And with this I hope to maybe start a new feature of this forum. If you have something you want to recommend - a band, a book, a movie, an amusement park, a restaurant, anything - just write up a short thing telling us why you like it, why you recommend it, and some things the rest of us should look for to enjoy ourselves. Then, if anyone else has read, seen or been to the thing you recommend OR if they actively seek it out based solely on your recommendation, I urge them to find their way back to the thread that told them about it, and post what they feel.

And, just to clarify, this is MY recommendation thread :b Everybody can make their own, so it won't be hard to find the thread for whomever recommended something you tried... I just thought I'd try it out first...

And now, down to the fun.

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And my first recommendation is a book.

Monstrous Regiment by Terry Pratchett, and the inside jacket says it best:

War has come to Discworld... again.
And, to no one's great surprise, the conflict centers on the small, insufferably arrogant, strictly fundamentalist duchy of Borogravia, which has long prided itself on its ability to beat up on it's neighbors for even the tiniest imagined slight. This time, however, it's Borogravia that's getting its long-overdue comeuppance, which has left the country severely drained of young men.

Ever since her brother Paul Marched off to battle a year ago, Polly Perks has been running The Duchess, her family's inn - even though the revered national deity of Nuggan has decreed that female ownership of a business is an Abomination (with, among other things, oysters, rocks and the color blue). To keep The Duchess in the family, Polly must find her missing sibling. So she cuts off her hair, dons masculine garb and sets out to join him in the man's army.

Despite her rapid mastery of belching, scratching and other macho habits (and aided by a well-placed pair of socks), Polly is afraid that someone will immediately see through her disguise; a fear that proves groundless when the recruiting officer, the legendary and seemingly ageless Sergeant Jackrum, accepts her without question. Or perhaps the sergeant is simply too desperate for fresh cannon fodder to discriminate - which would explain why a vampire, a troll, a zombie, a religious fanatic, and two uncommonly close "friends" are also eagerly welcomed into the fighting fold. But marching off with little (read: NO) training, Polly (now called "Oliver") finds herself wondering about the myriad peculiarities of her new brothers in arms. It would appear that Polly "Ozzer" Perks is not the only grunt with a secret. There is no time to dwell on such matters, however. Duty calls. The battlefield beckons. There's a tide to be turned.

And sometimes - in war as in everything else - the best man for the job is a woman.

I didn't know you were a Discworld fan, Damalis! :D I haven't read Regiment, but I'm very much looking forward to doing so (though I doubt it can beat my favorite Discworld book ever, 'The Fifth Elephant').

And just to give you a taste, the first page of the book:

"Polly cut off her hair in front of the mirror, feeling slightly guilty about not feeling very guilty about doing so. It was supposed to be her crowning glory, and everyone said it was beautiful, but she genreatally wore it in a net when she was working. She'd always told herself it was wasted on her. Yet she was careful to see that the long golden coils all landed on the small sheet spread out for the purpose.

If she would admit to any strong emotion at all at this time, it was sheer annoyance that a haircut was all she needed to pass for a young man. She didn't need to bind up her bosom, which she'd heard was the normal practice. Nature had seen to it that she barely had any problems in this area.

The effect that the scossors had was ... erratic, but it was no worse than some of the male haircuts here. It'd do.

She did feel cold on the back of her neck, but that was only partly because of the loss of her long hair. It was also because of the Stare.

The Duchess watched her from above the bed.

It was a poor woodcut, hand colored, mostly in blue and red. It was of a plain, middle-aged woman whose sagging chin and slightly bulging eyes gave the cynical the feeling someone had put a large fish in a dress, but the artist had managed to capture something extra in that strange, blank expression. Some pictures had eyes that folowed you around the room; this one looked right through you. It was a face found in every home. In Borogravia, you grew up with the Duchess watching you.

Regiment is awesome! :) And I own ALL of Pratchett's books... except 3 :( The Last Hero, Pyramids!, and another I just found out he's done. I even have the Johnny series and Builders, Truckers and Wingers series. He's excellent.

Regiment has a differant feel from his other books, but it's damn good. I kept laughing out loud, then trying to explain the sock jokes to people.

And plus, it has a twist at the end that even had me gasping out loud... totally unexpected!

I got to read Johnny And The Bomb at school, as part of our English course, a couple of years back. What a treat that was. I don't own many of the books - I borrowed most of them from a friend. Pratchett is easily my favorite author, though.

Yeah, the Johnny series was only sold in the US through a book club and as an omnibus, but I grabbed it :) or at least, at the time I bought it, that was the only time it was available stateside... which was many moons ago...

Did you know that the Builders, Truckers and Wingers was going to be made into a movie? Live action last I heard, not a cartoon like alot of the Discworld books were made into..

and :: cough:: not to take my own recommendation thread off topic, so I'll clarify...

I whole heartedly and sincerely recommend ANYTHING written by Terry Pratchett. He is a master of wit and story telling.

One of Pratchett's best works was also one of his earliest...

The Carpet People.

READ IT!