Out of everything that I read in 2008, this book was among the best of the very best, and it deserves all the sales and acclaim it has received, up to and including the most prestigious honor in children’s literature.

I hasten to add, for those of you who are somehow unfamiliar with The Graveyard Book, that you should not be deterred by that phrase, “children’s literature.” The book is immensely enjoyable and rewarding no matter how young or old you might be, and I recommend it wholeheartedly.

And a more pertinent question: How many blogs do you miss when they’re not updated on a regular basis?

At the moment, I subscribe to – hold on, let me check. Okay, I’m back. According to Bloglines, I currently have 41 newsfeeds, scattered across categories that include “news” and “writing and literature” and “horror“ and “technology” and good old “miscellaneous,” among others. Is 41 feeds a lot? I’m not sure, but it sounds like a lot. It’s probably more than average, but I hope it’s not enough to make me seem like some kind of weirdly obsessive techno-nerd.

Anyway, of the 41 feeds, only seven or eight would qualify as blogs, and of those, only a few are updated on a regular or near-regular basis. And of those, the only one that I miss when I don’t get my daily fix is Neil Gaiman’s Journal.

I hope all of you are familiar with Neil Gaiman. If you’re not, stop right now, read no further, and get thee to Amazon or Borders or Barnes and Noble or Waldenbooks or The Little Shop Around the Corner and correct this deficiency immediately. You will not be sorry. Whether you’re talking about his novels, his young adult literature, his short stories, his comic book work or anything else he’s created in his eclectic and wildly productive career, Neil Gaiman is one of the best we’ve got – probably one of the best we’ve ever had.

His journal is just like the rest of his work: cozy, welcoming, diverse and quirky, chock full of fun stuff and interesting facts, serious, funny, caring and carefree, a bit strange at times, occasionally very strange, and always overflowing with the warmth of a generous spirit. On any given day he might be answering questions from readers, describing his latest reading or speaking engagement, giving a weather update from Minnesota or his current location on the road, praising the work of another writer or artist, posting a picture of his latest haircut, stressing the importance of protecting free speech, griping about deadlines, celebrating the birth of a new story, or pointing his readers to some odd but fascinating little corner of the Internet. He and his cohorts also make sure his site has plenty of entertaining attractions for readers/visitors, like this cloud comprised of words that appeared in his journal over the past six years or this bizarrely addictive little device – all of which are shared first with journal readers.

Neil is pretty good about posting something every day, sometimes more than once a day, but when he misses, I notice. I think, “Hey, there was no Neil Gaiman post today. Damn.” And that’s more than I can say about the other blogs I follow.

I think all of us should have something like Neil Gaiman’s Journal in our lives – a friend who drops in at odd hours to enlighten us, make us laugh, make us think, confound us, or just make us feel better about the world for a few minutes.

Neil Gaiman at DreamHaven Books

Neil Gaiman on Amazon