Hi, @neilhimself! I'd like to tell you a story about this book.

Back in 1989-90, when I was a collegian, I spent a year studying in England. And while I was there, word got 'round that two gentleman authors -- Terry Pratchett and Neil Gaiman -- would be signing their new joint venture at a London bookshop. Dillon's, perhaps?

Being a Pratchett fan thanks to Discworld and a Gaiman fan thanks to Sandman, I leapt at the chance. I took the bus from Oxford to London (three pounds round trip!), bought a shiny new copy of Good Omens, and got in line.

As it turns out, you had been unavoidably delayed (in prison, I imagined, or on a secret mission for Her Magesty) and weren't able to make it. The lovely and jovial Mr. Pratchett, however, was more than happy to take up any perceived slack.

I'm sure I was in the line for at least half an hour, and that was a couple of hours into the event, but when I got to the front he smiled, said very kind things, asked me my name, and wrote this in the front of the book:

It is still the most perfect author's inscription I've ever gotten. My copy of Good Omens became a personal treasure, and finding a way to get it in your hands to sign became a personal quest.

Easier said than done. I was living in Arkansas and working at a local newspaper and, oddly, you didn't spend a lot of your free time there. However, during the 2006-07 academic year, it was announced you'd be a writer in residence at a nearby university.

At last, thought I! For it was a mere half-hour drive to the University of Central Arkansas ( @ucabears), and you would be giving a public talk at the end of your residency, the perfect opportunity for me to have you autograph the book!

But it was not to be. It turns out your talk was on a Tuesday night, which was the deadline night for our paper. I knew I couldn't take several hours out of my evening and leave all the work to my colleagues in our small newsroom, so I decided to wait for the next chance.

More years passed and I looked for chances to meet up with you somewhere. None presented themselves. I read Good Omens over and over because it gave me so much joy. It became careworn and I lost the dust jacket, but I loved it no less.

Then, one day, I discovered one of my great friends had not read this book. I was shocked, SHOCKED!, and decided to do something about it. So I loaned them my copy....

...and promptly forgot to whom I had loaned it.

This was probably around 2010, I'm guessing. A couple of years later you were on another tour and I thought, "Hey, I should see if he's coming to a city nearby so I can get him to sign my copy of... wait... where'd it go?"

Thus began a years-long quest to recover my book. I asked around in my various circles but no intel was to be had. I posted on Facebook but nobody raised their virtual hand. I tried and tried to recover it, but nothing. I resorted to an annual Facebook plea for its return.

Then in 2015, that plea was answered. Said great friend had stumbled across the book in the midst of his own library, and was both stunned and ashamed that he hadn't realized he still had it! He immediately sent me a message and I was overjoyed at the news. Huzzah!

"Oh, by the way," I asked him. "What did you think of it?"

"Well... I never actually got around to reading it," he confessed.

You see, shortly after I loaned the book, he had to uproot and move across the country. Thus, Good Omens had been packed away with other books and understandably forgotten. "No worries," said I. "Read it, then send it back."

Well, he did read it. This year.

Yes, for five years, I would occasionally prod him and ask if he'd read it, and he'd say no and offer to send it back, and I would insist he read if first. Because Good Omens is THAT GOOD and no way was I going to let him get away with not having the experience.

So earlier this year, when I sent him one of my occasional reminders, he informed me he had, indeed, read it, and was prepared to send it back. Did I still live on the same street back in Arkansas? Um, no... this time I had moved across the country during the interim.

Finally, though, the stars aligned. He lovingly packed up the book and sent it back to me, complete with this note:

I know that, for some folks, loaning out books is a touchy subject, and loaning out autographed books hinges on heresy. And yes, this odyssey was a bit straining at times. But for me, knowing I was able to introduce this great book to this great friend makes it all worthwhile.

So, @neilhimself, the next time you're at an event in the vicinity of New England, please keep an eye out for a bald, bearded, slightly plump middle-aged man holding a careworn copy of Good Omens. He's been waiting decades to show you what Sir Terry wrote in it.