The Works of David Sedaris

[Deleted]

I know I said it in another thread, but shaz, I'm jealous of you!

I absolutely love David Sedaris. No matter how many times I read his books, I crack up every single time. I feel like he has the same outlook on life as I do, and I only wish I could articulate the absurdity of life as well as he does. His quote that I use as my CPMCoG quote isn't his funniest, but it's exactly how I feel about the world.

This is my favorite of his quotes:

I prefer to believe that inside every television there lives a community of versatile, thumb-size actors trained to portray everything from a thoughtful newscaster to the wife of a millionaire stranded on a desert island. Fickle gnomes control the weather, and an air conditioner is powered by a team of squirrels, their cheeks packed with ice cubes.

I also love Amy. I loved her before ever reading any of David's books, but she has an amazing, ballsy personality and wit. I think that we should petition for the two of them to become posters here.

[kostgard]

I always thought it would be strange/wonderful/scary to grow up in the Sedaris family or even in the same neighborhood. And I always felt kinda bad for their dad - didn't David have a story about how Amy could imitiate their neighbor's voice and would call their dad at work and tell him that she was in love with him and that they should hook up?

They are both hysterical - I would love to have David tell me stories all day and I'd love to have Amy as a neighbor so she could make me cupcakes and cheese balls and screw with my head with her outrageous claims/stories/acts/jokes.

[plush]

I am currently reading Dress Your Family... and oh.my.God. I take public transportation to go to work and yesterday I was reading the Santa and 6-8 black men and I couldn't stop laughing. The guy sitting next to me was constantly peeking at my book because he got curious. I think that's my favorite story so far and I have like 50 more pages to go. I'll definetely pick up his other two books next.

[groovethang]

Haha, is that the Amy story where she came home with a huge, stuffed ass? And their father waited until Amy left the room before he turned to David and said, "did you see you sister?!? You could land a helicopter on her ass!"

So hilarious. My co-worker and I are excited; he's coming to Providence, RI this Fall. Still about an hour and a half away from here, but would be well worth the drive!

[Deleted]

I worked for a college bookstore last year and we sold his books at his show. He was super nice, and came before the event, sat down in the lobby and signed at least 100 books. Total autographing machine. His reason? "That way you can sell more books." Very cool.
Plus he stayed signing books after the show until the last person was gone, about 2-1/2 hours, without taking a break at all. When we finally got ours signed, he drew personalized sketches in our books- I brought Naked, my fave, and got "from your pal Honest Abe" and a sketch of good ole Abe Lincoln. Plus someone brought him a brown and white towel, for the whole phantom pooper story from Naked.

[iceblink]

I saw DS do a reading here in Nashville about a year and a half ago, and a cute thing happened during his question-and-answer bit. He said he wanted to plug a few things that he'd liked lately so he talked about Germany (he'd just been there and said "You never hear much about Germany as a tourist destination, but it's great!") and then mentioned the last book he'd read and loved, which was Bel Canto by Ann Patchett, who happens to live here. He raved on about it for a couple of minutes, then a couple of people in the audience said simultaneously "She's HERE!".
DS said "What?" and peered out into the crowd and a lovely Southern lady's voice called out "Thank you very much!".
He looked SO flustered for a moment and then managed to stammer something about what a great book it was and then started taking questions...David Sedaris! Rendered speechless! Adorable.

[Deleted]

I always thought it would be strange/wonderful/scary to grow up in the Sedaris family or even in the same neighborhood. And I always felt kinda bad for their dad - didn't David have a story about how Amy could imitiate their neighbor's voice and would call their dad at work and tell him that she was in love with him and that they should hook up?

I loved that story. Especially because not only did the father always refuse her advances, he started showing up at this woman's work with single men from his office. She worked in a museum or library or something and whenever he could he'd drag a single guy there and try to set them up. That woman must have been so confused.

But it is sweet. Could you imagine the emotional scars if the dad had been like "Yes, let's meet at the corner motel at 6 p.m."

[Shanmac]

Mr. Sedaris is going to be in the Chi-town area (Ok, Aurora, but still) Oct. 20. Oh, yeah. I'm there. I've told The Boy I want tickets for my birthday.

I'm going to bite the bullet and be all fangirly and wait around for an autograph. I never do that kind of thing (I'm too cool to want autographs, doncha know), but I love him. He is hilarious, in a sick, twisted, sometimes sad kind of way.

[Deleted]

Has anyone read his latest yet?

[eclair]

I just read "When You Are Engulfed in Flames" after seeing DS on the Daily Show. I didn't know he had a new book out until I saw the show. Hilarious as usual. He recounts going to buy drugs with the Rooster to a trashy trailer, where, sort of proudly the Rooster outs him to the bickering drug dealers. Still living in France, has adventures anwering others with D'Accorde when he doesn't understand what they say. He moved to Japan to stop smoking, which worked, but cost $23,000.

I deliberately did not take this book with me on the bus, based on past experiences. A friend was reading through all of DS's books a few years ago while commuting in San Francisco on BART. He regularly rode with the same group of people, and because he was reading DS and laughing a few other folks also started reading DS on the commute.