Guards! Guards! by Terry Pratchett

There is a kind of book that is exactly the right thing to read when you got up at 5:20 AM to catch a bus to a conference, and have since, without having a nap, listened to six academic papers, and need something to read while eating and before bed.

But which can't be taxing in any way. Preferably light.

This is that kind of book.

I normally enjoy Terry Pratchett without being terribly invested in his books. I've read a handful, enjoy them when I pick them up, rarely search out more.

This one, though. I can't tell if it's actually even better than that, or if that's the exhaustion talking. But I just enjoyed the heck out of Guards! Guards!, from the dissertations on secret societies, the ailments of swamp dragons, the peevishness of the continually overlooked, or the million-to-one-chance-that-might-just-work.

Anyway, a dragon appears, and flames oppressive vegetable shops, and the remnants of the Watch are joined by a new overachieving young human who thought he was a tall dwarf until recently, and find out that maybe it's worth upholding the Law after all. Although perhaps not healthy.

Read as part of the BBC Big Read