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I read this both in print and as audiobook. The audiobook version is narrated by Neil Gaiman himself, so it is, of course, amazing.

While I usually read for character development, that isn't a big part of this book--the characters are fun, but you don't come out of it feeling like you know them that well, or, at least, I didn't. Instead, this book is about story and about exploring "what ifs."

It's one of Gaiman's best, which means something.

I'd have given this four stars if it weren't for the Dawn-and-teddy-bear story. I understand why they included Dawn in these comics, but I'm really not much of a fan. She always distracted from the interesting parts of the story, I thought, and her little sidebar plotline in this collection was no different.

Giles, on the other hand, is the best. He should have his own little sidebar plotline in every collection ever put out. (He didn't get his very own, in this one, but he did get some attention.) In fact, there should be a whole series about Giles, Willow, and Xander.

I digress.

It's cool to go back and read this; I saw all seven seasons and am going through the graphic novels of "season eight" as they come out, and this fills in kind of nicely around all that.

When I started this book, I found I kind of liked it. I read some more and started liking it more. By the end, I was a semi-rabid fan, going around suggesting to everyone that they ought to read it. Weinberger's style is fairly informal, down-to-earth, and entertaining, but not squishy enough to decrease his credibility--I found my views on organization changed as I read through this book, and it only increased my desire to go into metadata librarianship (cataloguing for men).

Great, great book. The only book I'm going to finish this semester (and if you've seen my reading list, that's saying a lot).

"I laughed; I cried. It was better than 'Cats.'"

(Look, I'm not about the spoilers. But this whole series is so worth reading.)