As an author of numerous best-sellers, David Sedaris likes to spend a solid portion of his free time doing readings and meeting members of his eclectic, devoted fan base. Back from a pandemic-forced hiatus, the beloved humorist will make his return to San Francisco on Nov. 1 at the War Memorial Opera House in support of his latest release, “A Carnival of Snackery: Diaries (2003-2020)” (Little, Brown and Co.). Serving as the second published installment of his diary entries — the first was “Theft by Finding:Diaries (1977-2002)” in 2017—Sedaris offers bite-size musings on everything from bad Anne Frank House etiquette to the time he met the woman in charge of answering Koko the gorilla’s fan mail.

Speaking with The Chronicle by phone while traveling for East Coast tour dates, Sedaris shared what it’s like to be back in front of a live audience, how he avoided virtual charity events and the challenge of pairing a sports coat with the perfect culottes.

Q: How does it feel to finally be back on tour?

A:I’ve been pretty happy so far with the way things have gone. People have seemed really happy. Often, I’m the very first thing or the first event that these theaters have had, so everybody backstage and all of the ushers are happy too. It’s been better than ever, really.

Q: Is there anything you’re looking forward to being able to see in San Francisco when you return here in November?

A:All I care about is shopping. That’s all I’ve ever really cared about. Unfortunately, so many stores have closed, but there are still plenty left too. I like the Fraenkel Gallery. I’ll run over there while I’m in town. There’s a store called Cotton Sheep in Hayes Valley, and I’ll go there. I’ll go to Tail of the Yak in Berkeley. Unionmade closed down and so did Bell’occhio, but that’s mainly what I do: go shopping. I like the (San Francisco) Museum of Modern Art, of course. That’s always good, but I have to go by myself because if my boyfriend, Hugh (Hamrick), is with me, he stops and looks at everything. Everything is worth looking at, but I like to breeze through the museum, so I don’t like to have anybody holding me up.

Q: In reading your new book of collected diary entries, one thing that struck me is how often you get good stories from the folks who are tasked with driving you from one place to another. Do you think your career would have suffered if you’d decided to get a driver’s license?

A:I think I’m just too anxious to drive. As a consequence of that, you take public transportation or you ride in cars, and so you have different kinds of adventures. If I drove a car from the age of 16, I’m sure I would have had all kinds of adventures that way. Instead, I was the only white person on the bus in Raleigh, N.C., so I had my adventures that way. The other night, I got picked up by a man who regularly drove (actor) Cicely Tyson toward the end of her life. He told me that if she was supposed to come down at noon, he’d see her maybe at 2 o’clock and that she was always two hours late for everything. I thought that was interesting. You know, you’re in your 90s, so it can take you a while to get dressed and find your shoes and stuff.

Q: You’ve stated that it was your intention throughout this pandemic to never have to hop on Zoom or FaceTime or Skype. Have you been successful in executing that goal?

A:Pretty much. I had to do it twice, but I think twice in a year and a half isn’t so bad. One time, it was like a remote event that my agent set up, and the other one was a podcast, but yeah, it got me out of all kinds of stuff. I knew it was going to get me out of a lot of charity stuff, and boy, did it.

Q: You seem to really enjoy figuring out what to wear to your book events. With the pandemic forcing you to postpone your last tour, do you now have a surplus of wardrobe options to choose from?

A:Life would be so easy if I just regularly wore a suit. It would take me two minutes to pack, but instead, because I have all of these crazy outfits, it takes me forever to find the right pair of culottes to go with this insane jacket that I’ll be wearing for the next 10 days. It was not a problem, though. I had the culottes in my closet, and this is a perfect jacket to go with culottes — it kind of sags to my knees. It’s almost like a sport coat that has a tumor.

Q: One thing I loved about “Carnival of Snackery” was reading all of the incredible stories that people have shared with you while you were signing their books.

A:上周一个女人来。她泪流满面的。她看看d me a picture of what looked like a claw holding my book, and it was her mother, who was in her 90s. Her mother really liked my stuff, so they put one of my books in her mother’s hands when they buried her. The woman told me, “This is the last letter my mother sent to me, and I was wondering if you could sign it? We’re going to have it laminated.” In it, the mother had written, “I hope to see you very soon,” and I wrote, “Oh, no you won’t!”

Carnival of Snackery: Diaries (2003-2020)
By David Sedaris
(Little, Brown and Co.; 576 pages; $32)

An Evening with David Sedaris:7:30 p.m. Nov. 1. $83-$93. War Memorial Opera House, 301 Van Ness Ave., S.F.www.broadwaysf.com