American Gods and Suicide

Ok. I don't plan on making mild intoxication a prerequisite for my blogging, and to be fair, I've only had a couple of Harps tonight. When I got home I stared at my bottle of rum for a bit, but I'm not willing to drink that shit straight. Hmmm. The first couple of lines don't make a lot of sense, but I'll let them play.

In the last couple of weeks I picked up a couple of books from Half Price, namely American Gods by Neil Gaiman and Veronika Decides to Die by Paulo Coelho. Now, Gaiman I have had some passing familiarity with since I was 15 and one of my friends from TAMS loaned me a copy of Death: The High Cost of Living. I've been on a nodding in passing basis with the guy (figuratively speaking) at best since then. I'll admit, I was looking for Stardust, to no avail, but I dimly recollected that the book that was available was reputed to be interesting at the very least. So, I read.

I'll say it first, I wish I had sat down and plowed through it in one sitting. As it was, I spent a few days snatching a chapter here and there while at work, home, and play. It brought to mind a time when I was younger and always carried a purse (not of high fashion, as I recall I had a smiley face purse I was fond of for months) for the sole purpose of having a place to stow a couple of books. It's interesting, the concept being that the world is full of gods that have lost their power and importance over the course of years. Several comments are made that America is not a fertile ground for most gods, and they end up becoming taxi drivers, con artists, ladies of the night, etc. I think I will reread it in the near future when I have easy access to Google for a good portion of the time, as there were several references that tickled areas of memory without producing a solid answer of who some of the characters were or what they initially stood for. I think it would make the book even more memorable. Putting it bluntly, I enjoyed it. I spent a great deal of time wondering what the hell was going to happen, and eventually the story widened and an "Aha!" moment struck. I look forward to getting my greedy mitts on some of his other tales.

As for Veronika... So far, so good. The most crazed person in the asylum seems to be the doctor, perhaps not too surprising considering that the author spent a good portion of 3 years in such a locale at the pressing of his family. I wonder how the tale will unfold.

I'll admit, this is a far cry from what I actually wanted to write about. Sometimes, though, it's better to think before you type. Or not. Maybe it's better to be a little crazy.

Random Link: I'm hoping for fireballs of the non-lethal variety to see.