Neil Gaiman

I've long heard about Neil Gaiman but had never read any of his work. I knew he wrote the Sandman series of books and I knew people highly recommended him. Yet I never made an attempt to read anything by Neil Gaiman.

Two things changed that.

First - Gaiman wrote an episode of Doctor Who called The Doctor's Wife. I thought both the premise and dialog were very good even by Doctor Who standards (which means the bar was set high to begin with). After watching the episode and learning it was written by Gaiman - I made a mental note to read some of his other stuff.

Second - I was in a store called That's Entertainment that is known mostly for comic books and RPG accessories when I came across a copy of Neil Gaiman's Fragile Things: Short Fictions and Wonders. I bought it and read it and was impressed. From the Sherlock Holmes parallel world inspired A Study in Emerald to the very entertaining The Monarch of the Glen (which I think would make a very cool movie) - I found Gaiman's writing to be compelling, humorous and that his twisted sensibility fit in very well with my tastes (although I do admit that I just couldn't get through the short story Sunbird for whatever reason).

I will be adding American Gods: A Novel to my Amazon wish list. Maybe some day I will get to read one of Gaiman's works in Gaiman's library.