So I finally used the 2 Barnes and Noble gift cards that I got as a gift from families at the end of the school year in June. I bought a book I can use in the classroom (Diez Deditos, of the popular José Luiz Orozco fame) and the highly anticipated (by me at any rate) Odd and the Frost Giants. What a jewel of a book. I am so glad that I found Neil Gaiman's work, as it always leaves me happy and thoughtful. And shouldn't everyone be that way for a little while at least? A familiar theme for Gaiman is mythology and the "gods", particularly Norse myth. What I like about myth in general (as opposed to religion, which I am studiously leaving out of this conversation) is how gods and humans interact and impact each other. I have always thought of gods in certain mythologies as human nature magnified. In myth, the gods are so very human...yet to be a god in myth means that one's essential nature doesn't change. Man has more leeway in this area, so we have that going for us, which is kinda nice, right? Odd and the Frost Giants was just what I wanted to read. Short, well-written, big ideas with a light touch.
Okay, enough philosophizing...just exercising a little license to gush because, well, this is my blog. I can say what I want.
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