Walking the Wall

Fall has arrived with a full complement of required reading (although at least much of this years reading was actually picked by me, so no complaints), and I’ve done my scramble to finish up a couple of books waiting in the wings (see my reading list).  Despite my lack of time for recreational reading, I have a 45 minutes to an hour up to college, as well as a 20 minute ride to and from work that can be reclaimed in the form of an audiobook.

While I have found some great audiobook readers, I have to admit that I really like it when the author reads their own work. Well, I should qualify that, I really like it when the author reads their own work when they are good at reading–which can be a very different skill than writing. Before heading up to class tonight, I downloaded Neil Gaiman’s Fragile Things to listen to–read by Neil Gaiman. Now, I have listened to his Anansi Boys read by Lenny Henry and it is one of my favorite books on audiobook–he’s a fantastic reader (granted, he had a piece of fantastic writing to work with). Gaiman, however, is equally a great reader and makes the experience all the more enjoyable. It feels almost like a bonus, getting the writer’s inflection and tone and rhythm–it gives a little more away about the writer’s intent, I think. This book of short stories and poems read by Gaiman has been a treat so far–the only downside is, I hate not being able to bend the bottom’s of the pages or underline or scribble in the margins.

Fragile Things, from what I’ve listened to so far, seems like a book I’d want to bend pages, underline, or scribble in the margins–I think I’ll have to find a used version of it to add to my physical library. In the forward, Gaiman writes that after hearing “fragile things” in the line of a song, he thought “it seemed like a fine title for a book of short stories. There are so many fragile things, after all. People break so easily, and so do dreams and hearts.”

There are so many fragile things, after all. People break so easily, and so do dreams and hearts.

This line stuck with me as I walked to class, people watching. We really are very fragile and I wonder if we remembered that, would we be more careful with each other?