David Sedaris. I went to see Sedaris last night, →[More:]at U of O. There are some random facts:

He signs books both before and after. I had brought a copy of Euell Gibbons' Stalking the Wild Asparagus just to see if he would sign it, as a joke. I lost my nerve in line, after seeing him spend some time with everyone who was in line and then writing an inscription that had some context of the conversation. He seemed very into talking and connecting with people. It seemed like it would have been rude to do my little joke. So I had him sign my Sedaris book, along with a ticket stub from 2 years ago to one of his readings.

Daughter was there, and while signing her book, he chatted her up and then gave her a hotel bottle of hair conditioner he'd gotten the day before at the Four Seasons in Santa Barbara.

Wife was there also and mentioned being a Pflag mom, thanking him for his work, etc. which led to a huge fight with Daughter between then and the start of the reading.

He did not read anything new other than some diary entries from his recent 3 month stint in Japan. He said that he had been working on a couple new stories, but after reading them night after night, and then going to the hotel and making edits according to what got laughs, we was sick of them. He did read the recent New Yorker piece about the water going off in his house and his rememberances about buying pot from a redneck couple in North Carolina.

He is very animated and obviously enjoys reading his own stuff and is very good at it, as his recordings indicate.

He spoke extemporaneously, at length about zombies. He admitted that while his house in Paris is zombie-proofed, his house in Normandy, sadly, isn't, so he feels conflicted in talking so extensively on the subject.

He had a German copy of one of his books that he said he'd give away to the first person who asked for it, who seemed fluent enough to read it. Daughter and I tried to get wife to stay after and ask, but she did not want to.

It is strange to pay through the ass, like we did, to watch someone reading out of a book but this is the second time we have done it and probably will again. He is a heck of a lot of fun.