You know Running with Scissors. It’s where everything starts, so it’s where you should start this pathway. Burroughs wrote a novel, Sellevision, before this, but it often gets swept aside. He is a memoirist! And this magic little book spurred a memoir explosion in the world — or at least it felt that way. Running with Scissors is the tale of his wild childhood, living in the home of his mother’s therapist, where there were no rules. Just lots of exploration (sexual, mental, physical). He befriends a pedophile. The therapist has a special room he calls his masterbatorium. They keep a Christmas tree up all year. He has to beg for Hamburger Helper as a special dinner. You read a chapter and think it can’t get any more absurd, and then it does.

From Reading Pathways: Augusten Burroughs at Book Riot.