Categories
Back Seat Book Club Shows

Back Seat Book Club – Book Three: Hogfather

**We’re close to choosing the next six books for Back Seat Book Club and we need your recommendations!  Leave a comment here, leave us a voice mail  or leave a comment on our Goodreads group** 

Author: Terry Pratchett

Publication date: 1996

Victor Gollancz

Plot Summary – ITS THE NIGHT BEFORE HOGSWATCH.  AND IT’S TOO QUIET.
Where is the big jolly fat man?  Why is Death creeping down chimneys and trying to say Ho Ho Ho?  The darkest night of the year is getting a lot darker…Susan the gothic governess has got to sort it out by morning, otherwise there won’t be a morning.  Ever again…

The 20th Discworld novel is a festive feast of darkness and Death (but with jolly robins and tinsel too).

As they say:  You’d better watch out…

Quick thoughts:

  • Lena admits to sometimes being confused by the faculty, the assassins and the auditors.
  • Death was a cool dude.
  • Sam’s favorite character is Susan and… who knew the Tooth Fairy had a land of its own?
  • Jack Frost is a punny guy!  AND he likes ferns.
  • Don’t say “moist” to Sam, please.
  • He’s a sociopath, just not the ravenous, bloodthirsty kind.  That’s a good thing, right?
  • Death of Rats is adorable.
  • Bilious, the Oh-god of hangovers and the sock-eating monster and the gnome that leaves warts on your feet.
  • Children don’t go hoppity-skip unless they’re on drug.
  • Grumpy Albert the gnome, trying to be Death’s voice of reason… but Death is as matter-of-fact as they come.
  • Sure, we’d all burst into giggle fits if Death was handing out presents!
  • Kids need to believe the small stuff to get through the big stuff.
  • Tooth fairy = boogey man?  Old gods do new jobs.
  • Who doesn’t want to hang out with the cheerful fairy?
  • TEE-TIME, we’re calling him TEE-TIME!!
  • Banjo, Bongo… something like that.
  • The Unseen University is not Hogwarts.
  • Not a difficult read, recommended by all of the hosts!
  • Being able to tap into your “child at heart” makes this a really fun read.
  • I want a pony in my bedroom!
  • Soul cake duck??  Twilight Zone Easter bunny, maybe?
  • Who better to be the voice of Death than Christopher Lee?
  • Final thoughts – READ IT.

Take the universe and grind it down to the finest powder and sieve it through the finest sieve and then show me one atom of justice, one molecule of mercy. and yet… and yet you act as if there is some ideal order in the world, as if there is some… some rightness in the universe by which it may be judged. – Hogfather

Your hosts for the episode:

  • Lena
  • Scott
  • Sam

this episode was recorded: 10/25/12