Neil Gaiman is My Spirit Animal

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So, I read a lot. I read a lot of different genres and a lot of different authors and I have to say, I have never stumbled upon a writer I identify more with than Neil Gaiman. I mean, when I read his writing, I just get it. It's like "yeah, my sentiments exactly" or "yeah, I know whatcha talking 'bout".

Well, maybe not exactly like that.

Anyway, I'm working on reading all of his novels and I just finished reading Good Omens: The Nice and Accurate Prophecies of Agnes Nutter, Witch. I'm going to write a full review of it later, but I don't think the apocalypse has ever been so funny. In fact, I usually find it to be rather somber and distressing for some reason. Huh. I would say that it sort of reminded me of The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy, but I don't like comparing books in that way. Let's just say, that if you like the Hitchhiker's Guide, you'd probably like Good Omens. Actually, if you have a basic understanding of Christianity and a functioning sense of humor, you'd probably like Good Omens. I loved it.
It was a book after me own heart.

Another book I really loved was Stardust. I saw the movie version too, but it didn't do it justice. That was a beautiful book; maybe I'll do a review of that one too. In Stardust, Neil Gaiman uses the fantasy genre in the way, in my opinion, it was intended to be used. He and I seem to share some of the same ideas about fantasy. While I'm all for well defined, life-like fantasy universes, like that of The Lord of the Rings, I think that, at it's best, fantasy leaves things a little blurry around the edges. There's a quotation from Stardust that I love that I think really exemplifies this:

"A question like 'How big is Faerie?' does not admit a simple answer. Faerie, after all, is not one land, one principality or dominion. Maps of Faerie are unreliable, and may not be depended upon...Faerie is bigger than...the world (for, since the dawn of time, each land that has been forced off the map by explorers and the brace going out and proving it wasn't there has taken refuge in Faerie; so it is now, by the time that we come to write of it, a most huge place indeed...). Here, truly, there be Dragons."

I think we writers call it 'word envy' when we encounter someone who can write like that.

I have a friend that likes to say that if she was a witch, John Green would be her patronus. Well, if I was a witch, then Neil Gaiman would be my patronus. Well, it would be either him or a unicorn. When you have the choice, always choose the unicorn.

Just readin'  

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