I think this was largely a case of me being the wrong reader for the book. This is a collection of nonfiction writings (introductions, speeches, articles, etc) that Gaiman collected from many different points of his career. I'm not sure exactly what criteria he used to pick things for this book, but it kind of seemed to fall into whatever he wanted. Different sections had themes- there were a series of pieces about comic books and another decent chunk of introductions he wrote for various books- but overall, it mostly varied.

I think my main issue with this was simply that I went in not knowing much about Neil Gaiman and expecting it to be essays appreciated by a general audience. Instead, it was a lot of specialized information for which I definitely wasn't the appropriate reader. It's hard to listen to a dozen (or more) introductions to books you've never read by authors you've never heard of. Like it's nothing to do with what he wrote, literally just the topics. Or he'd wax poetic for ten pages about a dear writer friend who had passed away and all their great contributions to the art, but if you the reader are not previously familiar with said friend, it drags quite a bit. It's just not written for you in that case. And I felt like at least two thirds of the essays in this book were not for me.

This is the kind of book I'd recommend for Gaiman fans, especially if you go into it knowing you'll pick and choose essays instead of reading the whole thing (and I was listening on audiobook, so skipping around wasn't an easy option). I think that's more of the way it's meant to be read, instead of cover to cover the way I approached it.

Some of the essays I did rather enjoy, though. There were a few about libraries I found interesting and some newspaper articles he'd written that I enjoyed listening to, but honestly even those I didn't love. Had I really liked them, I probably would have just given this book three stars and gone about my way. But something about Gaiman rubs me a bit the wrong way. Like I don't get along with his humor style, maybe? There was a disconnect for me and I found myself more irritated by him than interested in what he had to say, even though I wasn't disagreeing with much of anything he had to say.

I feel like you'd find this book a lot more worthwhile if you just looked at it for specific essays. Like if you're interested in the comic book industry, there's a decent chunk in this book that might be of interest to you. Or if you want Gaiman's thoughts as a reader, especially if you're already decently well read on weird/speculative fiction (which I am not). Or just if you're a super fan and want more from Gaiman in general. I can see people liking this book quite a bit if they're going in with the right expectations and are already interested in those topics, especially if you skip around. As a whole, however, it wasn't for me and I can see a lot of readers getting bored if they try to sit through the whole thing, as I did.