Running With Scissors by Augusten Burroughs (2006)

Burrough's title hooked me, hiss plot and characterization held me. I had to keep reminding myself that this is a non-fiction book. Burroughs' narrative is electrifying, his recollections scintillating, and his characters brilliant. I couldn't put the book down.

A word of caution is in order: If you are offended by descriptive homosexual acts or have problems with disfuctionality within the family, do NOT buy this book.

Running with Scissors is a quick, entertaining read which I highly recommend.

This guy had a very messed up family. It was definitely one of those instances where even though I didn't really like it, I felt the need to keep listening to it! This was my first real experience of listening to an audio book and I liked the fact that the narrator was the author. Sometimes it jumped around a bit -- you really need to listen carefully to catch everything that was going on. I never found my mind wandering though so it must have intrigued me to a point. All in all I don't know that I would recommend this audiobook but I don't know that I would not recommend it as well -- talk about wishy-washy! After the first CD, I almost didn't continue listening but then pursued and ended up finishing it! Good luck!

I bought the book on CD. All I can think is that the book must have been written for shock value. It was filled with profanity and far more explicit sexual content than I found interesting. I kept listening, expecting it to get better but it never did. Finally, about two-thirds of the way through, I took it out of my car and threw it in the trash. I was thoroughly bored and disgusted with it. I can't imagine how it got on ANY best seller list.

I enjoyed this audiobook, but, as others have said, it does have some explicit adult content, for which there is no warning on the outside packaging.

Augusten Burroughs appears to have taken the account of some very formative years of his life and, despite the sadness and confusion, emerged very much Normal.

He has an excellent sense of humour, which is neither over-the-top, nor too subtle. I love his style of writing. I think that you will, too.

If ever a book had an appropriate name, this was it. I hated it and loved it at the same time. It was uproariously funny and excruciatingly sad. It was tenderly familiar and shockingly bizarre. If I could, my true review would be it’s a 1…and it’s a 5.

The obvious candor with which this book was written makes an unbelievable but true story believable and I found myself approaching it like the literary companion of a car accident. I couldn’t stop listening. Listening, because in my case I had the audio version and it was the author himself telling me his story!

There are really no words to describe this tale and you would be best forewarned that the sexual anecdotes are graphic at best and disgusting at worst. But this book will undoubtedly keep you engaged and you may find your self laughing out loud one minute and close to tears the next.