Fragile Things, by Neil Gaiman, recreated for me the spirit of enjoyment I used to get years ago when I was growing up and reading the short story collections of Ray Bradbury. I don’t think it is quite as consistent as the Bradbury collections were, but there was still a sense of excitement at the end of every story as I wondered what the next one might bring.

Not everything in the book is actually a short story. Some of the entries are poems, and some are random paragraphs that without reading the introduction you might wonder what was going on. But even those have an entertaining and imaginative quality. One of the entries is actually a supplement for a musical album by Tori Amos where each section corresponds to a song on the album, and another is a companion piece for one of her tours.

I mentioned the introduction above. I think one of the cool things about the book is that for each story or entry he has included a little commentary within his introduction explaining the circumstances by which he came to write that particular piece. Whether it was by invitation from a publisher or fellow writer, or something from his personal history, or to accompany a piece of music. But the added information was enlightening and in some cases cast one of the entries in a new light. I took the approach of reading the stories first, and as I would finish one I would jump back to the introduction and find the page discussing it.

I think my favorites from the collection are October in the Chair, The Facts in the Case of the Departure of Miss Finch, Goliath, and A Study in Emerald. The first one is kind of a traditional spooky story. The second and third both begin with what seems like a real and normal world, but then events occur to reveal something else going on; either an entirely different reality, or a glimpse into another unexpected reality. The last one is a re-imagining of a Sherlock Holmes like story with a twist.

All in all, not a perfect collection, but still very entertaining for me personally, especially in the way that it recaptured memories of reading from my youth. Also, it is the kind of collection that inspires me, makes me want to keep trying to write creatively myself.