David Sedaris Wants You to Read His Diary

one of the most unfunny funny men I've ever read

He definitely mines his life for material. I thought that his article about his dead sister was heartless. His mother was the hero in that piece. More recently, his mother got the microscope and now we know that she was a mean alcoholic. He doesn't like his father but puts him in every piece to mock and demean him. Kind of exploitive if you ask me.

David Sedaris is a national treasure. The picking up garbage stuff in England is getting a little weird, though. I saw him live a year ago and that isn't really the stuff of comedy. It's a laudable hobby, but it's not interesting to hear about again and again.

Oooh. Are they filled with poignant reflections about his multiple homes, his obscene consumption in far-flung cities of the world, all of which is somehow ok because he was once from a working class family?

It's the "literary" equivalent of most recent Woody Allen films: the quirky lives of the over-privileged.

No thanks.

I am, in fact, reading DS's diary. I've long admired his courageous and outrageous writing style, seeing him when he tours, a riot and delight. I watched man yesterday during lunch, who had driven to a store and was unloading his wheelchair from the driver's seat; I found myself wondering 'What would David write (WWDW) ?'
As DS has apparently given up most of his vices (quitter!), I think we might expect a Volume II.

David, I love your writing, your humor, your insights and thoughts. I look forward to the next new piece/book from you and several of them got me laughing through hard situations, the Fitbit/roaming-litter-roadkill piece from The New Yorker a prime example. Caught you on Colbert, enjoyed that immensely.

I picture the Sedaris scene with his mother, where a woman is buying something at a store and drops a line about how it's for her home, her second home, she has two you see, every time I tell someone that I have a condo (a second home) in Florida. When I see my reflection in someone's sunglasses, I think of him seeing himself naked in someone's sunglasses at the nude camp. Nobody has ever described my mother better than in his essay about the mother stork—I got to see him in Asheville where he read this aloud—and I never stand in line at an airport without thinking of his scene with the kid in the foul-language tee shirt and the woman with the spangly bracelets.

My wife loves reading Sedaris.
I will get her this newest book ASAP.
But for some reason, I only like Sedaris when he is talking, whether on the radio, or in person on the stage.
I hope he comes back to our neck of the woods soon.

David Sedaris is the Tom Wolfe of my generation: authors who have fun personal style in their dress. He will always be the person who made Public Radio even more cool then it ever was. In my opinion he should be worshipped and read for that fact alone. And he has a very cool sister.

I am in the middle of it, and totally hooked on his evolving self. It's hard to describe, but his perfect English coupled with revealing self awareness, and appreciation for the travails of some hard up folks, is compelling. Not laugh out loud funny like some of his stuff, but I really like it, and yes, am reading it all the way threw, no breaks.

I am a late bloomer with David's work, having caught up over the past year and even attending a reading (which I have never done, ever before or since) in Morristown, NJ 2016. Now I gobble up every interview I can. Generally I enjoy, but do not retain, what I read. With DS' work, I actually recall a few stories--sometimes sentences in a story--that have made the tears stream down my face, that have compulsed me to share with the first person I could. I've also been inspired (to write) by the way DS has become a writer, through consistently applying himself to the work. I also think of him with every piece of trash I see, often spurred to pick it up, too. Thank you, David Sedaris, for the joy you have brought to my little life. I've been wanting to send these sentiments (but could not locate a contact) since "You Can't Kill the Rooster" had me embarrassingly hysterical on the SEPTA train. I'm sure my expressions here are unoriginal--that you've picked up millions the same before. After reading this interview, I have hope that you still found it interesting.

Read Sedaris' "Santaland Diaries" as it's the finniest thing I've read in my life. God knows, we could all use a good laugh these days.

I met David before one of his readings. Such a warm person. He not only signed my book, but drew a funny picture of me that found humor in a recent accident that left me in a cast.
I especially like David's interest in reading the secret diary of Richard Yates.

Attended one of his readings a few years ago, bought a book or CD for one of our kids and lined up to get it signed after the show. The line was moving really slowly and I was grousing to my wife about how people were taking up too much (of my) time talking to him. As we got closer to where he was seated, I realized that he was initiating and enjoying the conversations, especially when asking youngsters about their lives and plans. Nice man. (Just finished “Theft by Finding” and David, since I’m closer to 90 than I am to 80, if you could speed up publication of the rest of the diary, I’d appreciate it.)

Yes.... he's witty and funny.

BUT
PAY to read his Diary?
No Thanks....

The bravery David Sedaris demonstrates in his writing is great. But his sartorial choices reveal a man completely without fear -- anything for a laugh. I love him.

I saw David at least 8-10 years ago at Sanders Theatre in Cambridge. I enjoyed his reading but got the impression it was not a favorite thing of his to do -- reading aloud something to an audience that probably had already read it in his book. He even hinted, as I recall, that he was not happy to be there (or was that just me?). It didn't last long -- 50-60 minutes max and then the perfunctory Q&A following the reading. He has a "schtick that sticks" for literate people looking for amusing anecdotal ditties. I like him.

Reading this now and loving it. Thanks for the much needed distraction, Mr. Sedaris!

I'm glad Mr. Sedaris is alive and I can still read.

I love you, David sedaris!

I love David Sedaris. If you ever have the chance to hear him do a reading...I cannot recommend it enough. I have been to three now and he's self-deprecating, observant, quirky, and I would even say, charming. I haven't started reading "Theft by Finding" yet, but it's in my stack of books for the summer. Should be a great read.

My favorite book of all time is Confederacy of Dunces by John Kennedy Toole.
What I find remarkable about that book is that it is simultaneously personal hysterical and heartbreaking. When I read those words, I believe every single word is true in that, what is behind every single word is true.
To me, Sedaris has that same compelling talent. His work leaves me feeling fonder of myself and my fellow human beings.

Reading the diaries right now on vacation and loving it. And thinking about how I write my own journal entries, a good thing.

The best diary since Andy Warhol!

And that piece in the New Yorker last week about your mother was beautiful. "Sure. OK. That makes sense."

Many thanks.

I never miss a word written by David Sedaris. I adore that slightly twisted sense of humor. I've listened to several of his books on CD in the car and have nearly run off the road laughing. Don't ever change, David!

I wish the interviewer had read even a few pages of the book first.....then she would have known exactly what the title meant. It seems so disrespectful to ask a question that's answered in the first few pages.

Lovely! David Sedaris is very light. He doesn't appear to take things seriously,
except that he must do because he puts them in his diary. Just not heavily.
And honestly.
Thank you.

Thank God for a new book from Mr. Sedaris! Might even make 2017 bearable.

I attended a David Sedaris reading at UC Berkeley several years ago, and besides laughing myself silly went away in awe of his willingness to say things that are true but that few of us would ever dare to say in public. It's a stance that requires enormous courage. He's a smart, objective and compassionate observer of our human kind, and outlandishly funny.

I would like David Sedaris to come to my town and help pick up the endless litter. I cannot ask my friend Doug again - I put the soiled pampers picked up along the road into the bag of cans/bottles he was taking home to wash and recycle. Now his wife knows I am careless.
Will give Mr. Sedaris diary to the son who takes his friends to Sedaris on-stage. I hope it makes him laugh. Nice pedal pushers.