Shameless. Unabashed. He just does not care whether you like him or not.

These are what make Augusten Burrough's memoirs very different from what I've read so far. He does not give an eff when he recounts how many Catholic gay priests he had sex with. He tells each sexual encounter like he is telling them to his gay close friend inside an enclosed room. All the details, including the unprintables, are mentioned and their intimate conversations in verbatim.

This is my fifth book by Burroughs. I used to hate him: Running With Scissors (2 stars); Wolf at My Table (1 star) and You Better Not Cry (2 stars). I did not like his hysterics and his stories seemed to be insensitive to the people he grew up with. I mean why wash your laundry in public when you can do it in private? It was only a couple of months back when I began to understand his style, since it seems to be consistent throughout all his works. This was when I read Dry (3 stars) and his sensitive gay side comes out when he said inside the gay bar: "this place is full of naked lonely souls."

So, in this book, when he said "I am not normal in anyway." I believed him. He is hysterical. He is shameless. He does not fear anyone. He is what he is. So, if you don't like him, don't buy and read his books.

Which for me is originality. The guy has the balls to show to the world who he is. He knows that he is read mostly by gay guys and he is not ashamed that he gets fan mails with gay guys sending him pictures of their penis. He was fascinated though, when old women recognized him on the street and told him that they've read his works. He told a couple of stories about those encounters and I just laughed out loud this morning.

What am I doing reading all these books by Burroughs? Ah, don't entertain the idea that I am gay. This is my last book by him in my possession and I have no plan to buy and read his other works. I am done with Burroughs. I just wanted to heal my hatred for him and there was no other way I could do that but know more about him. So, I read these two other books, Dry and Magical Thinking. My hatred for him used to be as high as the sky and had I stopped there, my soul would not be at peace. I don't want to have that hate in my heart when I die.

Lesson: After a book and you hate a certain author, read more books by him/her. Reading books by a certain author gives you more idea of who he/she is as a person. Chances are, you'll accept and love him/her just the same. Then you don't have that hate in your heart anymore. Only love resides in your heart.

I love the fact that I now understand Augusten Burroughs.

The regular memoirer would embellish stories like a novelist would.

Augusten Burroughs memoirs are embellished like an ad man would embellish something.

He gets into these stories about his life with reckless abandon, completely shedding the idea of poetry or what makes a story good and it's as though he's trying to pick you up at a bar, showing you that he's a human being. While most of his memoirs are pretty cut and dry, Magical Thinking is by far the least flattering of his nostalgia. These stories are vulgar, conceited, and god damn hilarious.

Nice Augusten Burroughs book. My favorite after Dry.

Burroughs witty, self deprecating prose makes it hard for me to dislike anything he has written. His matter-of fact reporting on the strange and sometimes surreal happenings in his day-to-day life provide much entertainment. His humour is biting and unforgiving and makes me adore the man more and more with every chapter I read.
This book in particular lacks the structured and polished approach Burroughs took in Running With Scissors. This book is more of a mush-mash of thoughts, memories and recollections and I found in be a perfect 'in-between' read. Something relatively light-hearted to take you through to the next engrossing, thrilling book.

If you have never read Burroughs this would be an interesting way to dip your toe into his particular brand of crazy. If you find yourself empathizing more than chastising, then you get a green light to start trawling through his more satisfying books.

I found this entertaining. For a guy who admits to writing about himself exclusively, he did not overwhelm me with his self-obsessive tendencies. He's funny and interesting at least most of the time. The scenes and characters are vivid; I felt like I was visiting a world I'm not that familiar with. Kind of fun to get a city slicker perspective every now and again. Also, the brevity of the pieces make it a great bathroom book.

This was so bingeable! This is how I felt watching all of euphoria in like a week. Just story after story that was funny, messy, and stupid. Definitely negative points because this book is over 20 years old, and it shows. (I apologize to anyone who was rightfully offended by this book). That said, I really think this was just a fun and silly read!

Emojis for how I’m feeling:

OK, this was funny and weird, like all his stuff, but I like him best when he has an actual story to tell, like in Dry or Running with Scissors. This collection is a lot like Possible Side Effects in its randomness. I find myself thinking, how does this guy keep convincing people to publish all these amusing but basically pointless stories? And can I have the phone number of those people? I too have lots of pointless stories and would love to make some money off of them. I enjoyed this but I think I'm boycotting Burroughs until he comes out with an actual cohesive story again. I feel like I've heard all he has to say. I'll summarize for you: he's gay and had a bad childhood. Ha ha!The End.

Never heard of this author although he is very well known in literary circles. Now that I have found him I’m hooked on his horrendous stories. Funny, irreverent, obscene and downright weird. This is a selection of short stories that include Tang, gay affairs and a nod to a pre-President Donald Trump!

I Googled him and that really peaked my curiosity, now I’m on a mission to read more! Picked this book up at my neighborhood Little Library.” Burroughs is very similar to James Frey in A Million Little Pieces, a black-out alcoholic who seeks treatment at the same Minnesota clinic. This book also has a gory dental scene. Don’t know why these morbid stories are appealing to me, but they are!

This book is great! I wish the author would come live in RI so I could run into him at a bar and make fun of people with him.

Well, this was a fun find! I read this right after my re-read of The Secret Garden, and it was a nice change of pace. So off we go from India and Jolly Old Norhtern England at the turn of the 20th century to Modern Day United States - mainly New York City. These are (some of) the true-life tales of Augusten Burroughs. First off, this guy is so incredibly witty, he could probably make a government report- on ANY topic - entertaining. He covers subjects including his terrible childhood, a broken escalator at Manhattan’s lone Kmart, steroid use, and a Housekeeper from Hell, as well as many, many other things. Secondly, I thought Mr. Burroughs was not only a witty writer, but an eloquent and insightful one as well. In addition to that, I found myself able to relate to him much more often than not. There were frequent head nods along with my many chuckles while reading Magical Thinking. If you are feeling the need for a quick read that’s funny as well as poignant, then step on up for Magical Thinking!

Not a bad collection of anecdotes from a truly bizarre and frequently disturbing life, but I found I did not like the man or understand some of his behaviours; accidentally stepping on a toddler's fingers is forgivable, not telling her perplexed mother why the child is suddenly wailing is not. I suppose he can be excused due to the emotional poverty of his childhood and youth, but as an intelligent man, he should know better. Of course, he doesn't really care and that seems to be the point of all of his work, as far as I can see. He doesn't care and he wants us to know it. That's fine, but I find I don't really care about him as a result, and have no interest in reading any more of his work.

He's a pretty good writer though.

Short quirky stories that made me laugh out loud. A quick summer read.