Theft by Finding Diaries (1977-2002)

I feel bad giving this book such a low score because I have liked books written by Sedaris before. I just couldn’t get into the flow of this type of book. I thought I’d like it, little stories within a life story, but in the end I just could not enjoy it. And, really, how many insanely crazy and weird people can one person know?

Pepys is next :-P But actually: I love this. It's wonderfully uneven. Boring, funny, sad, scatological, and gay. But not all at once.

All of David Sedaris's self-read audiobooks worm themselves into your brain, replacing any inner monologue they find with his voice. However, "Theft by Finding" is the most "Being John Malkovich" of them all, as we're catapulted into fragments of his life over nearly three decades. Initially I could only stand it in pieces, waiting in line at the airport for sandwiches, but I finally decided to finish it in one, big gulp. It's a window into his writing process, but also "It's my head, Sedaris. It's my head!"

Lots of amusing entries and lots to wade through and quite a few things that had me chuckling out loud. There's better books by Sedaris, and you're probably familiar with a few of the situations in his diary, but his observations and one-liners are sharp and witty.

I really believe that one has to be a devoted curious observer of the ordinary moments of the everyday AND have a very keen interest in the way someone’s mind works, in order to enjoy reading someone’s personal diaries. Luckily, I possess both. Additionally, if I love an author’s writing style and become enamored with their unusualness as a human, I will easily read every single thing they’ve written. This has only happened to me a handful of times. Currently, David is that guy. I can’t get enough; and this volume filled in so many gaps. How someone chooses to publish their personal diaries— what they choose to include, what they leave out, how they reword and restructure entries— is a fascinating concept, which will always remain a mystery to the reader. I wondered, but didn’t need to know, what prompted these specific selections; they were just personal enough, funny enough, enigmatic enough. I’m already set to start volume two, which was recently released. Sometimes there’s so much extraordinary life in the ordinary moments of living, and Sedaris is SO good at spotting them.

In my opinion, there are two broad categories of books. (1) Books that make you want to read (even more), and (2) Books that make you want to write. This one falls in the latter category. I've read almost all of Sedaris' books because both my mom and one of my best friends adore his voice and stories. Personally, I haven't felt that deep admiration since I read Me Talk Pretty One Day when I was 15 or 16. This book, however, turned things around for me. It was so fascinating to be able to recognize events in the entries that served as the basis for his longer-form essays in his other works. I'm excited to read his other entries post 2002 hopefully sometime soon!