American Gods is FREE to READ!

Harper Collins is doing something shocking for a book publisher – it’s putting a book online for FREE! That’s right! Please, do not die from a heart attack or you won’t be able to read it. They’ve put up American Gods by Neil Gaiman for the month of March (to celebrate Gaiman’s blog being 7 years old). Sadly, they have figured out a way to prevent you from downloading it or printing it off your computer screen. Nevertheless, those of us at desk jobs can keep the webpage open and read a couple pages every so often as a mini-break from work.

The decision to put American Gods online for free is the result of fans’ voting. Earlier in the month, Gaiman asked fans and visitors of his website to decide which of his books should be available online for free. Yours truly participated (although I voted for Coraline, not American Gods). I’m still very excited that it’s available (even though it wasn’t the one I wanted) because that means that more people will find Neil Gaiman and hopefully decide to read his books.

I’m personally excited to re-read American Gods. The first time I read it (about 4 years ago), I was really thrown for a loop by what he was doing in the book. It isn’t a traditional novel. I don’t want to ruin it for anyone who hasn’t read it yet, but…. the ending isn’t like a “normal” novel ending. I found out later through reading the blog that Gaiman did this intentionally to make the book pretty much unadaptable for tv/film. Since learning about this artistic choice, I’ve a newfound interest in trying the book again to see if I like it better than I did before (because I must confess that I was really annoyed by the atypical ending the first time around).

American Gods is also very different from Gaiman’s other work. It’s not the same saga-atmosphere that his graphic novels, Sandman, produce. It’s not comic like his project with Terry Pratchett, Good Omens. It’s not a straight fairy tale as Stardust is (the book and the film). Basically, it’s not representative of Gaiman’s work, but it is one of the most interesting things (though many either love it or hate it) that he has done. (Have I entreated you to read it enough by now? I hope so. Please, go read it!)

~ by LD on February 29, 2008.