Comedian and actor Jim Gaffigan, best known for his riffs on Hot Pockets, bacon, manatees and McDonald's, is now an author, too. Dad Is Fat, which Crown Archetype is publishing May 7, is, he says, "all about the joys and horrors of my life with my five young children. I'm not sure if it's a memoir, a confession, an apology or a cry for help, but my wife Jeannie and friends have told me it's really funny." Here he answers questions from Shelf Awareness:
On your nightstand now:
There's an empty bag of peanut butter-filled pretzel nubs. Amazing! I couldn't put them down. Wait. Am I supposed to say, "A book?"
Favorite book when you were a child:
Harry the Dirty Dog by Gene Zion, illustrations by Margaret Bloy Graham. I'm still surprised that black dog with white spots was Harry.
Your top five authors:
Mark Twain. He's the original American humorist and was essentially a standup comedian. His essay "How to Tell a Story" is more or less about how to tell a joke. He's a great example of how comedy is self-taught, how you have to find your own path and solution.
Malcolm Gladwell. His work is smart, simple and accessible, and he has intriguing analyses. He fulfills the inner nerd in all of us.
David Sedaris. The level of efficiency in his writing in communicating humor is staggering. He changed the landscape for comedy writing so that now it's pretty hard to be measured against him. Somehow he has a narrow point of view but has a broad attraction; usually a narrow point of view draws a narrow audience. He's a master.
Dr. Seuss. I like him for a lot of different reasons. One reason is that it's impossible to read one of his books without sounding a little bit drunk.
When you read Dr. Seuss to kids, you realize that some creativity is stifled as we grow older. Dr. Seuss never really put a kibosh on that.
Charles Dickens. We know him for his storytelling, but he's also so accessible. David Copperfield had a big impact on me. Wow.
Book you've faked reading:
Books by the above authors.
Book you're an evangelist for:
The Tipping Point by Malcolm Gladwell. He motivated me to write my book the way I did. I wanted it to be like his work: accessible and inviting so that you might grab it when you're on the subway or on the plane or about to fall asleep. You have an ongoing relationship with it.
With Gladwell, you're not wasting your time even if you don't like a particular book or article. No matter what, at the end you've gained 3,000 facts you didn't know before.
Book you've bought for the cover:
The Bacon Cookbook. I do jokes about bacon so I've received many books about bacon from fans.
Book that changed your life:
Nope.
Favorite line from a book:
Do menus count? I really like that cheeseburger at Shake Shack.
Book you most want to read again for the first time:
Goodnight Moon by Margaret Wise Brown, illustrated by Clement Hurd. I read Goodnight Moon to my one-and-a-half year old regularly, and after reading it to four kids, I can recite it from memory. It's like doing the same joke again and again for five years. You love it and appreciate the brilliance of the joke, but you wish you could go back and discover it for the first time again.