BOOKS: The Neil Gaiman Reader

Jun. 10—No apologies for it.

I have read and reviewed, and even re-read and re-reviewed, a lot of Neil Gaiman stories.

Novels, short story collections, essay collections, kids books, illustrated editions, graphic novels, comic books that he's written and ones that other writers have adapted into comic books.

I've read a lot of Gaiman's words, and if you read these reviews regularly, you've regularly read a lot of my words about his words.

A caller once asked me if Neil Gaiman pays me to write reviews for his books.

The answer is no.

I buy his books with my own money and I am not paid to read books to review for the paper. I read them on my own time. So, I read what I like and read as many books by local authors as I can (though never as fast as they would probably like — but again, I read on my own time, not the newspaper's dime).

And I like reading Neil Gaiman stories.

Still, when the hardback, 700-plus-page collection of "Selected Fiction" that is "The Neil Gaiman Reader" was published a few years ago, I opened it, flipped through the pages and felt I had read nearly everything collected between the two covers. I did not buy it then.

A few weeks ago, I ran across the paperback tome of "The Neil Gaiman Reader." Weighed its 700-plus pages in my free hand then shuffled it into the stack of books already under my other arm to be purchased at Books-A-Million.

Given it contains "52 short stories, novellas, and novelettes" as well as excerpts from five of his novels, if nothing else I would pick and choose my way through it, choosing favorites along the way while skipping others, sort of like eating the caramels and vanilla creams and peanut clusters from a Whitman's Sampler box of chocolates while leaving the coconuts and some of the other odd creams behind.

Still, I have been known to eat every single chocolate in a giant Whitman's Sampler box, discovering those gooey creams and coconuts are tasty too, and so it was with "The Neil Gaiman Reader." I devoured every story in the book, one after another.

Some I had read several times in the past. Some I had no recollection of ever reading before. Some, I started and realized I know this story but couldn't recall the ending, or tried second-guessing my memory for the ending. Some, I realized I had read as comic book adaptations but had never read the original short story.

And some I knew from the first word to the last, how it starts, how it goes, how it ends. Some may ask why reread a story you already know so well? I would pose then why eat your favorite chocolate caramel each time you receive a Whitman's Sampler box?

Because, you know they are worth having again.

Some stories are enchanting. Some stories are funny. Some are scary. Some contain elements of all three. Some leave you laughing. Some leave you looking over your shoulder. Some have you rethinking things you thought you knew.

So, after reading numerous short stories arranged chronologically from 1984-2018, including excerpts from five of his novels — "Neverwhere," "Stardust," "American Gods," "Anansi Boys" and "The Ocean at the End of the Lane," I came away with something akin to a sugar high and an odd realization that is addressed in the prologue.

"The Neil Gaiman Reader" covers a lot of ground but it doesn't include any of his comic book work, such as "The Sandman," or his children/youth books such as "Coraline" and "The Graveyard Book," or anything from his take on "Norse Mythology" or his novel with Terry Pratchett, "Good Omens" or his numerous critiques and essays ...

Sigh, I've been glutton enough with "The Neil Gaiman Reader." I can revisit those other works at another time. After all, they are all on my book shelves, waiting as ready as unopened boxes of favorite treats — good for mind, body and soul, again and again.