely to be the last pass. I like the books quite a bit–ever since I first encountered them, decades ago, in the shipboard library on a cruise. I’m pretty sure I began with the first, which I’ll always think of as The Colour of Magic (even though the American publisher later dropped the “u”). I’ve seen discussions of the series that say NOT to start with that book, but I think it’s as good a place as any–and after a few books, you’ll appreciate having the background.

Pratchett is funny, insightful. a great satirist, and…well, a really good writer. Discworld (it’s flat, resting on several very large elephants which in turn stand on an enormous turtle floating through space–and while there a half dozen or so auxiliary coauthored volumes exploring the science of Discworld, I’ve only read one and don’t think they’re at all needed to enjoy the series).

You may not like Discworld or Pratchett’s style. Tastes differ. But if you’ve never tried one, I recommend them.

A few side notes:

• The one Pratchett novel I’d suggest skipping is the first (NOT a Discworld book), The Carpet People, written when he was 12 years old and revised later. I believe I read it once. On a second try, I bogged down less than a third of the way through and am not likely to continue.
• On the other hand, the standalone novels Nation, Strata, and–especially–Dodger are all IMHO well worth reading.
• Other than The Last Hero, I haven’t really read the illustrated and coauthored Discworld novels or the various other ancillary works. I suspect they’re all good,
• As for the series The Long…, all coauthored with Stephen Baxter, to my eye they start out strong (The Long Earth) and fade away over time. You might love them.

Nothing more to say. If, a decade or so from now, I’m still around and still able to read and comprehend these, I might make a fourth pass–but that’s a lot of Ifs. Meanwhile, I’m looking forward to starting the series again later this Fall.

Here’s what I see to date:

Gold OA 2026: 1,086 PDF, no print (other than my copy)

Diamond OA 2026: 160 PDF, no print

GOA26 dataset: 177 downloads

Gold OA 10 (2025): 2,677 PDF, one print.

Diamond OA 2025: 4,636 PDF, one print

GOA25 dataset: 495 downloads.

Gold OA 9 (2024): 3,827 PDF, one print

Diamond OA 2024: 4,636 PDF, one print

GOA25 dataset: 701 downloads.

The Future

It’s not at all clear that this project will continue, either for me or for others. Right now, I’d say probably not. (Given the apparent stalling of diamond OA, maybe that’s OK.)

The gist was that, after several years, I was getting ready to give up on an audiophile magazine I called “The Absolute Bose” (not quite its real name) for various reasons.

I finally did. And only five months after not renewing and three months after explicitly telling them I wasn’t going to, they stopped sending the issues.

Briefly, I stopped because I no longer found their general attitudes amusing–and, in fact, was finding the editor’s attitudes so grating that I came close to throwing the mag across the room most months. (I am neither violent nor especially demonstrative, as anyone who knows me can attest.) Specifically, assertions such as there being no point of diminishing returns in absurdly expensive audio upgrades and my increasing sense that (a) writers were looking for their preferred set of distortions and (b) writers were hearing differences that could largely be explained by the fact that hearing is NOT entirely based on sound waves at the ear: what the brain does may be more important and (c) every seemingly-audible improvement was a world-shattering improvement. Oh, and the recognition that my 80-year-old hearing-aid using ears aren’t the batlike organs that seem so to be universal among TAB writers.

And, to be sure, the general sense that vinyl is always better than digital…and that *real* music lovers mostly listen to jazz (or maybe classical).

So I’m left with one audio magazine. And I’m increasingly thinking that, in a couple of years when that one’s up for renewal, I might drop that one. Maybe I’m just too old for this stuff. (The other magazine’s many columns seem almost all to be vinyl- and turntable/cartridge-centric, and I still don’t regret having sold all of my 1,200-plus LPs shortly after CDs emerged.) Frankly, reading a favorable review of a cartridge that uses (I AM NOT MAKING THIS UP!) Mammoth tusks for cartridge bodies is…well, I don’t have words. I guess that Mammoth breeding program is going well?

What’s amusing is that when I log in, it always brings up the nearest store. And says that the store is a mere 61.4 miles away. Which is only off by about 60 miles.

I love automation.

The new template isn’t quite as fancy, but it’s cleaner and nicely suits the future usage of Walt at Random. I don’t expect ever to add 2,500 more posts (the blog’s been around for 21 years), but I’m happy not to lose it.

We shall see.