Congratulations Mr. Gaiman!

I was very excited yesterday to read that Neil Gaiman had been awarded the 2009 Newberry Medal for The Graveyard Book. It was a most excellent book and I got the pleasure of hearing him read the last half of chapter 7 in Boulder on his book tour. I did a post about my Evening with Neil if you would be interested in reading more about his reading. Then if you haven't had the wonderful experience of reading The Graveyard Book, I highly recommend it. You can go to my The Graveyard Book post for more information on the book.

Funny, I remember while reading the book I had a dental appointment. I brought it along with me not only to occupy my time but to take me to a place far far away from the one I was having to be in at the moment. The dentist came in and made some comment about me reading a horror novel. I told him it really wasn't a horror story but more of an adventure about a little boy being raised by ghost in a graveyard. I went on to explain that Neil Gaiman wrote it, how he came up with the idea and it was like the juggle book but instead in a graveyard. I believe I may have even added my excitement about getting to go to his book tour.

Then for the next several minutes (in dentist time I believe it is equivalent to an eternity) with numerous instruments in my mouth thus unable to defend my dear favorite writer, I got to hear how ridiculous of a story that would be, totally unbelievable...uh, excuse me, but that is why they call it FANTASY!! He went on that the Jungle Book was far fetched but not as an absurd of a concept as The Graveyard Book. He continued to rant on after that how a better storyline would have been a little boy lost in the city raised by homeless people. I will be honest, at that point I started drifting, thinking what would be cooler is if talking rats or perhaps a mutant race of homeless people would raised him. I doubt if my dentist and I would ever be Goodreads buddies.

Any way, I guess a story of a little boy being raised by ghost in a graveyard isn't so absurd after all.

Congrats Neil!!