Unfortunately, the first books in the Witches, Death, and City Watch series are not available through the NYPL OR the Nashville PL on Kindle. I need to get addicted before I'm willing to pay for the books or suffer through the pain of lifting a big, heavy, real library book (whine!). Will any of these addict me?

ETA: All right. I'll try Witches Abroad, as both of you voted for it. Thanks!

Gris, I think on that list, Witches Abroad, Men at Arms, or Making Money would probably do. Pratchett doesn't do multi-book story arcs, really. Although the characters do grow and change from one book to another, it's mostly implicit, and anything you need to know to understand, he'll tell you.

If you like books about dealing with a multi-cultural city, go for Men at Arms. If you're more interested in the Power of Story and how it can warp people's lives (and be warped by them), try Witches Abroad.

The books are all $7.99 each on Kindle. You know, I tend to love the Kindle, but that is an excessive price for such a long-running, older series. I could almost certainly pick up many of the books at decent used book stores for $2-$3 each.

I started with Fifth Elephant. Then went back and started at the beginning. I'm sure I missed things the first time, but it got me hooked.

I was underwhelmed with the Hitchhiker book. Even the sense of humor was off.

Yeah, I'm not expecting to love it, but I just finished a re-read of the originals about two weeks ago, so the time is right. And I actually quite liked Artemis Fowl, so I'm not opposed to Eoin Colfer at all.

I could almost certainly pick up many of the books at decent used book stores for $2-$3 each.

Oh, sure. I would recommend that. And you know, I rather expect Pratchett to be in print for some time. You shouldn't have trouble finding them used.

I vote for Men at Arms, as I adore the Watch. I myself haven't even read the first Watch book because I can never find it in the library.

Twitter's reporting that Anne McCaffrey has passed away.

She had a good run.