Fall in love too easily? Davy Rothbart on his ‘idiot heart’

Davy Rothbart has this problem that maybe you can relate to. He falls in love too easily. His sweet nature was in evidence today when he stopped by KCRW to talk about his new book, “My Heart is an Idiot“, which is getting great write-ups. It’s a series of essays about his travels, and his tendency to romanticize and idealize every woman he meets. (Perhaps not every one. He seemed pretty level-headed with this interviewer.)

He’s kind of a Ross McElwee (if you’ve been lucky enough to see his masterpiece, “Sherman’s March“, you know what I mean) meets David Sedaris (although Davy’s mother is a converted Buddhist meditation teacher who happens to be deaf.)

Rothbart’s traipsing around the country–he’ll visit close to 80 cities before December, in a rented van–to drum up support for the book. Besides scalping tickets and contributing to This American Life, what put him on the map is the magazine he created 10 years ago, called Found.

Rothbart with his new book

There’s a link between the rescued notes, diary entries, and flyers Davy collects—and the fact that he loves talking to strangers so much that it often tugs at his heart. It’s a sense of adventure and mystery, openness to what regular people have to say.

Here’s what he had to say about it today, and if you want to hear more, check out his show tomorrow at the Bootleg Theater, Wednesday at Largo, Thursday in Valencia, and heck, just about everywhere else in the country.