READINGS/BOOK SIGNINGS

Not one book. Not even a page. "I've never lulled my son to sleep with a bedtime story," the man thought as he sat alone beside the boy's casket, clutching a copy of Neil Gaiman's Coraline. Overcome with grief and determined to make up for lost time, he opened the children's book—a waking dream of alternate worlds, bricked-up doorways and endless corridors—and read its 176 pages aloud to no one.

Gaiman's fans share these sort of personal stories—some dark, others punctuated with hope—on a daily basis. A few e-mail him (he tries to read and respond to everyone); some 20,000 more attended his readings and book signings across the United States and United Kingdom last year. It's easy to see why Gaiman is a life-affirming god among men, like the living deity in his last novel, New York Times best seller Anasi Boys. His Sandman graphic novel series raised the bar for illustrated fantasy-and-horror storytelling in the '90s by questioning death, religion and dreams in every issue.

"My readers seem to combine fanaticism with niceness and sensibleness, so it stays pleasant for me," says Gaiman. "Although when I visited Manila last year and was led into a tent to discover 3,000 enthusiastic Filipinos screaming as if at a rock concert, it was a little disconcerting."

Neil Gaiman book signing and discussion, Thu., Jan. 26, 8 p.m., free, The Great Court of Mitten Hall, Temple University, 1913 N. Broad St., 215-204-1796.