How cool is Neil Gaiman?

a) There's something very comforting in the idea that you can address questions about a book you loved to the actual person that wrote it and get an answer back. Mr. Gaiman probably has more contact with his readers than any other writer of our time. Just check out his blog for God's sake! Tons of letters and e-mails from fans (and his replies to them), videos, articles or interesting links shared between him and his readers, recommendations, advice for young writers that bombard him with questions etc. etc. etc....Does he ever sleep, that man? If only all writers could be as open to communication instead of shying away from society and living like hermits ( *cough cough* mister J.D.).
b)He has a last.fm account! Our music compatibility might have turned out to be "Low" but it's so nice to be announced by the taste-o-meter that "you share a few artists in common, including The Magnetic Fields, Belle & Sebastian, Beirut, David Bowie and Regina Spektor"!
c) His collaborations (and there are many of them) with Dave McKean are definitely bonus points.
d) He's friends with Terry Pratchett, Terry Gilliam, Thea Gilmore and of course Tori Amos, who has mentioned him in a couple of her songs ('Tear in Your Hand', 'Space Dog', 'Carbon') and whom he included as a character in his book 'Stardust'.
e)And another thing. In 2002 'American Gods' won the Hugo Award for Best Novel, the Nebula Award for Best Novel and the Bram Stoker Award for Best Novel. Now Neil Gaiman offered it for free online for a whole month to celebrate his blog's one-year anniversary. I mean how amazing is that? Someone offering for free what is, according to Wikipedia, among the most-honored works of fiction in recent history. On his site/blog you'll also find lots of short stories, articles, essays, interviews, readings, videos, book excerpts, and book extras. All for free.
Now don't get me wrong, I'm not asking you to like his stuff (although it's pretty easy to). In fact, I've only read two of his books and a couple of short stories. But there's no denying that he's pretty damn cool.

And since this is a music blog, playing on repeat these days on my MediaMonkey (drop iTunes folks):

Culture Reject - Inside the Cinema (Culture Reject, 2008)
Vetiver - Hook & Ladder (Thing of the Past, 2008)
Wildbirds & Peacedrums - The Battle in Water (Heartcore, 2008)
Springfactory (side-project of Peter, a suburban kid with a biblical name) - Get Out of Bed (grab it from Series Two Records)
Yelle - Amour Du Sol (Pop-Up, 2007)
Santogold - Say Aha (Santogold, 2008)