My plan to do more reading more regularly this year is not going as prolifically as I’d hoped, for a lot of reasons. But at least I’m still doing it.
Latest book: “Neverwhere,” by Neil Gaiman
Which I swear I’ve read before. It’s been sitting on my already-read shelves for years, and if you’d asked me what it was about, I’d have told you it was about an ordinary Londoner who one day falls through a rabbit hole and ends up in this semi-magical underground London. Which is, indeed, what it’s about.
And, in fact, the only reason I decided to read it “again”* is it closely fits the genre and themes of the books I’ve been concentrating on this year, and in such a prototypical way that I would often refer to “Neverwhere” as an example of “the sort of book I want to read–and write” in my LJ posts and comments. Richard Mayhew is an ordinary human “character of invitation” who stumbles upon a hidden supernatural world on our contemporary Earth and ends up being a champion of that underworld in a supernatural struggle of good and evil.
(* I also decided to read it again because when I finished my previous book, I was on my way to Arizona and didn’t have time to wait for the inter-library loan to send me a different book from my reading list.)
But after about the first chapter, the specific events started losing that familiarity of having been read before. Which makes me suspect I read the first chapter of this book at some point in the past, and then something happened in my life and I put it down and forgot about it. It’s not the sort of book I would have stopped reading because I didn’t like the book (as was the case with “American Gods.”) I do like the book. Did.
So Gaiman really is English, is he? Because I was sitting reading this thinking, “pretty good grasp of British humor for an American.”
“A Wizard of Earthsea”, Ursula Le Guin
“Proven Guilty”, Jim Butcher
“Dreamchild”, Hilary Hemingway and Jeffry P. Lindsay
“Guilty Pleasures”, Laurell K. Hamilton
“The War for the Oaks,” Emma Bull
“Shifter,” by Judith and Garfield Reeves-Stevens
“Neverwhere,” by Neil Gaiman
Author Nancy E. Shaffer 
Yes, he is English and if you ever get a chance, he does great readings.
I don’t know why I thought he was American, except a few of his other books had such an “American vibe” to them.
He lives in the States now, his wife I believe is American. He has a great blog at neilgaiman.com, very interesting stuff on writing and such.
Last time I reread Neverwhere I had a great time imagining various people from BtVS as the characters.
It has a BtVS-like vibe to it.
I went to a reading he did of Anansi Boys, and I can definitely say he’s British. Great voice, nice English accent, and a very dry English sense of humour.
Yes, but did he have a cup of tea in his hands? ‘Cause that would be the most telling clue of all!
; )
I’ve always wanted to find out if Door was an influence on the creation of Dawn.
Oh, ’cause of that Key to All Reality thing?
Good picks. I’d love to have a year that included first-time readings of Neverwhere, Wizard of Earthsea, and War for the Oaks. Maybe will try Dreamchild and Proven Guilty.
I wouldn’t recommend Dreamchild. I would recommend The Dresden Files series highly, but starting from the beginning with Storm Front.
Come to think of it, he was holding a cup….but I’m not sure what was in it!
🙂