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10 Questions for Neil Gaiman — Goodreads Exclusive

Neil Gaiman's imaginary worlds are indisputably dark, often chillingly macabre, and always fun to visit. His characters are spooky but charming, like Death, the beguiling goth girl of the groundbreaking comic series The Sandman; the Other Mother, the soul-snatching matriarch of the young adult bestseller Coraline; and Aziraphale and Crowley, the angel and demon frenemies of the popular satire Good Omens. Gaiman chatted with Goodreads about his latest spine-tingling book, The Graveyard Book, his sources of inspiration, the Hollywood rumor mill, and what he has on his Goodreads currently-reading shelf.

Goodreads: You are a very busy guy: a new book, The Graveyard Book, a new movie, Coraline with Dakota Fanning, and a buzzworthy new Batman comic in the works. What's next?

Neil Gaiman: I'm about to go off on a secret researching expedition around the world for the next book. It's a longish journey. The first stage of it is going to be China. I've always wanted to do a nonfiction book — a travel book.

GR: Let's talk about The Graveyard Book. What inspired this story?

NG: Twenty-three years ago, we lived in a little Sussex town in a tall house across the lane from a graveyard. We didn't have a garden, and our 18-month-old son loved riding a tricycle. If he tried riding in the house he would have died because there were stairs everywhere, so every day I would take him down our precipitous stairs, and he would ride his little tricycle round and round the gravestones. As I watched him happily toddling I would think about how incredibly at home he looked. I thought that I could do something like The Jungle Book with that same equation of boy, orphaned, growing up somewhere else, but I could do it in a graveyard. I had that idea when I was 24 years old. I sat down and tried writing it and thought, "This is a really good idea, and this isn't very good writing. I'm not good enough for this yet, and I will put it off until I'm better."

And I'm glad I waited. I think it's a better book than I set out to write 23 years ago, and I feel like the gods smiled on me, and I got very lucky. Normally, in anything I do, I'm fairly miserable. I do it, and I get grumpy because there is a huge, vast gulf, this aching disparity, between the platonic ideal of the project that was living in my head, and the small, sad, wizened, shaking, squeaking thing that I actually produce. And then there is The Graveyard Book, which is, I think, the first time I've felt really satisfied.

GR: So many of your books walk the boundary between the real and the supernatural. Have you ever had a supernatural experience?

NG: You don't get explanations in real life. You just get moments that are absolutely, utterly, inexplicably odd. Like everybody in the world, I've had moments that are absolutely, utterly, inexplicably odd. I actually wrote about one of them in my latest book, Fragile Things. There's a true-life ghost story about running into a gypsy woman dressed as if she was from a previous century outside my front door. And maybe she was.

Read the next nine questions (yes, we cheated and asked Neil more than 10 questions, wouldn't you?) »

New Feature: Poll Fever!

Barack Obama and John McCain won't be the only ones watching the polls this fall. Do you have a burning question to pose to your Goodreads friends? Now you can post a poll and settle the score. Deciding on your next book club book? — post a poll for your group members. Dying to know if Lord of the Rings beats Harry Potter? — post a poll for all of Goodreads! View all polls »

Movers & Shakers

Goodreads can tell you what's hot! These books have been racing up our most popular charts in the last month.

The Girl with the Dragon Tattoo by Stieg Larsson
A tattooed hacker helps a journalist investigate the disappearance of a teenage heiress, only to uncover darker mysteries. Already being compared to The Da Vinci Code in Europe, this Swedish bestseller (first in a trilogy) has come to America. Bernadette says, "Larsson builds layers of tension and suspense deliciously. If my house had caught fire, I'd have ignored the smoke alarms and stayed to find out what happened next." And La Petite adds, "Time to create a new shelf entitled: kicked ass."

Hot, Flat, and Crowded: Why We Need a Green Revolution — and How It Can Renew America by Thomas L. Friedman
New York Times columnist Friedman tackles the 21st century's most hotly debated issue, arguing that an energy technology revolution would jumpstart the American economy and address climate change in a one-two punch. Goodreads member Joyce says, "We radically have to change our thinking about the earth and its sustainability and America has to take the lead." Elisabeth counters, "I don't agree 100%, but this guy makes me think. I like that he gets people talking."

Fine Just the Way It Is by Annie Proulx
The acclaimed author of Brokeback Mountain returns to Wyoming with a new collection of raw short stories about life in the American West. Goodreads member Gregory says, "With her blunt, unsparing prose, a fierce intellect and a coal black sense of humor, Proulx can paint a vivid and stark portrait of American life, and nowhere is this on better display than in her Wyoming Stories, where the hardscrabble existences of her characters go hand in hand with the bleak words used to describe them."

Home by Marilynne Robinson
Set in the same time and place of Robinson's 2005 Pulitzer Prize-winner Gilead, this companion piece examines the parallel story of the dying Reverend Boughton, his dutiful daughter Glory, and prodigal son Jack. Goodreads member Gin says, "Illuminating quiet or troubled lives is something that Robinson does better than almost anyone writing in the English language today and, as usual, she does so generously and beautifully. Now go read one of her books."

John Adams by David McCullough
Hollywood has made John Adams and American history sexy again, but don't cheat! Read this meticulously researched biography before watching the miniseries starring Paul Giamatti and Laura Linney. Goodreads member Kay calls Pulitzer Prize winner McCullough a "master portraitist," who "like John Adams, gravitates toward 'classical' modes of oration and style. There's a forcefulness and directness that shines through both in Adams and in McCullough's portrayal of him."

Thousands of Books on Listopia!

On Listopia, you tell us what's good. Goodreads members already create and vote on lists like the Best Fairy Tale Retellings, Memoirs by Women, and Must-Read Classics. It's also the perfect place to find the next great book to read; browse thousands of books categorized in every way imaginable and spread the love by voting for your favorites.

First Reads — Win Prerelease Books from Goodreads!

Be the first to read new books! Goodreads has tons of prerelease books and reading-themed goodies available to give away to our members. All you have to do is sign up and cross your fingers! View all prerelease books on First Reads »

Enter the Back to School Book Bonanza from Hachette Book Group USA. Each winner will receive 10 books, including Say You're One of Them and Titanic's Last Secrets: The Further Adventures of Shadow Divers John Chatterton and Richie Kohler.

10 Questions for Neal Stephenson — Goodreads Exclusive

Neal Stephenson would like you to know that he is not a recluse. When fan mail piled up after the smash successes of his multiple bestsellers, including the Cyperpunk classic Snow Crash and genre-bending Cryptonomicon, Stephenson had to make a tough choice between answering fans and writing new fiction. Fortunately, he decided to stick with the latter. Stephenson talked with Goodreads about his new book Anathem, shared some ominous predictions for the future of the Internet, and gave us some expert advice on how to read science fiction.

Read an excerpt of Stephenson's new book Anathem »

Goodreads: Your new book, Anathem, takes place in a frenetic, technology-obsessed future world in which most people are focused on immediate gratification. Only the elite scholars — who you describe as those predisposed to the unusual behavior of sitting and reading a book — are separated from this hectic pace by living in cloistered communities. An intellectual yourself, would you personally find this kind of living situation to be a utopia or a prison?

Neal Stephenson: It's meant to be ambiguous that way. I'm not going to kill the ambiguity by giving you a straight answer. But I will point out that, in the world of the book, the ones in the cloisters are free to leave at any time. They can go back out into the general population and try to make their way in that world like anyone else. So they are making a decision every day as to whether it is a utopia or a prison and whether the outside would be better or worse.

GR: The cloisters in Anathem are organized around Millennium Clocks because some communities of scholars only emerge from isolation every 1,000 years. This seems like an impossible idea found only in science fiction, but The Long Now Foundation, a real-life think tank that emphasizes long-term thinking, is actually planning to build such a clock in Nevada. This engineering feat, The Clock of the Long Now, is a mechanical clock that will keep time accurately for a period of 10,000 years. How are you involved in this project and how did it influence Anathem?

NS: The idea for the world grew out of a back-of-napkin sketch I drew for the Long Now Foundation's website back in 1999. I tried to envision a world in which the building of such clocks had taken place thousands of years in the past. During the time I was writing the book, I paid occasional visits to the workshops where the clock is being built and to the site where it will eventually be constructed, and from time to time I discussed the project in a general way with Danny Hillis, who is the originator of the idea and the designer of the clock.

GR: Anathem includes a glossary of terms. Do you have any strategic reading advice? Should the reader look back and forth or do you recommend full immersion in the language?

NS: I'm hoping that the book is accessible to habitual science fiction readers and non-science fiction readers alike. One of the skills that science fiction readers develop, after reading a few thousand science fiction novels, is picking up the details of a new world through a kind of osmosis. They just plunge and start reading. Unfamiliar names and words appear. Undeterred, they plow ahead. Slowly their subconscious mind assembles a picture of the world. By page 100 or so, they know the meanings of all those words. Every kid in America knows the meanings of words like horcrux and Wizengamot that are used in the Harry Potter novels. But there are also many readers who are more accustomed to books in which every word can be looked up in a dictionary, and they find it distracting or even annoying to encounter new terms in a work of fiction. For them, I included a glossary. Use it or not depending on what sort of reader you are.

Read the next seven questions »

The Never-Ending Book Quiz

Think you have a mind like a steel trap? Play the The Never-Ending Book Quiz and see how you stack up against your friends!

10 Questions for Diane Johnson — Goodreads Exclusive

In her "little house on the Seine," novelist Diane Johnson lives and writes about American life in Paris. Her well-known expatriate trilogy, Le Divorce, Le Mariage, and L'Affaire, is known for its social satire, comedy of manners, and wry perspective on Americans living abroad. Her newest novel, Lulu in Marrakech, is no digression from her signature style, but Johnson leaves France behind to investigate cultural conflict in post-9/11 Morocco. She talked with Goodreads about how she used her new setting to create comedy from the clash between East and West.

Goodreads: Your new book Lulu in Marrakech introduces Lulu Sawyer, a CIA agent that Goodreads member Anika describes as "James Bond meets Bridget Jones." What inspired this character and her story?

Diane Johnson: As usual with the plots of novels, it came from all directions. Lulu came from the idea that though there are women detectives, I hadn't met any female spies in fiction (I'm sure they exist), though I had read nonfictional accounts by women CIA agents. Also, I had a student who had been an FBI agent, and I had encouraged her to write about her adventures. The English lover came from someone I know. And too, I had often been asked what kind of life Isabel Walker of my novel Le Divorce led after the ending of the book, and I think it would be something like Lulu's. Strange to say, I was well on my way with Lulu before Valerie Plame's story came to light.

GR: Lulu moves to Morocco to investigate the flow of Western money to radical Islamic groups, using her romance with an Englishman as a cover. Early on, she admits, "I was a little frightened of Islam; after all that's happened, who isn't?" and soon adds, "After what we had seen in the Balkans, I wasn't reassured about Christians either." Given the complexity of the current political climate, did you set out to write a political novel?

DJ: Rather more directly than usual, though I think of all my novels — and maybe all novels — as political in some sense. My immediate interest was engaged by living part of the year in France, where there is a large Muslim population, and many harrowing newspaper stories of the things that happen to Muslim women, including honor killings, all forms of culture clash, issues around the headscarf, and so on.

GR: Why did you choose Morocco for your setting? Did you travel to Marrakech as part of your research?

DJ: Yes, very agreeably. Morocco is almost the last place Islam and the West coexist happily. It is to be hoped that this coexistence will work and prove that the two religions can get along side by side, as they have done in Egypt or Iran (two places I've lived), though in these latter places, and many others, Europeans have left, and signs of trouble are looming.

Also, I was interested in the Saharawi, the refugees in the Sahara, and also the rise of the "Al Quaeda in North Africa," as it recently began to call itself. It has already caused some bombings.

Read the next seven questions »

Poem of the Month

Used Books by SarahJ

I like them dog-eared and lawnsoft,
and savor the character of winestain
and thumbsmudge,

the tear-warp between pages,
scrawl lolling down margins,

x's, question and check marks
scratched out as anchors.

They kindle affinity with readers
who've leafed through before, house

a kinship of signatures, conjuring towns
and streets in states I'll never visit.

They preach the economy of timber
and purses, while scribbled dates

evoke evenings spent couch-lounging
through past springs and winters.

Though they come off the press crisp
and unsullied, I like them used

for the gust of tinder and sawdust,
the waft of feathers adrift in a hayloft.

I turn the yellow hem of the pages,
a hue half neon, half tubercular,

like the wallpaper of a motel
nicotine-thick with confessions

where with the fray, I find repose
under covers well plumbed
and sepulchral.

Read more poetry »

With love,

Jessica, Elizabeth, and the Goodreads Team

ps. Goodreads is hiring developers!