Fragile Things

Fragile Things is the third short story and poetry collection to be released by author Neil Gaiman. Several of its works were later reprinted in M is for Magic.

"I would rather recall a life misspent on fragile things than spent evading moral debt." Neil Gaiman says this phrase came to him in a dream. He thought about how stories are fragile things, and decided that it would be a fitting title.

The following short stories, poems, and Tarot card descriptions (no, really), are as follows in the American edition:
 * "The Mapmaker" - Published in the introduction
 * "A Study in Emerald"
 * "The Fairy Reel"
 * "October in the Chair"
 * "The Hidden Chamber"
 * "Forbidden Brides of the Faceless Slaves in the Secret House of the Night of Dread Desire"
 * "The Flints of Memory Lane"
 * "Closing Time"
 * "Going Wodwo"
 * "Bitter Grounds"
 * "Other People"
 * "Keepsakes and Treasures: A Love Story"
 * "Good Boys Deserve Favors"
 * "The Facts in the Case of the Departure of Miss Finch"
 * "Strange Little Girls" – Vignettes for Tori Amos's cover album of the same name. You can see bits of them in the original CD's front cover.
 * "Harlequin Valentine"
 * "Locks"
 * "The Problem of Susan"
 * "Instructions" – Later republished as a picture book.
 * "How Do You Think It Feels?" –
 * "My Life"
 * "Fifteen Painted Cards from a Vampire Tarot"
 * "Feeders and Eaters"
 * "Diseasemaker's Croup"
 * "In the End"
 * "Goliath" - Set in The Matrix and was published in the first comic.
 * "Pages from a Journal Found in a Shoebox Left in a Greyhound Bus Somewhere Between Tulsa, Oklahoma, and Louisville, Kentucky" – written for the album Scarlet's Walk, by Tori Amos
 * "How to Talk to Girls at Parties" – nominated for the 2007 Hugo Award for Best Short Story and won the Locus Award for Best Short Story. Later adapted into a film of the same name.
 * "The Day the Saucers Came"
 * "Sunbird"
 * "Inventing Aladdin"
 * "The Monarch of the Glen" – novella sequel to American Gods. Later followed by "


 * Adult Fear: Mentioned in "Locks". The narrator muses that when you are a parent, you sympathize with the bears more than Goldilocks, and double-check the locks around the house after putting their daughter to bed.
 * At Least I Admit It: Jennie tells Shadow in "Monarch of the Glen" that she feels this way about monsters, compared to people. Monsters will tell you upfront that they'll eat you.
 * Downer Ending:
 * "October In the Chair": October's story ends with The months are perturbed by this and decide it's best not to ask
 * "How Do You Think It Feels?": The nameless narrator.
 * "Goliath" Seems all is well the hero saving the day, but.
 * In-universe, Greta says that this is how The Last Battle ended during her interview with Professor Hastings. She says it was stupid that Susan was excluded for not believing in Aslan and that it isn't a happy ending that her siblings got to go to heaven and leave her behind.
 * Genre Savvy: The narrator in "Instructions" has advice on how to be this when you end up in a fairy tale.
 * Walking the Earth: Shadow has been doing this since the end of American Gods. He takes a detour when Mr. Alice has a job for him and needs a "monster".
 * Worth It: The Epicure Club comes to this conclusion after . Apparently,.
 * Your Cheating Heart: "How Do You Think It Feels?" happens because the narrator carries on an affair with a woman named Becky, despite being a married man and a father. His wife Caroline doesn't inquire.