A night with David Sedaris

I made my way to Indigo after work tonight for a reading and book signing with David Sedaris. I thought I was getting there in plenty of time for the 7:00 reading when I arrived at 5:45. Yeah, not so much. The seating area was already full and a lineup had started through the aisle. But I picked up my copy of the book and joined the end of the line which very quickly grew to hundreds of people behind me. He was doing about an hour and a half of signing before the reading in order to get a start on the crowd which was a very good idea. I was in the first 30 people in the actual line and I didn't get out of there until 9:30 so he will likely be there for hours yet.

Anyway, if you haven't read any of his books yet get thee to the library or bookstore immediately. Better yet, get a copy of a book on tape because hearing him read is even better.

He started by reading one of the stories from the book, moved on to an "animal fable" that is part of his next project and then finished up the reading with some random diary entries. All of them funny and entertaining. Then he took about half an hour to answer questions from the crowd. And then he took his seat at the table and started signing books and chatting with people. It's to his credit that he didn't rush people through the line and promised to stay until everyone's book was signed.

When my turn at the table came up he took my book and drew a funny little picture and signed it. After guessing my astrological sign (wrong...about 5 times) he came out with "What kind of shampoo do you use?". I wasn't sure where he was going with that one and said that it was usually whatever was on sale. And then he proceeded to pull out a hotel size shampoo from his recent stay at the Copacabana Palace in Rio de Janeiro and hand it to me. I will treasure it forever :-).