I don't know what it is, but the Industrial Revolution books just don't seem engaging to me. ( )

Skemmtilegasta saga. Segir frá de Worde, náunga sem hefur í sig og á með því að skrifa reglulega bréf til ráðamanna annarra ríkja með fréttum og slúðri af lífinu í Ankh-Morphok. Þegar nokkrir dvergar kynna honum fyrir nýrri uppfinningu, prentvélinni, sér fréttasnápurinn möguleika á að gefa út fréttablað. Þegar Vetinari stjórnandi borgarinnar er svo handtekinn vegna furðulegs glæps fer de Worde á stúfana, spyr spurninga og birtir þær í fréttasneplinum. Nú lenda misvitrir aðilar Vaktarinnar, lögregluliðs borgarinnar, í óvæntri aðstöðu þegar þeir eru krafðir svara um upplýsingar fyrir íbúa borgarinnar. ( )

I had such a good time reading this again. It is a love letter to journalism with some complaining thrown in of course. Otto is my favorite. I couldn't figure out the dark light. I wonder if it becomes more clear if I read the other Uberwald novels. ( )

There are, it has been said, two types of people in the world. There are those who, when presented with a glass that is exactly half full, say: this glass is half full. And then there are those who say: this glass is half empty.

The world belongs, however, to those who can look at the glass and say: What's up with this glass? Excuse me? Excuse me? This is my glass? I don't think so. My glass was full! And it was a bigger glass! Who's been pinching my beer?

And at the other end of the bar the world is full of the other type of person, who has a broken glass, or a glass that has been carelessly knocked over (usually by one of the people calling for a larger glass) or who had no glass at all, because he was at the back of the crowd and had failed to catch the barman's eye.

In [b:The Truth|34498|The Truth (Discworld, #25; Industrial Revolution, #2)|Terry Pratchett|https://images.gr-assets.com/books/1347487127s/34498.jpg|280092], investigative journalism comes to the Discworld. A young man named William de Worde creates a paper (the Ankh-Morpork Times) of "things written down" which ends up far more popular than he expected, leading to copy cat tabloids and a shakedown from the established printers of the city.

One nice thing about this book is that it could almost have been a City Watch book. We get plenty of Lord Vetinari and Commander Vimes, along with a few appearances by others in the City Watch. Those are (so far) my favorites among the Discworld books, so I'll take it.

Another interest addition to the universe is Mr. Tulip, who swears a lot... except all you hear him say is "ing". As in --ing this or --ing that. It's kind of hilarious and kind of hard to follow, especially in audiobook form.

Perhaps my favorite part of the book though is Otto, a vampire from Überwald who's sworn off blood (we see more of that in the later City Watch books) who runs the cameras for the Ankh-Morpork Times. The best part? He's still a vampire... Whenever his flashbulb goes off, he has a tendency to burn badly and running screaming. Listening to that in the audiobook version is all sorts of fun.

Well worth the read/listen
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Perfect length for an 8 hour flight from London to Toronto.
An excellent bit of Pratchett, top characters, engaging plot, frequently hilarious and deeply humanistic and insightful.
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