Did you all know that long ago, Neil's fans posted photos from the bath?
Welcome to Tumblr, 2012. Just as adorable and quirky as Tumblr of today, and with just as much Neil Gaiman appreciation, but with fewer fans to fuel the fads:
[link] [link]
(I went looking for Good Omens clues in the time capsule that is the internet, and Tumblr decided that it knew best and instead sent me down this rabbit hole from which I may never recover. 1 point to Tumblr; please send help)
Why were people doing this?? I think it's because there's a poem, Bathing with Gaiman, by Zenobia Frost @zenfrost
And it inspired a dedicated blog, @bathbookneil-blog, featuring an entire collection of fan photos reading his books… in the bath.
Neil encouraged fans to read their books "in the bath naked, fully dressed, they can be of any gender or all, masked, alone, or in groups of as many of them as can fit into a bath." He also suggested trying to read while showering, a feat he said he's attempted, unsuccessfully.
When asked, Neil agreed to share a photo of himself reading in the bath if the donations for the free Audible release of Click-Clack the Rattle Bag reached 100,000 downloads/dollars.
He promised fans a "proper nakedy bath" with some discreet bubbles.
Alas!
I'm not about to reveal a long-lost photo of Neil in the bath.
The donations didn't reach the goal, and the bath-photo-sharing trend quietly wound down.
But maybe he gave us this glorious moment with David Tennant-as-Aziraphale-as-Crowley, to make up for it:
[gif credits @tenthrees, @ferndaphnia, and @bringthekaos]