A very funny book in a neurotic kind of way.
3.5 stars. Augusten Burroughs' life is just a carnival full of roller coasters and funny mirrors that gets better once you get back on line to ride them again.

dnf at 45%. It is just bad. It is a mix of boring and disgusting and i do not want to waste any more of my time on it.

I just recently got out of the shower. No lie. The shower came after I cleaned the shower but, get this, before I took a bubble bath.

Now what sense does that make? Who takes a bath and THEN gives the bathtub a deep scrubbing?

... I've done lots of things in odd orders. I think hot tea in the summer and down gallons of iced tea in the winter. Sometimes I drink Rockstar or Monster or Go Girl™ immediately before going to sleep.

Earlier today, at the grocery store, I went to the frozen section *first*, then proceeded to shop for the items which didn't need to be refrigerated. Then I came home and took my pork chops out of the package and seasoned them, the whole time knowing damn well that I had no clean pan that I was willing to cook said pork chops on. So I had to put the pork chops back in the fridge, wash some dishes, then pull them back out when they were ready to go.

Sometimes I take a shower, get dressed, then decide that I want to shave. Who does that? Honestly... So what do I do? I take off my shirt, then shave, then put back on the shirt. Then remember that my shirt is wrinkled so I have to take my shirt back off to iron it.

Yesterday (meaning Sunday since I haven't gone to sleep yet), I was at Hina's when this incredibly attractive girl, with a very loud green, yellow and silver shirt and jean shorts was in there. I briefly considered asking her for her number before I asked her for her name. Then I realized that this made absolutely NO sense. I did ask her for her name, though. Steve thinks I should have asked her for coffee (the irony of that being that we were in a Tea store).

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I read Dry before Running with Scissors, and you would have thought that I would have learned my lesson a second time through. I didn't realize that Dry was written AFTER Running with Scissors until after I read the latter. If you've been keeping track, I finished Possible Side Effects last week and moved onto Magical Thinking a few days ago. And, again, it didn't cross my mind one bit to ask myself, "which novel came first?"

In this case, however, it worked out well. I would not have given PSE 3 stars, I would have given it two, and this memoir three. But two straight weeks of Augusten Burrough's short stories (with Dōgen sandwiched in between) is two straight weeks too many.

PSE basically consists of rejected stories from MT. MT is the real shit. Debby's Requirements, Beating Raoul, and Model Behavior *are* the book. Granted, Possible Side Effects contains more funny stories, the best stories in MT are better than the best stories in PSE. But MT kinda tapers off - after he talks about his first date with Dennis, the book spirals into constantly talking about Dennis, which left me pretty tired. And after reading 193 pages today, that's too much time to spend in one day about his boyfriend.

Maybe Augusten Burroughs and I think the same way. Any normal author would have instantly recognized that some 6-8 straight chapters of Dennis after all the good stories (regardless of the somewhat chronological order of the chapters) made no sense. Just like me baking dessert before making dinner. //

Probably the weakest of all of Burroughs' work (with "Dry" coming in at the top spot), I still enjoyed this one. I did, however, feel there was a certain rushed tone, like he had to slam out these stories quickly to keep his name relevant. I wouldn't really call any of his writing "thoughtful," per se, but these stories in particular seem a bit shallow (which I'm sure he'd readily admit). Anecdotes about his boyfriend and dog are sweet (I liked his boyfriend announcing he wanted to be President of Lycra in order to decree who would be allowed wear it and who wouldn't) but the stuff about his parents and his childhood growing up with his mother's psychotic shrink seem like retreads. I think he's used the story about being in Tang commercial as a child in at least three separate books now ("Running with Scissors," "Possible Side Effects," and now "Magical Thinking"). We get it, Augusten. You were an extraordinarily vain child who was obsessed with celebrity at a young age. You're a star now, so relax and take your time with your next book.

This is a sense of humor I can connect with. I can hear him in my head as I say and think along the same lines in my daily life. It’s brash, to the point and brutal in its delivery but I doubt you’ll laugh out loud. Instead you’ll find yourself on a loop of inner chuckles and head nods as you nod along to his random and mundane life excursions. This as by no means a book “I couldn’t put down” but it was a book I could pick up at random times and enjoy without worrying about plot or characters.

I really enjoyed this book! One of Burroughs memoirs that is written in a series of short stories/essays about his life, it moves elegantly as if a work of fiction.

I was entranced by his style and voice. What great fun!

The reason I did not give this book 5 stars was simply for the reason that after the peak of the book the decent, to me, lacked the punch and style the rest of the book had.

Either way, I will most definitely be reading more of his work.

So Anthony bought me this book last weekend and I finished it in 3 days.

It's a collection of his essays, much like the style of David Sedaris. And just like David Sedaris, only a couple of these essays are "laugh out loud" funny.

The first 5 essays feel like he's just trying to fill space in the book with nonsense "what if" stories that are obviously all taking place in his head. This led me constantly think, "I thought this was a memoir based on things that actually take place." But again, I'm uber critical because I get bored easily and need to be constantly entertained.

I would say that my favorite essays (which actually did make me laugh) were Beating Raoul, which is about a "almost-perfect" date (read to find out why I used the words almost-perfect") and I'm Gonna Live Forever which is about Burroughs' experiences with new found fame in New York City.

Overall Grade: B+

Always enjoyable and sometimes laugh out loud funny ... Although sometimes it seems wrong to be laughing at Burroughs' life ...

I didn't read the whole thing--only to the essay where he writes about how he tortured a rat. I got so mad I tore the pages out of the book then tossed the book into the first trash can I found.

Really enjoyed this book! A very comical, quick read with some disturbing twists. Never knew what was coming next as you move through the series of short stories. I recommend this book to anyone looking for something different and fun!

These personal essays range in time from when Burroughs sold his first book, a satirical novel called Sellevision, to the success of Running with Scissors, and the diary-esque penning of Dry. It’s been many, many years since I first read this collection, and I didn’t like it as much as I remembered, but it’s still decent. He’s def not for everyone, but he’s one of my favorites. I’ll always credit him with my falling in love with memoir.

This would’ve been 5 stars had it not been for what I felt was a cruelly detailed and unnecessary chapter about him killing a mouse.