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Neil Gaiman
Feb. 11th, 2008 02:29 amBack in the day when I worked at Taco Bell, Dan Campbell loaned me a book. Neverwhere by Neil Gaiman. Looking back, I don't really know how he knew; we didn't talk that much and when we did, it was mostly to razz each other with jokes on the Your Mom level. (Regardless, I miss that kid.)
But anyway. Neverwhere is, quite simply, one of the finest novels I've ever read. Right after I gave him his copy back I hunted it down at the used bookstore because I couldn't not own it. Now (a year or two later? Not sure, exactly...) I've also read American Gods and its sequel, Anansi Boys, and Fragile Things, Good Omens, and Stardust are all close to the top of the books-to-read pile. (I think I would have already read them all were it not for my hangup on address labels; but my organizational compulsions could be an entry in themselves.)
Browsing on Amazon a few weeks ago, I discovered that Gaiman has a blog; happily I was led to his website and am now reading his blog (he posts more than I do!!) via RSS feed. Tonight I delved a bit deeper into the actual website, though, and stumbled across this bit in one of the essays:
What did you like to read when you were growing up?
Anything. I was a reader. My parents would frisk me before family events. Before weddings, funerals, bar mitzvahs, and what have you. Because if they didn't, then the book would be hidden inside some pocket or other and as soon as whatever it was got under way I'd be found in a corner. That was who I was...that was what I did. I was the kid with the book. Now having said that, I tended to gravitate towards anything fantastical be it SF, be it fantasy, be it horror, be it ghost stories or anything in that territory. But I was definitely the kind of kid that read anything. The great thing about being in school in England back then was that the schools were all very old. And the schools being fairly old meant that you were actually dealing with a school library that was endowed sometime in the 1920s. That was the last time they went out on a big book buying expedition. And a few things had turned up in the 30s. I'd get to read these almost forgotten authors. I'd sit up there devouring the complete works of Edgar Wallace or G.K Chesterton. In fact, I remember my first encounter with Lord of the Rings was the first two books in battered old hardcovers. The Fellowship of the Ring and The Two Towers. It was all they had in the library, so I read them over and over again, wondering how it ended. And when I was about twelve I won the school English prize and they said, "What would you like as a present? You get a book." I said please can I have the Return of the King, so that I can find out what happens.
Does life get any better?
(Actually it does; it's pleasing to discover that one of your favorite authors goes about writing and thinks about it the same ways you do. It's encouraging.)
...I'm going to reread Neverwhere. :D
ETA: Forgot to mention that I just discovered one of my online acquaintances is a fellow fan; the first I've come across. You know who you are and comments are <3. ;D
But anyway. Neverwhere is, quite simply, one of the finest novels I've ever read. Right after I gave him his copy back I hunted it down at the used bookstore because I couldn't not own it. Now (a year or two later? Not sure, exactly...) I've also read American Gods and its sequel, Anansi Boys, and Fragile Things, Good Omens, and Stardust are all close to the top of the books-to-read pile. (I think I would have already read them all were it not for my hangup on address labels; but my organizational compulsions could be an entry in themselves.)
Browsing on Amazon a few weeks ago, I discovered that Gaiman has a blog; happily I was led to his website and am now reading his blog (he posts more than I do!!) via RSS feed. Tonight I delved a bit deeper into the actual website, though, and stumbled across this bit in one of the essays:
What did you like to read when you were growing up?
Anything. I was a reader. My parents would frisk me before family events. Before weddings, funerals, bar mitzvahs, and what have you. Because if they didn't, then the book would be hidden inside some pocket or other and as soon as whatever it was got under way I'd be found in a corner. That was who I was...that was what I did. I was the kid with the book. Now having said that, I tended to gravitate towards anything fantastical be it SF, be it fantasy, be it horror, be it ghost stories or anything in that territory. But I was definitely the kind of kid that read anything. The great thing about being in school in England back then was that the schools were all very old. And the schools being fairly old meant that you were actually dealing with a school library that was endowed sometime in the 1920s. That was the last time they went out on a big book buying expedition. And a few things had turned up in the 30s. I'd get to read these almost forgotten authors. I'd sit up there devouring the complete works of Edgar Wallace or G.K Chesterton. In fact, I remember my first encounter with Lord of the Rings was the first two books in battered old hardcovers. The Fellowship of the Ring and The Two Towers. It was all they had in the library, so I read them over and over again, wondering how it ended. And when I was about twelve I won the school English prize and they said, "What would you like as a present? You get a book." I said please can I have the Return of the King, so that I can find out what happens.
Does life get any better?
(Actually it does; it's pleasing to discover that one of your favorite authors goes about writing and thinks about it the same ways you do. It's encouraging.)
...I'm going to reread Neverwhere. :D
ETA: Forgot to mention that I just discovered one of my online acquaintances is a fellow fan; the first I've come across. You know who you are and comments are <3. ;D
