"At the end of a miserable day, instead of grieving my virtual nothing, I can always look at my loaded wastepaper basket and tell myself that if I failed, at least I took down a few trees with me." 

- David Sedaris, Me Talk Pretty One Day

So I just finished (for the second time) a biography I'm reading for my English Extension class. It's a biography titled 'Me Talk Pretty One Day' and it's written by David Sedaris. Me Talk Pretty One Day is definitely one of the best biographies I have ever read. When picking a biography it's really hard because each individual person has a different writing style and a different way which they want to tell their story, which makes life writing such a difficult topic. However, for me personally this book reminds me so much of my own style of writing and one day I hope my that I will be able to write as well as Sedaris, he has the ability to tell a story, from his life and you actually feel like you are sitting there with him and experiencing his life. It's one of those stories that has you questioning why your life isn't as interesting as his, it makes you want to go out and experience things so one day you'll have something to write about, and it really explores the delicate nature of family life and how ridiculously different each family in this world is. 

The book is a bit hard to follow when you first begin as it is naturally of anecdotal nature and each chapter is a different story from Sedaris' life, sometimes jumping from his early childhood to middle aged between each chapter, but gradually you get used to the natural jumpy nature of the book and become fascinated by not only Sedaris' life but the less than conventional way in which he has lived it.

Whether it be the ridiculous stories about his father and childhood or the adventures which he has when he moves to France, it is honestly such a funny book and it had me laughing all through the night. If you're on the younger side you might want to wait a few years before reading this book and DO NOT read the quotes below as this book is definitely made for a more mature audience. Though I must say, that during my speech for the assignment everyone in the room as laughing at the chapter titled "The Youth in Asia" which explores the euthanasia of Sedaris' cat and his father's dog. Sedaris really has put so much thought into this book and it really shows off through his writing. I really enjoyed the book and look back fondly on the life which I lived through his writing. 

If you love reading blogs or just the nature of our society where everyone knows everything about another person's life then this book really hits the nail on the head (is that the right expression, I hope so) and I'm so glad a chose a more interesting biography to study for my senior year as some of the ones my friends have chosen sound like absolute torture to read! 

I definitely recommend if you're looking for something different or something that will make you laugh, I adored it from start to finish!

I also thought I would leave some of the funny quotes from the book below, enjoy!

- “On my fifth trip to France I limited myself to the words and phrases that people actually use. From the dog owners I learned "Lie down," "Shut up," and "Who shit on this carpet?" The couple across the road taught me to ask questions correctly, and the grocer taught me to count. Things began to come together, and I went from speaking like an evil baby to speaking like a hillbilly. "Is thems the thoughts of cows?" I'd ask the butcher, pointing to the calves' brains displayed in the front window. "I want me some lamb chop with handles on 'em.”

- “If you aren't cute, you may as well be clever.” 

- “What's the trick to remembering that a sandwich is masculine? What qualities does it share with anyone in possession of a penis? I'll tell myself that a sandwich is masculine because if left alone for a week or two, it will eventually grow a beard.” 

- “It's a common mistake for vacationing Americans to assume that everyone around them is French and therefore speaks no English whatsoever...an experienced traveler could have told by looking at my shoes that I wasn't French. And even if I were French, it's not as if English is some mysterious tribal dialect spoken only by anthropologists and a small population of cannibals.” 

- “there's a reason regular people don't appear on TV: we're boring.” 

- “In other parts of the country people tried to stay together for the sake of the children. In New York they tried to work things out for the sake of the apartment.” 

- “but I have no mind for business and considered staying awake to be enough of an accomplishment.”

♡♡♡

image.