When Neil Gaiman, the author of the children’s book Coraline – maybe you’ve seen the film version – shared his reading habits with the New York Times Book Review editors in Neil Gaiman, By the Book, I discovered a new list of books I want to read:

• The Spirit by Will Eisner
• ALEC: The Years Have Pants by Eddie Campbell
• Lud-in-the Mist by Hope Mirrlees
• Just My Type: A Book About Fonts by Simon Garfield
• Dotter of Her Father’s Eyes by May M. Talbot

But I decided to start with Gaiman’s favorite – The Sorcerer’s House. Gaiman noted…

“The Sorcerer’s House,” by Gene Wolfe, amazed me. It was such a cunning book, and it went so deep. A foxy fantasy about a house that grows, with chapters that are the Greater Trumps of a tarot deck.

Gene Wolfe’s fantasy story is an epistolary novel – a series of letters, mostly written by the main character, Bax, the holder of two Ph.D.’s, and just out of prison, who mysteriously has inherited a Gothic house. I’ve just started reading this dark tale – this one is not for children – but the strange occurrences already have my attention.

Related Article: Gaiman’s graduation address to the University of the Arts in Philadelphia – Cat Exploded? Make Good Art