Rating: 
Summary: "Hon, listen to this.."
Review: By the time my wife started to read this book, I had read about half the chapters to her out loud. Imagine a case so "out there" on the bell shaped curve being described on a first person basis, with enough droll ennui to propel you from chapter to chapter. And then, just when I thought, "OK, things can't get any funnier and stranger than what I just in that chapter", guess what ....Finally, as a pediatrician, I am reminded never to take for granted what adolescents hint about in their conversations.
Rating: 
Summary: Lame, poorly written Jerry Springer-esque "Entertainment"
Review: Alternate review title: Shock for shock's sake. Ho hum.Not wanting to trivialize the truly horrible childhood this fellow had, I decided against that one. But it definitely fits... I checked this book out upon the advice of Amy Sedaris, who recommended it in an NPR interview. She's one of my favorite comediennes, and I figured that since we seem to share a twisted sense of humor, I could trust her judgment on this one. Boy, was I wrong! I keep seeing this book compared to David Sedaris's essays, and I can only say that Augusten Burroughs must WISH he was as witty as David Sedaris. I'd rather read Sedaris any day. This book is written as though a fifteen-year-old kid wrote it; it's halting and plodding, with no real cohesion to the "plot" and, though there actually are some sincerely funny lines and situations, it's just plain not very good. It was somewhat entertaining, I suppose. Like I said, there were some genuinely funny parts, but those parts didn't in any way justify the whole. The book is just so loosely put together, and it's written in such a weirdly sophomoric style that I can't even quite put my finger on it to describe exactly what it is that's so wrong with it. But it is definitely wrong. For one thing, the dialogue is incredibly stilted; it's implausible that anyone actually had these conversations (let alone that they could be recounted verbatim 20+ years later). If you can check this out from a library and need some VERY easy (though not necessarily light, considering the subject matter) reading, you may want to check it out. Otherwise, don't even bother. Read David Sedaris instead. Naked is infinitely better than this thing.
Rating:
Summary: Sharp, funny and sad
Review: This book is both hysterical and sad. From Burroughs' being given up by his mother to her psychiatrist and living in his bizarre home (Christmas tree still up in May, cockroaches galore in the kitchen cabinets, a young child appropriately nicknamed 'Poo,' moving the living room furniture outdoors and living outside all summer, fortune-telling via 'Bible-dipping' or reading contents of the toilet bowl, and an affair with a much older man - to name a few), it's laugh-out-loud funny to read as well as shocking and dismaying that someone could grow up this way. Yet Burroughs seems to keep his sense of humor intact throughout. I can't help think of the Osbornes as I read this book, and thinking how wholesome they seem in comparison. If this book doesn't make you laugh, it'll at least most likely make you think your childhood wasn't that bad after all (if you do indeed feel that way sometimes).
Rating: 
Summary: His childhood wasn't as bad as they made it out to be.
Review: I read a review in the Washington post when this came out. It sounded like this was going to be really f-ed up, so I had to get it. I read some of his short stories online and some of those were harsher than anything in this book. This was still a damn good book, but I know people more messed up than he was.
In the Post review they mentioned parts cut out 'cause they were too dirty. One was an incident involving his foster siblings and a tampon, whatever that was. He remains really positive through this whole thing, with his Mom going crazy, an old guy sticking it to him and living in a dump. There's no way of knowing if that's the way he really felt at the time or if it's to make him seem more innocent, or if it's to leave his feelings neutral to let us fill in our own.
I lent it to my Brother whom I think had it just as bad as this kid and he loved it. Just wait for his book man, I'm telling you.
Rating:
Summary: Hysterical
Review: One of the best books I ever read, it made me feel like my crazy family was almost normal up against Mr. Burroughs' life and family. He made me laugh, gasp, and I never wanted to put the book down. I highly reccomend this book!
Rating:
Summary: Curiously unaffecting
Review: The world of literature is rife with outrageous and funny coming-of-age stories (Winterson's "Oranges Are Not the Only Fruit" comes immediately to mind, as do David Sedaris' biographic essays), and though this qualifies on both counts, it's curiously unaffecting. Neither as funny as it could be, nor as moving, the book is authored by a merely so-so, not great, writer who seems to keep his emotions--and us--at arm's length. Could have been both wrenchingly poignant and hysterically funny, and it's neither. Too bad.
Rating:
Summary: Harrowing and Hilarious
Review: I loved this book and I love Augusten Burroughs. I read a lot and this book and its dark yet ultimately positive tone has stayed with me through the weeks. For someone so young he really manages to capture the seventies with some deft strokes. He does a fine and enviable job of describing a true friendship between himself and Natalie (a girl I also fell in love with). It's never judgmental or plodding, but deeply, shockingly funny because it's so honest and straightforward. Some people do rise above the lousy hands that life deals them and Augusten Burroughs and the pseudononymous Natalie are success stories that made me feel better to know they're in the world.
Rating:
Summary: A crazy coming of age story !
Review: I really don't remember when and where I heard about "Running With Scissors" -- but I just knew I had to read it. I was hooked from the very beginning. Augusten Burrough's memoir is a maddeningly funny, perceptive coming of age story. At times very graphic but ultimately a refreshing, candid tale of a very BIZARRE upbringing. A must read.
Rating: 
Summary: running with scissors
Review: I found this book ugly and plodding. I can't imagine anyone comparing this author to David Sedaris. I did not find any humor whatsoever in this memoir. In my 18 years experience as a child protection social worker, I have been exposed to much more suffering than what is so graphically described in this book and don't have a thin skin, but this book left me cold.
Rating:
Summary: Horrifyingly good
Review: R.W.S. is so good, yes, some of the subject matter is a little off color, but the fact that that the writer can have a sense of humor about it is amazing.
Great book!!!
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