Augusten Burroughs é um dos meus escritores favoritos, não só porque escreve bem, mas especialmente porque é um escritor que escreve sobre si próprio.
Ora, e não sendo eu um escritor, sempre preferi nos meus escritos, escrever sobre a minha pessoa do que ficcionar uma história.
E como Burroghs consegue transformar uma série de recordações da sua vida, em pequenos episódios, plenos de humor e sarcasmo é totalmente visível neste seu “Pensamento Mágico”.
E, é neste livro que ele fala abertamente e de uma maneira muito bela do seu relacionamento de muitos anos com o seu companheiro, Dennis.
É já o quarto livro que leio deste autor e todos eles autobiográficos: “Correr com tesouras”, “A Seco”, “Efeitos Secundários”, todos eles e por ordem cronológica falam de circunstâncias especiais da sua vida, e agora neste quarto, ele prefere ir falando de assuntos não tão específicos, mas todos eles definidores de um modo de ser e de um modo de vida

"Magical Thinking," especially for someone who has read any other of Augusten Burroughs' memoirs, maintains a cheerful level of anecdotal references to such things as the secret talents of Catholic priests, pespi-enemas, and the author's own violent descent into madness and squalor. However, it appears that the book merely mirrors the two other books I've read by Burroughs ("Possible Side Effects" and "Running With Scissors") rather than offering up a differing perspective on his life or even a different set of memories upon which he might make some kind of greater comment on his own life; in all three of these books, the specific memories all detailed in one way or another either his own materialism, his own lack of hygiene or proper socialization, or his upbringing with passive and equally insane parents. While overall, the vignettes Burroughs details of his life are hilarious and interesting, the book really lacks an original/tying theme.
3/5 stars for entertainment and shock value.

Like any collection, it has its stronger and weaker elements. My favorites are the kinder, gentler stories; the ones about Dennis, and about getting excellent blowjobs from Catholic priests, and his experiences at the Barbizon modeling school, and the title essay.

Partly I was fascinated by these stories because Burroughs is basically the anti-me. Not just because he's a gay guy and I'm a straight woman, but because he is an alcoholic urban ad agency executive who watches endless TV and, as he says in one of his essays, if he wants nature, he turns on the Discovery Channel. He's not just not like me, he's not like anybody I come in regular contact with or know well. It's like reading the memoirs of a space alien.

I enjoy Burroughs; he's entertaining, he weaves an interesting tale, and after having read Running with Scissors, he obviously has more than his share of stories to tell. Overall, this book was entertaining, and I caught myself snickering to myself on the bus more than a few times. If you enjoy the modern humorist/essayist movement, Burroughs is one of the best. I feel that personally, I am growing a little tired of the genre, and that's probably what kept me from giving this book five stars.

A solid collection of humorous stories, with a smattering of heartfelt and touching stories to boot. Burroughs is no David Sedaris, but he is certainly an enjoyable comedic author.

Obnoxious but compulsively readable. Burroughs is pretty damn funny when he's not being an ass.

After enjoying Burrough's bitchy humor for a few chapters, I began to find the stories lacking in any redeeming qualities. They were just mean and bitchy rather than insightful and bitchy. I always appreciate a self-aware narrator, but although Burrough's is admirably self-aware and vulnerable, he is profoundly unhealthy in his thinking and behavior. I haven't read his autobiography, "Running With Scissors," so I can't fill in the background of his frequent references to a terribly abusive upbringing. What I eventually realized is that in Burroughs I was hoping to find another David Sedaris -- a funny, bitter, bitchy gay man with a keen memory and scathing attention to detail but with an evident heart and soul. Burroughs is not Sedaris. He's a nasty man I chose not to spend any more time with after the first 7 or 8 chapters.

I appreciate hyperbole and use it a lot in my own writing, but Burrough's hyperbolic statements just seem inflammatory in an adolescent and obnoxious way.

The chapter on killing the mouse in his bathtub totally lacked a point -- and the second half of the book badly needed an editorial hand. I have the feeling that this book got a fairly free editorial pass after the success of "Running With Scissors." It is very badly organized, and the structure of the essays gets sloppier and sloppier as the book wears on.

A few fabulous laugh lines and insights.

I love Burroughs writing! There is some odd element that always shows itself relatable to my life in some way. This book, closer to the end, became more focused on a more mature side of life, which I very much enjoyed. Of course, there was no lack in laugh out loud moments or inappropriate needed giggle lines. This may be my favorite by him.

Amusing enough to make me laugh out loud a few times. It doesn't get five stars because Burroughs is amusing but not endearing. And he made a few typos and can't seem to get his facts straight (did he start working in advertising when he was 18 or 19? does he use magical thinking to keep planes aloft or not?). Sooo...four stars.

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Maybe I'm burned out on this man's writing? I loved Running With Scissors (when it came out), This Is How, and Dry, but maybe three books are enough for a memoir series? I'm going to put this one down for now.

Magical Thinking: A schizotypal personality disorder attributing to one's own actions something that had nothing to do with him or her and thus assuming that one has a greater influence over events than is actually the case.

This definition was provided in the book.


I came to know about this book while I was looking through in a secondhand books store that is located on the far edge of the city. I was captivated by the title!

When I first started this book, I didn't enjoy it much, so I left there beside my bed for almost a year & a half until I finally decided to get back to it, and to my surprise, I found it interesting & I kept going from one story to the next.
What was more astonishing to me, was that when I got back to the book, I found a mention for Ernest Hemingway in the exact page where I abandoned The book. And it is so due to the fact that I was reading Farewell to Arms by Hemingway at the time! that gave me a cheerful mood to continue reading both books

In general, it was a fun & light book to read :)

Although there's no way all these things actually happened to Burroughs, this is still a funny collection of short stories. I really enjoyed it, though of course, some stories were much better than others. I don't know that I want to read more books by this author, though - his writing is quite explicit and I don't know if I can handle explicit stories of abuse. However, I liked reading this book.