9/5/2024
Theft by Finding 1977-2002 book review with no spoilers.
I love diaries and I love the 70s so this should be the perfect book for me but I think it could’ve been a little bit better. At first, it seems very interesting and then David Sedaris somehow moves in with some fundamentalist Christians. Then it’s just creepy and weird. It doesn’t feel like a real diary, but he said he wrote it under the influence of meth. I’m positive he must’ve spent a lot of time editing this. These diaries, lack freshness and authenticity. Items are introduced at random somewhat similar to lists. But with no explanation they tend to just come across as non sequiturs. Reading a book of non sequiturs is good for sparking your own creativity but it isn’t really good for enjoying a narrative. The 70s were such a fantastic time. I wish David Sedaris had gone into more detail about what he was experiencing when he was hitchhiking around the country doing odd jobs.
If I was to buy the really overpriced Kindle edition for $11.99 I could add on the audio book for $12.99. But, I don’t like the sound of David Sedaris voice. I don’t know if it’s just because he’s not a professional reader or maybe it’s because he seems to have a strange accent that I can’t place. But I remember listening to his book Let’s Explore Diabetes with Owls and I didn’t like it. I don’t know if it was the content of the book that wasn’t funny or it was his voice that turned me off. I decided when it’s Diaries about the 70s I would not want an audio book because I’d want a Kindle Edition. The 70s are important and I want to take notes. I am planning on reading the second volume soon and if any new insights occur to me, I will update this post.
I’m not blaming David Sedaris because one can’t really change the quality of their voice. It’s a positive that he wants to read his own book. I generally enjoy books that are read by the author more than a narrator if the author has a good voice. Another example of this is William Shatner. I love the fact that he reads all his own books but due to his age his voice has deteriorated. Also due to my age my voice has deteriorated so I’m not casting any stones. Furthermore my hearing is poor due to hearing loss so it makes it really hard for me to understand certain types of narrators. I’m actually hoping that in the future there’s an AI option that will read books to me in a voice that I can understand very well. Then maybe I could listen to the William Shatner books and to the David Sedaris diary books.
Macy Makes Magic 