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Boots!

Where would we be without boos?

Where would we be without good?

No, Tender.

It's a rhetorical question, sir, but where would we be without books?

From KCRW and KCRW.com, I'm Michael Silverblatt, and this is Bookworm.

Well, when readers first met David Sedaris, my guest, he was an elf in a Santa land at Macy's in New York City.

Now, when they close his new book, Let's Explore Diabetes with Owls,

he is receiving his first colonoscopy.

I thought that the daring in this narration gets higher and higher as it goes, and I wanted everyone

to hear it. David Sedereth's reading from the final essay in his new book.

You might think it's crazy, but I love my colonoscopy. Without my sister's enthusiasm,

I might have cancelled my appointment. As it was,

she could not have been more helpful or encouraging. The day before my procedure, she gave me my

laxatives and poured my first glass of gatorade mixed with stool softener. I drank the required

32 ounces. I suffered the effects, and the next morning I forced down another bottle.

I thought that going without solid food for a total of 24 hours would leave me peckish and cranky,

but I felt no hungrier than usual when, at the appointed time, we headed to the endoscopy center.

At the front desk I checked in and was told that for the remainder of the day,

I would not be able to write checks or make any legal decisions. Is that okay? asked the receptionist.

She was cheerful and sweet smelling. And as I picked up her pen to sign my release forms, I noticed

...