If you travel, as I used to, this is perfect for those long drives. I have taken trips where I have listened to this front to back. Sedaris' voice adds great depth to his stories.

Stomach hurt when i laughed. It's the story about trying to explain easter in halting french to a non-christian....so much pain and memories of my own time in france.

These are a great listen. We saw David live in Denver a few years back. He is a master story teller. His stories are funny but some boarder on disturbing. Start with the santa land diaries.

This is a must have for any David Sedaris fan. The books are even better read aloud.

This is David Sedaris reading his stories and his delivery is everything. I've seen him live and his voice and timing add so much to his stories. Drive around and listen and it will make your day.

This was actually the first audio cassette book I had listened to, and it certainly hooked me. Not only did I find the hours of driving seemingly evaporate, I found myself arriving at my destination in a better mood. I laughed so hard at some of his stories, but also was touched my sadness at the levels of despair he can relate with his words. I love his writing.

Dark,often self deprecating humor,but I really liked it. It made my one hour ride to work much shorter.

This box set includes:
BARREL FEVER AND OTHER STORIES
HOLIDAYS ON ICE
NAKED
ME TALK PRETTY ONE DAY with a full hour of bonus tracks not available on cassette
***above description is from Amazon.

I wander if ME TALK PRETTY ONE DAY, CD version, includes the bonus part or not. This is a huge doses of David Sedaris. If you are new to David Sedaris, you should probably try out with some other, like "When You Are Engulfed In Frame" to test if you can laugh his humor.

I have listened "Barrel Fever and Other Stories" before, but it was still funny, especially "rooster" and "stadium pal".

Some (or most) people call "Holidays On Ice" dark humor, but it was quite funny.

Some parts of "Naked" and "Me Talk Pretty One Day" were funny.

After all, it was a huge doses of David Sedaris. I still like his works, both writing and reading, but I prefer to have him a small bit at a time, or a day.

Like, holy shit.

Listening to David Sedaris is exponentially better than the already goddamned hilarious experience of reading him. That voice. That phrasing. That delivery. It's everything that's good about radio and the oral tradition, and it reminds of how Sedaris attained popularity in the first place -- through his NPR pieces that ended up being the 'Holidays on Ice' book.

Really, I recommend this far more than reading his books. It sounds cheap, but I would probably not say this of any other book I've ever read. Trust me on this one.

This box set includes the audio books of Sedaris's Barrel Fever, Holidays on Ice, Naked, and Me Talk Pretty One Day.

Even if you have read any of Sedaris's work, I would highly suggest listening to the audio of him reading it. There is no substitute for listening to the inflection he gives his own personal stories and the characters his sister Amy creates with her voice are awesome. Several of the stories are read live.

Some of my favorite quotes from the books:

Barrel Fever: "If you're looking for sympathy you'll find it between shit and syphilis in the dictionary."

Holidays on Ice: "And don't tell me, 'I don't wear underpants, I'm a dancer.' You're not a dancer. If you were a real dancer you wouldn't be here. You're an elf and you're going to wear panties like an elf."

Naked: "We were not a hugging people. In terms of emotional comfort it was our belief that no amount of physical contact could match the healing powers of a well made cocktail."

Me Talk Pretty One Day: "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."

hilarious, great for road trips, and the live readings are especially good

This box set includes Barrel Fever, Naked, Holidays on Ice, and Me Talk Pretty One Day. It's unabridged, but I think that means it's the unabridged box set, not necessarily an unabridged version of all of the above, because they named a person who was responsible for selecting the essays. Anyway, it was the usual great Sedaris humor. Great for falling asleep to because I could just start on the next side the next day, and it didn't matter if I had missed the end of one story while falling off to lala land.