Theft By Finding: Diaries, Volume One

David Sedaris tells all in a book that is, literally, a lifetime in the making.

For forty years, David Sedaris has kept a diary in which he records everything that captures his attention—overheard comments, salacious gossip, soap opera plot twists, secrets confided by strangers. These observations are the source code for his finest work, and through them he has honed his craft, crafting surprising sentences.

Now, Sedaris shares his private writings with the world. Theft By Finding, the first of two volumes, is the story of how a drug-abusing dropout with a weakness for International House of Pancakes and a chronic inability to hold down a job became one of the funniest people on the planet.

Written with a sharp eye for the bizarre, the beautiful, and the uncomfortable, and with a generosity of spirit that even a misanthropic sense of humor can't fully disguise, Theft By Finding proves Sedaris is one of our great modern observers. It is a potent reminder that with perception and curiosity, there's no such thing as a boring day.