Book Meme – Day 02: In Which a Mouse is Drowned in a Bucket

Day 02: A Book That I’ve Read More Than Three Times

Really, this would be true of the entire David Sedaris catalog. The kicker on this one for me is that 1) this is the book that David Sedaris signed for me, and 2) this is the one with the story about how he drowned a mouse in a bucket.

My favorite book signing (and yes, I have been to enough that I have a favorite, and no, I haven’t been to nearly as many as I aspire to go to) was for this book. It took place at the ever-excellent Alabama Booksmith and David Sedaris chain smoked the entire time and read a story with so much cursing that a mother who had for some reason brought her toddler had to step out. My friend and I waited in a line that snaked in and out of the bookshelves, while a good friend from high school who worked at the Booksmith at the time managed the crowd. We later realized that it was taking such a long time to get to the front because David Sedaris takes time to talk to everyone. Which is rare, and awesome.

(I went to a John Updike signing when I was in college and he sneered at me for handing him a paperback to sign and didn’t remember that I’d met him earlier in the day with a small group of English majors for a Q&A. So that’s my second worst signing, topped by Richard Paul Evans, whose book I was having signed for my mom, and who was a bit of a toolbox.)

During his reading, Sedaris had referenced having the worst job you can possibly find (and he’s had many) so that you have the motivation (and material) to write. At the time, I had just come off of jobs at a dry cleaner’s (where I learned that people are horrendous and filthy and unwilling to simply throw away a tie that has been vomited upon) and a daycare (where I learned that a lot of parents will avoid changing their own child’s diaper for hours so that you, the unlicensed, unqualified person they have never met can have the pleasure) and was working as a receptionist at a hair salon. So I told him I had enjoyed that part of his reading because I was right in the middle of that job (it might not sound like the worst job, but do not underestimate the misdirected wrath of the WASP woman whose frosted hair does not gel with her expectations – she doesn’t want to make her stylist angry but for some reason does not see the problem with throwing her credit card at the receptionist’s chest). He was interested in this anecdote and asked me the name of the salon.

“Beauty One,” I told him.

“Beauty Worm?” he responded.

“Pretty much,” I would have said, were I quicker on my think.

I then told him that I loved his favorite charity, Helping Hands: Monkey Helpers for the Disabled, and had heard of a similar charity who sponsored mini-guide horses for the blind. He gave me a big packet of information about Helping Hands and told me about a monkey that had come to one of his signings and handed him a pencil.

At some point during all this, he signed my book with the following:

To Katherine – I look forward to reading YOUR book

I look forward to writing it, eventually.

So anyway. Any book by David Sedaris would have fit this day.

But in this one, he drowns a mouse in a bucket. So… this one.

Day 01: The Best Book I’ve Read This Year

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