If I had to choose a life, it would probably be David Sedaris’s. As he admits, he basically reads for a living. I recently picked up Calypso and it’s to the point that I’m reading it not because I enjoy it but because it’s a David Sedaris book.

I do enjoy it but I enjoy it because I’m along for the ride at this point. I think I’ve read everything he’s written (except that Squirrel book and Theft By Finding is on my bookshelf, I’ll get to it eventually), so, I feel like I know his father, his siblings, his boyfriend. His latest book, Calypso, is good because it gets more into the family’s sadness over his sister Tiffany’s suicide and his mother’s death. It takes place mostly at his summer home on the Emerald Isle in North Carolina. Purchasing a summer home came off as a bit of a brag in the previous book but in this book it becomes clear that it’s there for him to spend more time with his family.

I’ve gone through pretty rabid David Sedaris phases where I listen to Santaland Diaries and his audiobooks and then move on to finding interviews with him on morning talk shows and Letterman.

I don’t revere him so much that I can’t admire a pretty brilliant parody:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=w0DUdpmgmz4

He ran out of his unsuccessful life stories a long time ago. I still think that Me Talk Pretty One Day is the best book but I’ll always read him.