Dratted Internet

For a week or so, I've been meaning to talk about another "Christmas Book", Neil Gaiman's Fragile Things, a collection of his "short fictions and wonders". I haven't done this yet because I haven't been able to find a picture of the Australian edition online (just when I've come to rely on the internet for all my needs) and have my usual hamfisted excuse about not being able to get my camera to talk to my computer because I'm anachronistic so there.

It's an issue because the Australian edition is far far prettier than the design hodgepodge of the UK hardcover pictured. The cover of my book is almost totally white with a green leaf skeleton on it on the top half. Each section reproduces the leaf in black and white. This made reading the book really delightful visually.

The colliection is a bit of a miscellany and probably one for the fans. My favourite story revisited the hero from American Gods , Gaiman's major novel of a few years ago. This was masterly but some of the stories are misses or jokey pastiches. I found myself not minding this uneveness so much because Gaiman is refreshingly honest about his process and provides an explanation for why he wrote each piece (to paraphrase:"someone asked me to put a story in a collection", "we thought we'd try something together" and, my favourite,"my daughter asked for a unique present for her 18th birthday but, knowing me very well, said that it didn't need to be finished on the day and I'm only 18 months late"). There's plenty to enjoy in this book and I especially enjoyed the fact that it was a gift. Thank you!