Magical Thinking

Wednesday, 19 March 2008 02:02

Author: Augusten Burroughs
Publisher: Atlantic Books
Year: 2004
Price: About $14.95

If for some reason you haven’t read “Running With Scissors” or it’s follow-up “Dry”, then bookshelves nationwide, “Magical Thinking” is a great way for you to become familiar with Augusten Burroughs and his crazy world. “Magical Thinking", while autobiographical, it’s not a chronological memoir like his previous works. Instead, it’s a collection of personal anecdotes in a sort of essay format, which makes for easy reading.

“Magical thinking” can be defined as believing that one's own thoughts can influence events, either beneficially, by creating good luck, or for the worse, like giving someone the "evil eye." In Burroughs' book, one of his chapters/essays discusses his thoughts on "magical thinking," but the majority of his essays are just humorous factoids of life. Who'd have thought that even the most mundane thing or episode in a person's life could be that funny? It gives the rest of us hope that we can look upon our own lives and laugh.