I stopped by the library the other day to return my copy of The Murder Room and needed to grab something quickly to listen to during my ride home. If you know me pretty well, you know that Neil Gaiman is my all-time favorite author. In my opinion, he can do no wrong. I do have to thank my sister, Gretchen, for turning me on to Neil. If she hadn't brought home a copy of Coraline, I may never have become hooked.
Anyway, I decided to see if any Neil Gaiman audiobooks were available in the library. I was in luck! I picked up two. The first, Fragile Things, was a compilation of short stories and poems. The second, Good Omens, a novel co-authored with Terry Pratchett.
Fragile Things:
I do own a signed copy of this book. It is one of my prized possessions. I had the good fortune of meeting Neil at the National Book Festival in DC several years ago. Ok, so when I say meet, I mean I handed him my book and said hello and couldn't think of anything intelligent to say because I was awestruck. There was also a very long line (I had already waited 3 hours in the rain) of people behind me waiting for autographs. Anyway, I figured this would be a fun book to listen to during my commute. I was very happy to discover that Neil would be reading the audio version of the book. From the few other experiences I've had with authors reading their own work, it's not a good thing. Neil is different. It works. I highly recommend Fragile Things in either book or audiobook form.
I had a discussion with my father on this topic of author-read audio books a while back when I had tried to listen to another book that was horrible (Blood, Bones & Butter: The Inadvertent Education of a Reluctant Chef
) I'm not saying the book was horrible, I didn't make it far enough into it to form an opinion. The reading was so awful that I just had to give up. I might try the actual book form at a later date. The difference between that author and Neil Gaiman? Neil is a storyteller. It is evident in his words and through his voice. Good Omens:
I own the white paperback copy of this book and I've read approx. 1/3 of it. I don't know how long ago that was or why I put it down. It wasn't boring. I enjoy Terry Pratchett almost as much as Neil Gaiman. I should probably be tarred and feathered for not having read the full book at this point in my life. From what I recall reading, it was hilarious and had many ridiculously wonderful footnotes. I just put the first disc in my car on Friday afternoon so I haven't listened to much of it yet.
Well, that's it for today. I hope you enjoyed my little Neil Gaiman lovefest. Feel free to leave comments below!
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