American Gods

Neil Gaiman is one of those authors whose work I wouldn't think twice to publicly celebrate. But for the life of me, I can't remember now why I didn't start reading American Gods the moment I heard about it. Though I can explain why it took me a while to finish it -- life happens, and no matter how willing you are for any story to take you away to far off places, sometimes you just forget. But while I admit that I was slow to start on it, in the end I was hooked nonetheless so much so that when I finished it, I found myself actually wishing for more.

The book is an invitation for readers to reexamine their own set of beliefs, their idea of what the act of living truly means, death, and for some, what it takes to move forward. And all these occur through an exciting narrative about a man named Shadow, his life after prison and how it became entangled in a war among gods, an interesting tour across America, and various side stories of why and how they all came to exist there in the first place.

In the end, among the many things the book puts inside your head, there's that conclusion that no one should really call themselves a true fan without having read American Gods.

And because everyone should have heard of the "I believe" excerpt from the book by now, I'm sharing this one instead.

People believed, thought Shadow. It's what people do. They believe. And then they will not take responsibility for their beliefs; they conjure things, and do not trust the conjurations. People populate the darkness; with ghosts, with gods, with electrons, with tales. People imagine, and people believe: and it is that belief, that rock-solid belief, that makes things happen.