My friend Marna’s very first book just went live yesterday, it’s an ebook and everyone should go buy it here:
And because Marna is just cool like that and her book lends itself she set up a cafepress shop.
And I should point out my other friend Sonja also has ebooks, you can find those here:
I almost forgot to post today. Woops. Well, read this article. Kurt Vonnegut was a brilliant man:
15 Things Kurt Vonnegut Said Better Than Anyone Else Ever Has Or Will
I was originally going to post my fiction reading with my nonfiction, but then I realized that all of the fiction I’d read in the last month or so was by the same author: Neil Gaiman.
I realize that I’m probably late to the party on falling in love with the writing of Gaiman, but better late then never. I’d heard of him before, and I’d even checked out and returned Good Omens a few times without actually reading it. Things started to change when we saw “Stardust” this summer. It felt like a breath of fresh air in a time of unrelenting blockbusters and unoriginal sequels and remakes. That got me curious, but further interest grew when two creative bloggers I read regularly (John Kovalic and Wil Wheaton) referenced his blog entry titled “Why Write?”. Wil Wheaton’s response is especially good.
So I started reading his blog. His blog is much of what I hope this becomes. Not to long after this I bought “American Gods” to give myself no excuse not to read it. Wow. That brought back the excitement in a way that I think I hadn’t felt since discovering the sci fi masters in my teens. Then while visiting my friend in Chicago I read “Sandman volume 1 
reludes and Nocturnes” (the link is a free place to read issue #1 online). I’ve long been a fan of graphic novels, I just haven’t read many. And this was a tremendous piece of work.
I saw “Beowulf” twice in the theater, both in 3D, and I thought it was at least better then average. Curious about the trailer for “Coraline” and after seeing it mention frequently and positively I picked up that children’s book. Honestly it was one of the more gripping things I’ve read in a while. My friend in Chicago gave me a copy of “Good Omens” by Neil Gaiman and Terry Prachett. Some of you may want to throw things, but I just couldn’t get into the last Terry Prachett book I tried to read, so I was a little leery. I shouldn’t have been. “Good Omens” was absolutely hilarious. Laugh out loud and yet strangely thought provoking at the same time. The other Gaiman book I read in the last month was “Neverwhere”, his first published novel. I didn’t like that one as much. It wasn’t a bad read, but to me it was somewhat predictable and I kept feeling like if I only knew London geography a bit better maybe I’d get the book more. Still there were moments of brilliance in it too.
So I’m looking forward to reading more Neil Gaiman in the future (though probably not right now). At some point I need to read all of Sandman for certain. Next summer I will probably go see Coraline in the theater.