I finished another David Sedaris book this week. I read this one on my Kindle. Theft by Finding is a collection of his diary entries from 1977 to 2002 and divided by each year. Most of the entries are brief so it’s a quick read.

Being a diary, there’s not a lot of detail so you have to fill in the gaps, though you do get to know reoccurring people, especially members of his family. The brief exposure I’ve already had to some of his essays certainly helped.

I was disappointed by some details that were left out, which he might have omitted on purpose or maybe didn’t even write about at the time. These are diary entries after all and not a detailed bio.

You do get a glimpse into where some of his essays came from in regards to family members and him living abroad and learning to speak French. It was nice to see his rise to fame which seems to happen quite quickly after he read his Santaland essay on NPR.

It’s definitely a personal glimpse into his life as well. He’s very good at recording his self doubt and the quirky characters he encountered throughout daily life. A second volume is in the works.

Being fairly new to his writing, I probably shouldn’t have read it so early. But I’m reading his work in backwards order. That’s the only reason I chose to read it now. Overall, I enjoyed it and will definitely read the next volume.