Status Updates From The View from the Cheap Sea...

Enjoying the section about comics

I'm in chapter 3. Chapter 1 was awesome but... the last chapters were a bit boring. I think I'll have to skip some chapters.

“Fairy tales are not true. They are more than true. Not because they tell us that dragons exist, but because they tell us that dragons can be defeated.”

Loving this book so far.

there are the best of men and there are fair ladies, but one should not jaunt too jollily with the worst swordsmen

Being directed to some interesting titles while reading this (Cory Doctorow, Maus, Bone, and short works by HG Well and others).

Amo a Neil Gaiman

“You never learn how to write a novel—you just learn how to write the novel you’re writing”

I'm rather enjoying this I must say

I’m learning about authors I’ve not read, and I will now read them. I’m feeling good about myself & my reading comics before comics were cool. The audio version is spectacular! His passionate & enthusiastic reading of his own book fuels my walk.

Today’s science fiction is tomorrow’s contemporary fiction.

Interviews with authors. Introductions & forewords for books. Acceptance speeches. Reviews. Plethora of information about this great author.

“...only four million dollars,which is a lot of money if you come across an abandoned suitcase full of cash in a hollow tree somewhere, but won’t get you very far in the works of fantasy filmmaking.”

I’m learning more about authors I know and ones I don’t know and now want to read. I have read nothing by G. K. Chesterton, Harlan Ellison, Diana Wynne Jones, and others, and I can’t wait to devour their works. I knew Stephen King lived near Sarasota, but not that he lives in a home once owned by John Gotti.

HOLY CRAP THE BIRD LADY

Neil hablando de Terry 😭😭😭😭😭

WOW QUIERO ABRAZAR MUCHO A NEIL

A lot of these are essays about random white guys I don’t care about, but I’m skipping the boring ones and it’s nice to have going in the background

Section II is turning into a list of authors I need to read as recommended by Neil Gaiman

This is good so far. I always think I don't like Neil Gaiman because he's so self aware and when you're reading his books you KNOW he KNOWS he's Neil Gaiman. You know? But... I'm liking this.

A great shout-out to fact checking books and looking into your curiosity when a certain subject interests you.

On cities: Manhattan is fast-talking, untrusting, well-dressed but unshaven; London is huge and confused; Paris is elegant and attractive, older than she looks; San Francisco is crazy, but harmless, and very friendly.

P44: If you've gone to a musical and there are no songs, you are going to walk out feeling that you did not get your musical money's worth.

I am not a non-fiction reader. But for Neil Gaiman’s well-considered thoughts, beautiful writing, and soothing voice, I will be, for a few days.

The prison industry needs to plan its future growth — how many cells are they going to need? How many prisoners are there going to be, fifteen years from now? And they found they could predict it very easily, using a pretty simple algorithm, based about asking what percentage of ten- and eleven-year-olds couldn’t read. And certainly couldn’t read for pleasure.

This is so good

His speech for the 2003 Eisner Award is so good. I love this speech and I'm so glad to be able to listen to it again here.

“It’s all about life. And in the midst of whatever else we’re in, it’s always about life.”

“Life is sometimes hard. Things go wrong, in life and in love and in business and in friendship and in health and in all the other ways that life can go wrong. And when things get tough, this is what you should do. Make good art.”

“‘Trust the tale, not the teller,’ as Stephen King reminded us.”

“It would be a poor sort of world if one were only able to read authors who expressed points of view that one agreed with entirely. It would be a bland sort of world if we could not spend time with people who thought differently, and who saw the world from a different place.”