I read the book Possible Side Effects by Augusten Burroughs. I think his purpose for writing this book was to entertain. He writes a series of stories about his past to teach lessons, and to entertain readers. He writes a lot about his adventures with his anxiety about his cardiac problems, and much more. Readers can explain that Augusten is not meaning to be funny with his life situations, but ends up being hilarious. From collecting college t-shirts to nicotine gum, this story is endless humor.

The theme in this book isn’t that hard to find. Augustens trying to make readers realize we are all clumsy sometimes, and those situations can always turn out to be life lessons. It also seems as if there is no theme. There are many different stories and each one of them have their own lesson.
Augusten seems to find humor in the little things, in his chapter about his cardiac issues, he wrote- “And with these words, I don’t think you’re supposed to be aware of your own heartbeat- this unknown woman in a burnt orange poncho doomed me to a life of pathological overawareness of my own cardiac activity (86).” He has humor to the littlest things.

The style of this book is narrative, with many stories about the life in Augusten Burroughs. This book is very entertaining and I enjoyed every bit of it. I would rate this book five stars, because of the humor and the relatable situations.

Not many books can make me snort-laugh out loud and break my heart at the same time. This is why I love Augusten Burroughs. He's definitely not for everyone, but I love him.

There are some very sad stories in this book. I liked it even better than Running With Scissors.

4.5. Feels like you’re reading his darkest confessions from a secret diary, makes you love and hate him at the same time. Mostly love, though, because anyone who can highlight his own worst (painfully relatable) traits and make you laugh at the same time is a freaking gem.

✨️ Augusten Burroughs is brilliantly insane in the best possible way—uproariously funny, deliciously profane, and fearlessly bold. "Possible Side Effects" had me laughing until my stomach hurt and gasping for air.

Augusten Burroughs is that wonderfully witty guy in the cubicle behind the filing cabinet who sends you snarky e-mails about your co-worker's shoes and your boss' receding hairline. Oh, how I wish I knew this guy in person! Fortunately, with "Possible Side Effects" I can pretend for a while that he is on my speed dial.

"Side Effects" is another collection of stories of dysfunctional relationships, love affairs gone awry, childhood horror stories, and more tales of life in the big city. Though he's covered much of this same ground before, the essays are never repetitive or boring; instead, I grow to love Burroughs more and more as he reveals ever-deeper layers of himself, his insecurities, and his quirks and foibles. I laughed, even as I hated myself for laughing. But that's what makes it so great.

Ha! These are quite funny essays. I liked the ones about his childhood with his grandma and the ones about his boyfriend better than the ones about his crazy mom. (You can get your fill of crazy-mom essays in Running with Scissors, if I remember correctly.)

Anyway, there was one super-depressing essay where he drunkenly buys a puppy, drunkenly tries to raise it, then some other stuff happens that I skipped because it was too sad, then suddenly he drops the puppy off at the ASPCA and the woman working there calls him out at a drunk and tells him to get back to AA.

There were also a couple of hysterical stories about the detailed inner-workings of ad agencies, which I recommend to anyone who likes or hates advertising.

I've read Running with Scissors and Dry, and was dismayed to find out this was the newest book club pick. The saving grace was each story was a little stand-alone bite, so I didn't feel the pity, revulsion and outrage that the aforementioned books provoked.

I was on the fence whether to assign 4 stars or 3. Burroughs can certainly find the humor amidst dysfunction, alcoholism, and mental illness. Most of the little stories did make me smile or laugh, but I couldn't decide if I really, really liked them. I will say that the story of the dermatologist was stellar. I cried over that one. I think you should try Possible Side Effects yourself and see what you think.

The book was hilarious. I chuckled out loud often. I may try to check out his other book written before this one.

Of course five stars, after already being a fan, I read this after meeting him at a book signing, and he still just seemed truly surprised that all of these people wanted to tell him just how much they enjoy his books. I actually felt like I gathered a little bit about him that day, so when I read this collection of "shorts" I felt a little more in tune with the already personal aspect of his writing. He even let me babble to him about how Dry spoke to me, said he was so happy to hear that, and smiled as I shook with excitement from head to toe and couldn't steady myself for a picture! Love him!!!

In a world plagued by political correctness, compassion, kindness, higher purpose, and other lofty ideals, Burroughs dares to tell unapologetic, irreverent, and, in a way, honest stories about his life.

He bares his life flat out in front of the world. Unapologetic, irreverent, matter-of-fact stories. To my delight, lacking the all too common self-blame, self-reproach, seld-decreation, self-pity found in other books. I find it refreshing and down to earth. Perfectly-imperfect! The essays do not try to sell some larger ideals, or profound revelations about the world and the self or even worse cheap spirituality and "life journeys". Instead, they are candid and funny with occasional down-to-earth epiphanies.

Some of the essays are just OK hence the 4 stars. I recommend the book for its entertaining value and the ability to pull the reader back to reality, in a funny humane way. I finished it, in a weekend and felt relieved.

Wow. Hysterical and sad all at once. Thank you Augusten for sharing all of your layers, sparing us nothing! Once again, you have not disappointed!

I honestly don’t have a lot of thoughts on this book. It sorta felt like watching tik tok. Just bite sized chapters of random/entertaining stories. I liked this author’s other short story collection Magical Thinking more. But this was still good (except for the racist parts). So yeah… vibes

Emojis for how I’m feeling: