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4.0 AVERAGE
4.0 AVERAGE
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.
If you've never heard Neil Gaiman speak, you really should. As some of the collected works are actual speeches, it's how they're meant to be heard. At times, it's a bit repetitive, as he freely admits to stealing bits from one speech for another, so it's better listened to spread out. As the topics he covers vary--including comics, art, movies, various authors, books, music, libraries--there will be some chapters that interest you more than others. But some of them truly spoke to me.
Gaiman knows (or sadly knew, for some) An amazing assortment of authors, many of whom I (and many others) adore. The stories he relates get right to the heart of their relationship, moving, triumphant, or tragic in turn. An excellent listen for fans of Gaiman, but also for people into comics, fantasy, or science fiction.
Gaiman knows (or sadly knew, for some) An amazing assortment of authors, many of whom I (and many others) adore. The stories he relates get right to the heart of their relationship, moving, triumphant, or tragic in turn. An excellent listen for fans of Gaiman, but also for people into comics, fantasy, or science fiction.
Обожавам тази книга. Обожавам ума на Геймън. Четенето на текстовете ми беше като връщане у дома, като медитация.
Ако някога се почувствате сами, депресирани или просто ви е много студено на душата - прочетете негов текст за литературата, изкуството или просто предговор, който е писал за друг автор. Защото той пише с такава топлина и обич за света и хората, че няма как да не ви сгрее. Геймън си спазва обещанието, че трябва да оставяме този свят в по-добро състояние, в което сме го заварили и - наистина - текстовете му спасяват животи.
Понякога имаме нужда да погледнем навътре към нашата си собствена личностна митология, за да разберем мястото си в света. Да получим обяснение, да добавим магичност в ежедневието и надежда, че утре ще е по-добре. Това прави Геймън за мен - напомня ми, че нещата все пак... не са толкова зле.
Тук се сещам за мой много любим цитат от една фантстична поема на Геймън от друг сборник, който четох на скоро -
"Remember: that giants sleep too soundly; that witches are often betrayed by their appetites; dragons have one soft spot, somewhere, always; hearts can be well-hidden, and you can betray them with your tongue."
Геймън говори много и за насърчаването на четенето, влияние на литературата върху хората. Харесва ми позицията му, че няма погрешна книга за дете, и че не трябва да налагаме на децата си какво да четат. Само трябва да им дадем избор и достъп до книги.
"We all - adults and children, writers and readers - have an obligation to daydream. We have an obligation to imagine. It is easy to pretend that nobody can change anything, that we are in a world in which society is huge and the individual is less than nothing: an atom in a wall, a grain of rice in a rice field. But the truth is, individuals change their world over and over, individuals make the future, and they do it by imagining that things can be different."
--
"For now cities sleep. But there are rumblings. Things change. And what if, tomorrow, cities woke, and went walking? If Tokyo engulfed your town? If Vienna came striding over the hill toward you? If the city you inhabit today just upped and left, and you woke tomorrow wrapped in a thin blanket on an empty plain, where Detroit once stood, or Sydney, or Moscow?
Don't ever take a city for granted.
After all, it is bigger than you are;
it is older;
and it has learned how to wait."
Ако някога се почувствате сами, депресирани или просто ви е много студено на душата - прочетете негов текст за литературата, изкуството или просто предговор, който е писал за друг автор. Защото той пише с такава топлина и обич за света и хората, че няма как да не ви сгрее. Геймън си спазва обещанието, че трябва да оставяме този свят в по-добро състояние, в което сме го заварили и - наистина - текстовете му спасяват животи.
Понякога имаме нужда да погледнем навътре към нашата си собствена личностна митология, за да разберем мястото си в света. Да получим обяснение, да добавим магичност в ежедневието и надежда, че утре ще е по-добре. Това прави Геймън за мен - напомня ми, че нещата все пак... не са толкова зле.
Тук се сещам за мой много любим цитат от една фантстична поема на Геймън от друг сборник, който четох на скоро -
"Remember: that giants sleep too soundly; that witches are often betrayed by their appetites; dragons have one soft spot, somewhere, always; hearts can be well-hidden, and you can betray them with your tongue."
Геймън говори много и за насърчаването на четенето, влияние на литературата върху хората. Харесва ми позицията му, че няма погрешна книга за дете, и че не трябва да налагаме на децата си какво да четат. Само трябва да им дадем избор и достъп до книги.
"We all - adults and children, writers and readers - have an obligation to daydream. We have an obligation to imagine. It is easy to pretend that nobody can change anything, that we are in a world in which society is huge and the individual is less than nothing: an atom in a wall, a grain of rice in a rice field. But the truth is, individuals change their world over and over, individuals make the future, and they do it by imagining that things can be different."
--
"For now cities sleep. But there are rumblings. Things change. And what if, tomorrow, cities woke, and went walking? If Tokyo engulfed your town? If Vienna came striding over the hill toward you? If the city you inhabit today just upped and left, and you woke tomorrow wrapped in a thin blanket on an empty plain, where Detroit once stood, or Sydney, or Moscow?
Don't ever take a city for granted.
After all, it is bigger than you are;
it is older;
and it has learned how to wait."
Oh Neil, how I love you. I enjoyed every essay even the ones that were repeats from when I read or viewed them in their original forms. Neil is one of my favorite authors and this book encourages me to love him even more. His essays on other authors, friends (or both), books he loved, his wife, loss...there is so much in this book that moved me to tears, left me roaring with laughter and broke my heart (Syria). Mr. Gaiman is not only a wonderfully entertaining writer he is a stellar friend and human being. He makes me want to learn more about the Dresden Dolls, start reading comics (I have read several already), return to my old friend Stephen King who I used to read as a youth and now he scares the shit out of me and read old school Sci-fi and comics. Thank you Neil for this grand book of inspirational essays.
listened to this on audiobook, which I’m sure is part of why I enjoyed it. Gaiman is a fantastic narrator; I could happily listen to him read the phone book. I don’t know that I’d have appreciated this as much in the written format. It is a collection of his nonfiction - lots of speeches, book introductions, essays, reviews, that kind of thing. While some stuff drags, as if often the case in collections, there’s also some great stuff in here and I strongly recommend keeping a notepad handy to write down the numerous books he references - I know my “to be read” list grew massively after listening to this.
Adoro Gaiman, lo faccio leggere spesso nelle mie classi. Questo libro raccoglie una serie di microsaggi relativi alla lettura, alla musica, alla cultura in genere. Molto bello quello che descrive il suo rapporto con Terry Pratchett, sentito e particolarmente coinvolgente. E' una lettura piacevole, che può procedere lentamente, perché si può leggere un saggio o due e poi leggere altro, per poi riprendere in mano Gaiman e proseguire. Io trovo geniale questo autore, descrive mondi fantastici con un umorismo e una genialità non comuni.
"Le idee, le idee scritte, sono speciali. Sono il modo in cui trasmettiamo le nostre storie e le nostre idee da una generazione all'altra. Se le perdiamo, perdiamo la nostra storia comune. Perdiamo tutto ciò che ci rende umani"
"Le storie favoriscono l'empatia: ci permettono di entrare nella mente degli altri, ci concedono il dono di vedere il mondo attraverso i loro occhi. I romanzi, i racconti, sono bugie che ci dicono e ci ripetono cose vere"
"Le idee, le idee scritte, sono speciali. Sono il modo in cui trasmettiamo le nostre storie e le nostre idee da una generazione all'altra. Se le perdiamo, perdiamo la nostra storia comune. Perdiamo tutto ciò che ci rende umani"
"Le storie favoriscono l'empatia: ci permettono di entrare nella mente degli altri, ci concedono il dono di vedere il mondo attraverso i loro occhi. I romanzi, i racconti, sono bugie che ci dicono e ci ripetono cose vere"
Read by the author himself, this audio version is quite well done with a series of essays, speeches and other commentaries that Gaiman has made through the years. It held my interest throughout even in the section in which I was not familiar with the author or the genre.
I have long said that if I had the chance to sit down, have a beer and an hour long conversation with one author of my choosing, that author would be Neil Gaiman.
This collection of some of his non fiction has only solidified that decision.
Excellent.
This collection of some of his non fiction has only solidified that decision.
Excellent.
Such a thoughtful, massive nonfiction collection from a favorite fiction writer! Of particular note, I quite enjoyed the "Some Things I Believe" section, "Films and Movies and Me," the Tori Amos & Amanda Palmer celebrations|musings, and from the "Stardust and Fairy Tales" section through to the finale. Dive in, take what you want or need. Return at will: this isn't meant to be a cover-to-cover linear kind of read. But if you love Neil (as I do), reading this is a must. It's a window into the seemingly endless mind and imagination of one of our finest living authors.
Some things got repeated that could have been left out. It was interesting hearing his views.