Sorry for the trend of posts starting with "I just (insert "read" or "saw") some book or movie--or maybe it was just a trend of one post? At any rate, this blog has become my official book group/coffee date with a human friend/interactive format of any sort because, frankly....well, the only topics of discussion with IRL friends (congratulate yourself if you don't know that term because it means you haven't spent the last 10+ years having cyber friends as your main peer group) are various and sundry bits of gossip. Actually lately the gossip has been quite entertaining and unbelievably tawdry for the burbs, but I digress.
At any rate, I just read Augusten Burroughs Possible Side Effects and am utterly captivated by him. I highly, HIGHLY recommend this book--I personally am totally obsessed with Augusten Burroughs.
Anyway, I recommend everyone immediately read all of Augusten Burroughs books--I'm going to--and "we" (I think that means basically me and Cassie) can have our own book club. I read Running with Scissors a long time ago but am now going to re-read and see the movie. I am just in awe of him--his writing style, his outlook on life, the fact that he shares my same life philosophy--namely, sit back and just wait for success to find you and it will. Well, it did for him, at least.
One of my favorite essays in the book is about him being asked to speak at different ivy-league schools despite the fact that he doesn't have so much as a high-school education himself. I LOVE that he managed to bypass one of the assumed requirements for success in this world, especially in any creative or in any way scholarly field--an advanced degree. I myself vowed after college never to set foot in another classroom and like to think that it won't hold me back in any way-- and his book gives me hope.
Anyway, how's that for a forced 7 am ramble, now that I've vowed to carve out time to write so I can become the next,--female--Augusten Burroughs?
So please go enjoy this book and let me know what you think (addressing my non-existent book club members)!
3 comments:
Hey Maggie, thanks for the sweet comment on my blog - I feel better already.
Yes, I definitely want to join your book club since my "jewish women's" book club is the lamest thing ever that never meets and when we do (in one of their huge houses, btw since they're all married to doctors) they just talk about their 50k bar mitzvahs. No, I'm not bitter or jealous. Anyway, I too love Augusten Burroughs and will gladly read this (new?) book.
Thanks for reminding me I needed to get that Augusten Burroughs book. Be sure to read Dry -- it is amazing. It speaks to everyone who has an addiction, whether coffee, Manolos, the internet, or something bigger.
I just discovered your blog, via the On Balance post you wrote. I haven't looked at the comments to your post, because I find comments to On Balance so vitriolic they upset me for days, as a rule, regardless of the topic. So I wanted to say here, in a safer place, thanks for writing a very honest and thougtful account. I'm contemplating many of the same issues you discussed, but I'm still not sure where I'll come out. Reality seems a lot different than theory -- stickier.
Hi editrix--thanks for reading my blog. I hear you on the comments on the On Balance blog--seems there are a core group of people who sit at their computers each morning just ready to go at it with each other.
Reality is definitely totally different than theory--mainly because reality just works on so many different levels at once and there's no one right answer to fix everything. The conclusion I've come to after obsessing about this for over 15 years now is that the best anyone can do is just work through it until you arrive at something you are best able to live with and then try to ignore the bad parts. I don't mean that as in not care how it affects your kids or whatever, but there is just no way to do everything 100% right for everyone involved and the best I personally think anyone can hope to do is figure out something that they're best able to live with. I tried for so many years to minimize my own needs and search only for answers that were best for my ex-husband or my kids, and I can't even tell you what a bad place I was in during those years. I totally lost myself because I just had to--it was too painful to be present in a life that addressed everyone's needs but my own.
Anyway, sorry for the rant, but thanks for reading and good luck with your situation, whatever it may be.
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