For me, reading Neil Gaiman is like giving my brain a hug, and that’s equally as true of his non-fiction writing as it is his fiction books. So The View From The Cheap Seats was welcome respite from real life shenanigans, although it is also responsible for my already hefty to-be-read list mushrooming into something that could now blot out the sun.
Comprised of a vast array of non-fiction essays, they’re separated into topics to make it easy to navigate for casual readers and ensuring that if certain pieces don’t interest you, there’s still plenty more to choose from. I blasted straight through and read it all, and found that even when an essay was on a topic I either knew nothing of or wasn’t previously interested in, I still enjoyed Gaiman writing about them.
My favourites all revolved around reading and writing in and of themselves, whether he be talking about the importance of libraries, the joy as a reader of finding new worlds to inhabit, or the process of storytelling – while his essays on other writers and their books are the parts responsible for making my future reading list so hefty. I love the way Gaiman describes the people he knows (either personally, or through their work), and the parts on people like the late, great Sir Terry Pratchett and Douglas Adams made me go a bit gooey. Having missed out on Dianna Wynne Jones as a child, Gaiman has also ensured that I will now be rectifying this as an adult.
So, while The View From The Cheap Seats is definitely geared more towards Gaiman fans, I still think it’s one that could appeal to general bookworms.