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4.0 AVERAGE
4.0 AVERAGE
Some of the pieces made me cry. Some made me wonder. Some inspired me. Having them read by Neil Gaiman rocked my world.
This book is a must-read for fans of reading, writing and Neil Gaiman. It is a love letter to books, libraries, authors, comic books, librarians, and a host of other things and people. I was happy to find this in my local library and will be buying my own copy shortly. Here's a short bit from my favorite part:
Douglas said…Books are sharks,” Gaiman told a packed audience at the Royal Geographical Society in London.
“I must have looked baffled because he he looked very pleased with himself. And he carried on with his metaphor. Books are sharks … because sharks have been around for a very long time. There were sharks before there were dinosaurs, and the reason sharks are still in the ocean is that nothing is better at being a shark than a shark.”
Adams told Gaiman: “‘Look at a book. A book is the right size to be a book. They’re solar-powered. If you drop them, they keep on being a book. You can find your place in microseconds. Books are really good at being books and no matter what happens books will survive.’ And he was right,” said Gaiman.
Douglas said…Books are sharks,” Gaiman told a packed audience at the Royal Geographical Society in London.
“I must have looked baffled because he he looked very pleased with himself. And he carried on with his metaphor. Books are sharks … because sharks have been around for a very long time. There were sharks before there were dinosaurs, and the reason sharks are still in the ocean is that nothing is better at being a shark than a shark.”
Adams told Gaiman: “‘Look at a book. A book is the right size to be a book. They’re solar-powered. If you drop them, they keep on being a book. You can find your place in microseconds. Books are really good at being books and no matter what happens books will survive.’ And he was right,” said Gaiman.
Like many collections, the pieces are not all equally compelling. There is some redundancy due to Gaiman borrowing from his own work. Also, many of these pieces are about specific books, comics, artists, writers, and musicians, so pieces about topics with which I was not familiar were less accessible than those for which I got the references.
This book is part memoir, autobiography, and pop culture commentary. It's more personal that straight journalism, though. As an aspiring writing, I enjoyed reading about how important creativity is to Gaiman and how he defines creativity. He talks about the books he has loved to read, and I took notes.
Well it only took me two years to read through this whole book. I sprinkled it in here and there between other books I was reading. Started it the night I saw Neil Gaiman at Playhouse Square, which was an incredible experience. I think it took me so long because I didn’t want it to end. He’s probably my favorite writer. Everything in these pages is an inspiration. Maybe I’ll spend another two years sifting through its pages.
Pretty much every word that flows from the pen of Neil Gaiman is magic, so I end up feeling as though reviews of his work are attempts to explain the particular enchantments of a particular set of his words. In this case, though, all I can say is, I feel as though everyone should read this one, whether you're already a fan of Gaiman or not. He is such an inspiration to me as a writer and a human being . . . read it. You won't regret it!
Expired audio book that I won't try to renew. I think I would have liked this more if I were more into comics or had a better cultural grasp of some of the authors he writes about!
For me, the most interesting parts were the tidbits into his personality and childhood. I also found it useful as a resource for other books that I would want to read.
I read this book 5 or 6 years ago when it was first published and felt the need to read it again a couple of weeks ago.
If you're a good friend of mine then you know that I love ANYTHING written by Neil Gaiman and have ever since I first discovered his writing when someone recommended I read "Neverwhere" about 25 years ago.
The View From the Cheap Seats is a collection of forewords, prefaces, or introductions to books he has written; a compendium of introductions of other famous people he has written and verbally presented at Science Fiction, Fantasy, and Comic Book conventions; articles he has written about people, books, music, and even the Syrian refugee crisis; as well as a smattering of work he did early on as a journalist before becoming a writer of fiction. (His Lou Reed interview was astonishing in the depth of his knowledge of Reed's music, and the fact that he asked questions in such a way that Reed did not hang up on him, as he had done with so many journalists, but rather stayed on right up until he HAD to go be on stage for a concert he was giving.)
And as much as I have loved his novels, short stories, and other works of fiction (even his "children's" books), The View From the Cheap Seats holds an entirely different level of love from me for his writing for a couple of reasons.
First and foremost; when I read his works of fiction I 'hear" his characters' voices, inflections, tones, etc. based on either what he has written about them and how they speak or, if I have to imagine the characters voices, it is because he has described the character in ways that I assign a certain voice to them. I think we all do that in our heads, whether we actively think about it or not.
When I read this collection, every little bit is in Neil Gaiman's voice which I love to listen to for some reason. It may be the accent, but I think it is probably more because he is as careful and yet delightfully free with his spoken words as he is with his written ones. Some people can speak so eloquently and yet that eloquence never makes it into their written words, others have the exact opposite problem. Neil Gaiman has mastered both.
Secondly, we learn so much about his personal life; his youth, his likes and dislikes, people he has known, why he likes some things and doesn't like others, how he views people and the world and more importantly, himself. When he writes a movie review, an author dedication or a preface to another writer's book I find myself either comparing my takeaway or making notes of the title or author or writer so I can remember to look into each of those myself to see what I can come away from them feeling after I'm done. Will I feel the same? Or will I have a different view? Will I find what he found, or will I miss it altogether?
If you have not yet read The View From the Cheap Seats, I wholeheartedly recommend you do so, especially if you're a Neil Gaiman fan. And if you've already read it, do what I did and re-read it again. Like the majority of Neil Gaiman's work, it is as good as or better the second time around.
If you're a good friend of mine then you know that I love ANYTHING written by Neil Gaiman and have ever since I first discovered his writing when someone recommended I read "Neverwhere" about 25 years ago.
The View From the Cheap Seats is a collection of forewords, prefaces, or introductions to books he has written; a compendium of introductions of other famous people he has written and verbally presented at Science Fiction, Fantasy, and Comic Book conventions; articles he has written about people, books, music, and even the Syrian refugee crisis; as well as a smattering of work he did early on as a journalist before becoming a writer of fiction. (His Lou Reed interview was astonishing in the depth of his knowledge of Reed's music, and the fact that he asked questions in such a way that Reed did not hang up on him, as he had done with so many journalists, but rather stayed on right up until he HAD to go be on stage for a concert he was giving.)
And as much as I have loved his novels, short stories, and other works of fiction (even his "children's" books), The View From the Cheap Seats holds an entirely different level of love from me for his writing for a couple of reasons.
First and foremost; when I read his works of fiction I 'hear" his characters' voices, inflections, tones, etc. based on either what he has written about them and how they speak or, if I have to imagine the characters voices, it is because he has described the character in ways that I assign a certain voice to them. I think we all do that in our heads, whether we actively think about it or not.
When I read this collection, every little bit is in Neil Gaiman's voice which I love to listen to for some reason. It may be the accent, but I think it is probably more because he is as careful and yet delightfully free with his spoken words as he is with his written ones. Some people can speak so eloquently and yet that eloquence never makes it into their written words, others have the exact opposite problem. Neil Gaiman has mastered both.
Secondly, we learn so much about his personal life; his youth, his likes and dislikes, people he has known, why he likes some things and doesn't like others, how he views people and the world and more importantly, himself. When he writes a movie review, an author dedication or a preface to another writer's book I find myself either comparing my takeaway or making notes of the title or author or writer so I can remember to look into each of those myself to see what I can come away from them feeling after I'm done. Will I feel the same? Or will I have a different view? Will I find what he found, or will I miss it altogether?
If you have not yet read The View From the Cheap Seats, I wholeheartedly recommend you do so, especially if you're a Neil Gaiman fan. And if you've already read it, do what I did and re-read it again. Like the majority of Neil Gaiman's work, it is as good as or better the second time around.
I cannot express how unutterably cool it has been listening to the author read his nonfiction introductions, news articles, speeches, and other items. If you are a fan of Neil Gaiman's work, you really must listen to this in audiobook format. And then you need to figure out how to get a printed copy both of the "make good art" bits, posting some of the particularly catching lines in appealing fonts to motivate and inspire you. It has left me with a new appreciation for those oft-skipped introductions to books, a desire to find more speeches done at various events that would be of interest to me (the "support libraries" speeches were fabulous!), a few new facts about Tori Amos and Lou Reed, and many additions to my "to-read" list as I listened to him praise various authors I may or may not have heard of previously, expounding on their contributions to their craft and the world at large.