Writers that make us who we are.

I read a blog post today by Neil Gaiman . In the post he talks about the writers who made him who he is as a writer. He talks about the fact that there is many writers out there who he has read but that some sticks to you and affects (in his case) the way you write and that you keep reading their books over and over again, making them a part of your life.

Now reading this I wanted to say to Gaiman, - well that's what you are to me!
I have read a ridiculous amount of books in my lifetime and probably still will before I die. If you ask me I can ramble out a list of my favourite books but 9 times out of 10 I don't remember who wrote them, except it seems for when it comes to Gaiman. Truth is that he is one of the few writers that I adore, with him it is not so much about loving one or two of his books but the fact that so far I have enjoyed every book of his that I have read and I have the feeling this will never change.

For example I read a couple of Terry Pratchett's books after reading Good Omens (my favourite book of all) as it was written by Gaiman and Pratchett. Before that I had only read the graphic novel version of Mort and watched some cartoon episodes of Discworld. I found that Pratchett is indeed good but that I don't read it with the same flow as Gaiman, I can start a book of his then put it down for weeks before I return. Also I find some more readable then others.

On the other hand when I start reading a Gaiman book I have problems putting it down and generally finish reading it within days. One I even completed in a couple of hours (The Graveyard book) which was annoying as I had brought it to Sweden as a holiday book and finishing it on the first morning I was there meaning I no longer had a book to read for quiet evenings or afternoons.

Another one of my favourites is Veronika decides to die by Paulo Cohelo and after I read that I tried reading some more of his books, problem was I didn't like them. Paulo is very spiritual and it appears a lot of his books are based around this. In Veronika decides to die it's fine as it isn't shoved down your throat but the book in itself just makes you feel all happy to be alive, sadly some of the other books appear to be more about how you should live to be all spiritual which just bores me to death.

So I guess that what I am trying to say is - Neil Gaiman, you to me are amazing! Your books are full of life and wonder and even though they are sometimes sad they make me feel better (except for Nicholas Was which just made me sad, but is brilliant). There is something about the way you write which makes the stories come to life for me and make me want to read them over and over and always keep them close. I love to write (though I am not very good) and if I ever wrote anything half as good as your books it would make me incredibly happy.