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 use...

A few years ago I read Running with Scissors and found it over-the-top but tolerable. Then I read the sequel (Dry) and thought it was okay. Last year, I read Sellevision and detested it, swearing off Burroughs forever. But then I realized something: Burroughs is not a fiction writer – he’s a memoirist. So I decided to give Magical Thinking a chance because Burroughs was going back to his strength, and because rather than a full-length memoir, Magical Thinking is a series of short snippets of his...

Hmmm something happened after I read the Chapter "The Rat Thing". I struggled. A lot. I found myself unable to connect with him anymore. I couldn't laugh anymore because I thought he was just plain cruel most of the time whether it be to animals, children or adults. Now I havent read Running with Scissors or Dry yet but I do understand that he had a very screwed up childhood...but that fact still doesnt make me like the fact that he is so incredibly self-absorbed and mean (even if he does have h...

In the past, I have only listed books on Goodreads that I have enjoyed and would recommend. So this is my first negative rating/review. Today, a friend put Magical Thinking in her TO READ pile. I commented that I did not want her to read it because in one of AB's essays, he describes wishing a boss dead (the origination of the title) and incredibly goes on to gleefully reveal that she did die after hoping it would happen. This boss of his was also a Creative Director of mine at a different ad ag...

I really love this book. Because the stories are short, pretty quick reads, it's great for those times when you want something to read but have a lot of distractions around. That's why I took it to the DMV with me a few weeks ago when I was getting my driver's license renewed. It was a long wait, and the lobby was packed with all kinds of cranky people and their unruly kids. As I read about Burroughs' experiences dating an undertaker, getting blowjobs by priests and dealing with a psychotic hous...

Augusten Burroughs is an immature jerk that I wouldn’t give the time of day. I found nothing nothing charming about Magical Thinking and while I was reading it all I could think was that he represents the unshaven underarm of society – the type of person who finds everything wrong with the world and the slice of pie he has been delivered but fails to notice the good things like the fact that he is eating pie. Why am I so disgusted by him? This is the type of guy that steps on a child’s hand in a...

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 Litt...

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.

Nice Augusten Burroughs book. My favorite after Dry.

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

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 u...

The government called and said we can't afford David Sedaris anymore. It's the recession, y'know. Guess it's the poorest man's David Sedaris: Augusten Burroughs. Burroughs would be better if he'd at least admit he's a bitchy gay man instead of trying to tack on "But everybody is okay" drivel messages at the end of his bitchiness. He reminds me of guys I know who make up obviously bullshit stories made more annoying by the obvious fact they expect you are impressed by it (I'm not). Only vaguely a...

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 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*...

I love this collection of essays. I think Augusten Burroughs has a very clear, witty, engaging writing style, and I wish I could write with even a modicum of his humor. There is a great mix of the intimate and emotional and observational and confessional in this book. Burroughs is a thoughtful writer, who is also very honest about his own shortcomings and eccentricities. There were a lot of laugh-out-loud moments, some cringe-worthy sections, and some thought-provoking essays. I’m glad I took th...

03/06/2014 RE-READI am going to describe each of these stories for you in a Victorian Chapter Title. Because it's fun. :)1.) Commercial Break. In Which Young Augusten Is Selected to Be In a Tang Commercial, But Discovers He is Horrible At Acting.2.) Vanderbilt Genes. In Which Young Augusten Discovers What He's Suspected All Along – His Parents Aren't Really His Parents but Instead He Is A Lost Vanderbilt Child, Heir to Millions.3.) Transfixed by Transsexuals. In Which Augusten Explains His Obses...

❖ [booktube wish fulfillment] ❖ [twitter exsixtwosix] ❖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.

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 upbri...

Loved. Evilly witty and charmingly/heartbreakingly truthful, with so many laugh out loud moment. If you are a fan of David Sedaris you MUST read . It’s been years and years since I read Burroughs’ memoir “Running With Scissors”, and I feel the need to now go re read, as well as add his other books to my list.

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.

I def enjoyed reading these real stories of the writer and got more into the guy people’ world/ their perspective.. very cool very authentic writing style! Loved it

Over the years, I have developed a number of unwritten rules for writing book reviews, on Goodreads and occasionally elsewhere. Well, call 'em guidelines, rather than rules, since I do violate them whenever I feel like it. Most of these guidelines boil down to one thing: I try to create the kinds of review I like to read. Specifically, I don't think it's enough for me just to say that I liked something; I want to analyze and convey why and how—and doing that usually takes more than a single para...

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.

This is the book he should have named "Dry," since it's the most boring thing I've ever read. The only reason why I finished it was because often times when I read essays or short stories, there are one or two stories that make me love the whole collection. Instead, all I found was more and more racism, ableism, sexism, and transphobia that really does not hold up well in the 16 years since this was published.In the end, the only chapter that had a real conclusion was "The Mystery of Why This Sa...

I got this book on a whim after reading all it's praise on the front cover. I mean 237 positive critiques from the worlds most reputable sources can't be all wrong, can they?Besides, I love David Sedaris, and out of the 237 reviews, 235 of them had a fond comparison. One of the things that gets under my skin is the way he approaches his homosexuality. It defines him. And he comes across as saying, "I don't want to be defined by my homosexuality, but let me tell you about the catholic priests I'v...

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 sa...

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.

If you think David Sedaris' stories are funny, then you'll really explode with laughter when you read this collection from Augesten Burroughs.

3.5 starsThis is an interesting book of short stories. Well ..... stories isn't exactly the right word, but I can't really pin which word I should use ....... not stories .. musings, maybe? ......no, no ...not musings ..... um, diary entries? .......... no. ...........not exactly diary entries, but closer I think. Actually - more like written self-therapy journal entries - which is probably the essence of this exercise!! So how did I feel about this collection of stories you ask? Hmmm. So how di...

This book is a collection of short stories and brief narratives that talk about the various issues going on in the author's life. The writing is similar to that of David Sedaris -- not just because both authors are gay men who had challenging childhoods. They also seem to have a similar jaundiced view of how the world works (or often does not work) and write in a frequently funny and hyperbolic fashion about ones own neuroses in idiosyncrasies. I found at least one story, (the one about dealing