Neverwhere Reminiscence
Neverwhere is the beginning for me and Neil. An instance of just the right book at just the right time. In the fall of 2003 I was unceremoniously forced back into school. I say unceremoniously because back in May with full pomp and circumstance I had graduated from the University of Wisconsin - Madison only to find out a few months later that I was shy one class; my "ethnic requirement." Being adamant that I was fed up with all the different hoops I kept encountering I decided to take the course online and spent that fall reading many books from Southeast Asia. And then I spent January and February reading even more books from Southeast Asia and swotting up for my final. At the end of it all I was dying to read something different, something of my choosing. I chose Neverwhere.
One day I was at Barnes and Noble and the anglophile in my was drawn to the cover of Neverwhere. The pull-quote saying "[it] draws equally from George Lucas, Monty Python, Doctor Who, and John Milton..." instantly sold me. In particular the Monty Python/Doctor Who angle. So I finished my course work, bundled myself under my favorite blanket and dove into the 'London Below' of Richard Richard Mayhew Dick, Door, The Marquis de Carabas, and of course, the Angel Islington. What made this reading experience so special wasn't just the way the story flew off the page but by the fact that my cat, Spot, spent the entire time curled up on my lap. Now, this might not be weird to some people, but to me it was. Spot would gladly curl up on my lap for any reason unless I had a book. Something about me with a book made him shun me. So not only did this book reignite my love of reading but it gave me a sweet memory to remember my beloved Spotty by.
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