Magical Thinking

Finished listening to Magical Thinking by Augusten Burroughs on my way around town today. I loved this book! I've been listening to it for about the past week and I was a little sad for it to end today. For the past week that I've been listening to it I've been driving around laughing pretty hysterically. I feel slightly bad for people stuck next to me at red lights this week. They must have been wondering what could have been that funny.

Burroughs is a wonderful author. The story is a collection of essays from his personal life. The essays aren't really about anything special. It's the fact that they are everyday stories written in such a way that makes it so interesting. You also get what you see with Burroughs. I've noticed this with his books. He isn't writing to piss people off or to get people to like him. He writes it either as it was or might be, in the case of his fictional works, without apology. I like that he isn't perfect. That he didn't have this perfect cookie cutter life and he's okay with that. Or I should say he's found his way to be comfortable with that. The personal touches in the stories make them all the more worthwhile to read.

The book is a bit graphic which I find interesting because on the audio version there is an interview with the author at the end in which he says he is a bit of a prude. I find that hard to believe after listening to an essay on his experiences with getting blow jobs from Catholic priests. There are also several essays that mention trans-gender reassignment surgeries in more detail than I ever really needed to know about. If your squeamish about those sorts of things you can skip those essays, but trust me the book is worth reading.

Current Listen: The Whole World Over by Julia Glass