Book 100 was Theft by Finding: Diaries 1977-2002 by David Sedaris. My first exposure to Sedaris was listening to the audio version of When You Are Engulfed in Flames. Like many people, I thought I was listening to a woman [read his stories], but I later realized that this unique voice was David's. Theft by Finding is not all of his diary entries for 30-odd years, but at 514 pages the entries are significant. Incidentally, this blog is the most successful "diary" I've ever kept.
My favorite entries are about his adventures learning French and the time he spends in Paris and Normandy.
There's this gem about waiting for a taxi in Paris. You are supposed to wait in line and disabled people are given priority. "This seems fair, seeing as the buses and subways are inaccessible, but then it got out of hand, and a dozen more people headed to the front. Either the train from Lourdes had just pulled up or owning a cell phone and a little to much gold jewelry are now considered handicaps by the French government" (359).
Sedaris is the type of French student teachers dream of. First, he types his homework and he fastened the pages together with a paperclip (a staple would be better, but still). "She told us to keep our sentences simple, and I didn't quite obey. But why write 'I went to the store with a friend' when, without relying on the dictionary, I can say, 'I visited the slaughterhouse with my godfather and a small monkey'? " (361). In high school English, I made my vocabulary sentences have a them, but nothing quite like Sedaris' creativity.
Here is a link for my favorite David Sedaris clip.
