About The Book

Adam Lennard had never been a sleep talker until, one fateful night three years ago while deep in slumber, he yelled the words, “Enough with the cheese! Enough!” From that night forward, Adam’s exclama­tions grew exponentially in topic, crudeness, and downright hilarity—and thankfully for the tens of thousands of readers who now follow their popular blog, his wife, Karen Slavick-Lennard, had the good sense to write it all down.

Sleep Talkin’ Man is the true story of Adam, a mild-mannered Englishman with a wild nocturnal life, quite possibly an entire separate personality, known only as Sleep Talkin’ Man. Prone to hilariously hostile outbursts and “relentless ego-wanking,” as his American wife Karen terms it, and with notable fixations on both real and invented wildlife (“Vampire penguins? Zombie guinea pigs? We’re done for. . . . done for.”); scatology (“Today’s a bad day to be my underpants, that’s for sure.”); his own greatness (“No one asks to be born. But everyone thanks god I was.”); and the evils of both lentils and vegetarianism (“You know, it would be easier to kill the vegetarians than invite them to dinner. Bloody fucking lentils.”), Sleep Talkin’ Man has for the last few years had his questionable wisdom captured on audio and shared with the world in the Sleep Talkin’ Man viral blog.

An uproarious combination of insult comedy, context-free riffing, and the purely absurd, Sleep Talkin’ Man comprises the best quotes and exchanges from the blog, never-before-seen material from Karen’s trove of audio files, as well as essays telling the story of their meeting and relationship, the impact of Sleep Talkin’ Man‘s manifestation on their lives and those of friends and family, how Sleep Talkin’ Man resembles and, more importantly, differs from Adam’s waking personality, and describing the community of sleep talkers and sleepwalkers who have emerged around the blog.

Praise

“Talking in your sleep was never so funny . . . [Adam Lennard’s] nighttime alter-ego is rude and crude and certainly sounds insane.” —Nick Watt, ABC News (Online)

“To sleep, perchance to talk nonsense. Internet users have suddenly become obsessed with what we get up to in bed. It is not so much who we sleep with but what we say in our slumber that has triggered the latest online craze.” —Maurice Chittenden, The Sunday Times (UK)

“A hilarious blog of [Karen Slavick-Lennard’s] sleep-talking husband’s late-night ramblings . . . [and] an Internet sensation . . . Weird and wonderful.” —The Sun (UK)

“[Sleep Talkin’ Man] rambles about everything from sex and underwear to the most surreal statements on vampire penguins and zombie guinea pigs . . . a massive viral hit.” —The Telegraph (UK)

“Adam Lennard is living—or sleeping—proof of the power of the subconscious. Generally even-tempered and pleasant, at night Lennard becomes a much different kind of guy, chatting about everything from long-forgotten favorite childhood sweets to ducks on swings.” —Anna Swindle, PASTE

Excerpt

KAREN
You said, “Don’t let the midget out of the ward­robe. He doesn’t come out until Thursday.”

ADAM
He’s got to polish all my shoes. Cleans my shoes, straightens my shirts, and guards against moths. Thursday is his day off.

KAREN
Are moths afraid of midgets?

ADAM
He eats the moths.

KAREN
Oh. Does he get to eat anything else?

ADAM
Moths and dust.

KAREN
Dust is mostly human skin cells.

ADAM
He eats dust.

KAREN
So, you’re saying he’s a cannibal. Aren’t you afraid of keeping a cannibal around the house?

ADAM
No, I don’t keep him around the house. I keep him in the wardrobe.

KAREN
Where does he go on Thursday?

ADAM
I let him out so he can stretch his legs. It doesn’t take much. He likes to skateboard.

KAREN
Does he?

ADAM
Apparently so. I see him going up and down the hill.

Then at six o’clock in the evening on the dot, he bounces back into the wardrobe. He likes it there. It’s cozy.