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The View from the Cheap Seats by Neil Gaiman
From libraries to comics to the magic of stories themselves, Neil Gaiman’s voice is warm, wry, and wonderfully curious. In The View from the Cheap Seats, he gathers speeches and essays that champion imagination, celebrate fandom, and remind us why tales matter—on the page and in the world.
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In The View from the Cheap Seats, did you enjoy ...
... wry, short-form appreciations, speeches, and forewords about genre and craft?
A Slip of the Keyboard by Terry Pratchett
If you loved the eclectic, bite-sized pieces in The View from the Cheap Seats—from Neil’s tributes to friends like Terry Pratchett to introductions that turn into mini-masterclasses—you’ll relish Pratchett’s own essays. In pieces like “Shaking Hands with Death,” he’s funny and furious by turns; in others, he talks shop about fantasy, publishing, and why stories matter with the same generous wit you enjoyed in Gaiman’s “Make Good Art” address and his reflections on fellow creators.
... thoughtful essays that interrogate why stories matter, from awards speeches to book introductions?
Words Are My Matter by Ursula K. Le Guin
Gaiman’s meditations on the purpose of fiction—like his defense of daydreaming and reading in “Why Our Future Depends on Libraries”—find a profound echo here. Le Guin ranges from incisive reviews to her famed National Book Awards speech, arguing for imagination against market pressures. If you enjoyed Gaiman’s reflections on genre boundaries and the ethics of storytelling, Le Guin’s clear-eyed, compassionate essays will give you that same bracing, nourishing spark.
... playful, humane humor threaded through personal essays and observations?
Me Talk Pretty One Day by David Sedaris
If Gaiman’s wry asides—like his warm, funny notes on touring artists and comics culture—made you smile, Sedaris’s voice will feel like a kindred delight. From his misadventures learning French with a tyrannical teacher to sharply observed family stories, these essays balance silliness with tenderness, much like Gaiman’s knack for finding the human pulse beneath the joke.
... quiet, reflective meditations on creativity, attention, and the sacredness of everyday life?
Upstream by Mary Oliver
Gaiman often pauses to ask what art is for—how stories save us, how wonder keeps us human. Oliver’s essays do the same through nature and craft. In “Of Power and Time” and the title piece, she traces how attention becomes art, echoing the gentle, searching spirit you felt in Gaiman’s pieces on myth, fairy tales, and the everyday magic that fuels making.
... a passionate case for libraries’ civic value, embedded in a true-story investigation?
The Library Book by Susan Orlean
If Gaiman’s “Why Our Future Depends on Libraries” made you want to hug your local branch, Orlean gives you the full, compelling why. Centered on the 1986 Los Angeles Public Library fire, she braids true crime with a love letter to librarianship—funding battles, community lifelines, and the quiet heroism behind every checked-out book—capturing the same moral clarity and affection for reading culture that animate Gaiman’s essays.
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