Hey,For those who follow the magical writer Neil Gaiman this is old news. However I thought that I would add my thoughts to the chorus of praise. He has suggested that for Halloween this year that everyone give a "scary" book to friend, family, or stranger. He then put out a call to his legion of fans for a name for this idea and he chose the phrase "All Hallows Eve." I have to say that I am continually impressed with Mr. Gaiman's use of his influence to promote literacy.
He is clearly a man who wants use his powers for good, rather than fame or book sales. Any cynic would claim this to be a promotional stunt, but Mr. Gaiman doesn't have any new book release to sell. I think that Mr. Gaiman is a lover of books, hell here's a picture of his library:
He also was very willing earlier this year to participate in the crowd sourcing experiment "1 book 1 Twitter" project, which centered around his book American Gods. Now in theory he may have earned from book sales, but he also was willing to sit for two sessions of Q&A from Twitter followers. That's private time spent on an older book which he didn't have to do. Mr. Gaiman continues to use innovation "crowd-sourcing" opportunities to keep in touch with his fanbase. He's a long-time blogger and was one of the first authors to use Twitter. However it is original ideas such as "All Hallows Read" that will continually pick him up new readers. I feel that his altruism will continually gain him fans in the book community. He never seems to be out shilling on talk shows or tearing other writer's down in order to succeed. No diva behavior, just a modest good nature. I've never met the man, so I hope that this characterization is true. So give a scary book this Halloween. It's better than candy. Book Slave.
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