The View From the Cheap Seats by Neil Gaiman

Neil Gaiman is my favorite author. He is also one of my favorite people, just in general. If you want an example of why, just watch this. He is an inspiration and also a creative powerhouse. This man is so prolific that he has done almost everything (and continues to): comics, books of all kinds, movies, tv shows, you name it. So for an aspiring writer he is basically the equivalent to Beyonce. (Although I do also love Beyonce.) I had the chance to meet him 4 years ago and that moment changed my life. (I cried, he shook my hand, it was a good moment.) I am going to see his "An Evening With Neil Gaiman" show next April. But I digress....at another time I will write a big gushy post about Neil Gaiman. Today I am going to stick to my thoughts on his recent book release, the nonfiction collection The View From the Cheap Seats.

Anything by Mr. Gaiman makes me a very happy reader. I bought this book the day it came out and began reading it right away but made myself take all of June to finish it because I liked knowing I had fresh Neil things to read sitting in my room. I was initially worried though because it was a book of nonfiction. I like nonfiction, but even the best of us have to admit it can be boring sometimes. I was pleasantly surprised to find that nothing in this book was boring, not even the introductions to books that were, obviously, not included.

The book is split up into ten sections and within each section are articles or speeches or introductions that fall within the category of that section. I was very happy that his Make Good Art speech had its own section and was the only piece included there. Neil managed to make me scared with his articles and introductions to Edgar Allan Poe or Dracula. He made me cry with a few articles about Amanda Palmer and Anthony Martignetti and Syria. He made me smile and laugh and nod my head in agreement with so many of his other pieces. In the end I felt happy and whole. I now have a list of books, authors, comics, films and artists to look up and enjoy. Surprisingly, The View From the Cheap Seats has become one of my top favorite Neil Gaiman books.

I do not necessarily recommend it for someone who wants to get into reading Neil Gaiman, but I would recommend it to someone who enjoys his work or has at least read one of his fiction novels. But even if one has not read a Neil Gaiman book and wants to go against my advice, one would still enjoy this book. It is full of wisdom and wit and love and wonder. It is, assuredly, a Neil Gaiman book.

I want to finish this review with a list of some of my favorite pieces from The View From the Cheap Seats. I read the book in order, but it certainly does not have to be read that way, so if you want to just peruse a few pieces listed below are my favorites:

- "Why Our Future Depends on Libraries, Reading and Daydreaming", page 5
- "Telling Lies for a Living...and Why We Do It", page 16
- "The Pornography of Genre, or the Genre of Pornography", page 39
- "What the [Very Bad Swearword] Is a Children's Book, Anyway?, page 77
- "Harlan Ellison: The Beast That Shouted Love at the Heart of the World", page 117
- "SIMCITY", page 154
- "Ray Bradbury, Fahrenheit 451, and what Science Fiction is and Does", page 177
- "2004 Harvey Awards Speech", page 300
- "Some Strangeness in the Proportion: The Exquisite Beauties of Edgar Allan Poe", page 317
- "Hi, by the Way: Tori Amos", page 389
- "Once Upon a Time", page 423
- "Make Good Art", page 451
- "The View From the Cheap Seats", page 463
- "The Dresden Dolls: Hallowe'en 2010", page 470