so this weekend while we were waiting for a movie to start, my girlfriend and i went into the nearby bookstore. i looked on the shelf and was pleasantly surprised to find out that my favorite author just released a new book that i hadn’t even heard about. hooray! i have to get through two books already on my shelf before i can buy more, but still it’s good to know he’s working.

so i read this review/interview article, and i have to say i love this man more every time i hear something he’s said. he’s so witty. some samples:

“I was trying to explain (America) to myself” using myth and fantasy, he said.

He acknowledged that most readers are what he called “mythologically challenged.” But he says they’ll enjoy the novel even if they can’t pinpoint who the disguised god-characters are.

“You don’t have to know anything at all about West African spider gods to know (the character) Mr. Nancy is a funny old man,” Gaiman said. “If you recognize them, it’s brownie points.”

and later

Gaiman sees good things happening in the fantasy genre and is heartened by the legions of children reading the Harry Potter books.

“It’s a place (young readers) can go that is unlike any other place, and it’s welcoming, and it’s a book place,” he said.

“And one day, when they’re old enough, I will take them by the hand and take them to my place.”

not that these are the best examples of how clever he is. but i like the idea of my favorite author (he’s best known for his groundbreaking work on the sandman graphic novel series, a “comic book for intellectuals” which is a sort of fantasy/sci-fi/horror/literary series) leading these little kids who like harry potter into his dark and scary and cool grown-up world of intellectual fantasy. and i wish him luck in tantalizing as many minds as he can lure into his world because i’m already stuck there forever.

yeah, you got it, i’m not working very hard.