Neil Gaiman @ UCLA

Tonight my fiancee and I went to UCLA to see a lecture by the legendary and prolific author Neil Gaiman. However, despite loving his work, neither of us had even read any of his books! I was a fan of the Sandman comics back in the day and we both loved the films Stardust and Coraline, so that was reason enough to go check him out live. Anyway, it was a great night. For the most part he read various selections from his books and did a Q&A session that was pretty entertaining. After the lecture ended, we promptly went out and bought some of the books he read snippets from, which I am looking forward to reading sometime soon. Here is what the LA Times had to say about it...

Author Neil Gaiman read, riffed and answered audience questions at a nearly sold-out venue Thursday night at UCLA's Royce Hall. The crowd -- 1,500 or so people -- was an eclectic mix of tattooed hipsters, students, white-haired readers and other fans.

Gaiman, who has written comic books, novels, children's books, young adult novels and screenplays (and probably something I've left out), was introduced as "the most accomplished storyteller in the English language today." The first thing out of his mouth when the applause died down? An affable, simple "Hello."

"I didn't set out to be a crossover author," Gaiman said. He read from a piece that explained his evolution as a writer. By getting started in comics, he said, he was able to write whatever he wanted: "It's a medium that people mistake for a genre." After he was done with that piece, he told a little story, then read from his Newberry- and Hugo Award-winning young adult novel "The Graveyard Book."

At one point he lost his place, unable to find the next page. There was a pause -- an extended pause. He was really, really lost. He was still lost, and the silence grew more and more awkward. "Talk amongst yourselves!" he suggested, and the room broke into relieved laughter.

Gaiman also read from "Odd and the Frost Giants," which he'd written for World Book Day -- celebrated, he told a chagrined audience, everywhere but America. Then he answered questions that the audience had written on cards.

Pic & Writeup Compliments Of LA Times