Running with Scissors Review
Kevin Cole
October 23, 2011
Period 5
AP Psychology
Book Review
Running With Scissors: A Memoir
Hello, as you probably know each quarter I am required to read a book for the course AP Psychology. For this quarter, I chose the book Running With Scissors by Augusten Burroughs. The publisher of the book is St. Martin’s Press in the United States and it was published in the year of 2002. The author of the book is also the subject of the book due to it being a memoir. He is qualified to write this book because he is writing about himself and his own life. He may be biased due to the fact that he is writing about himself. He may try to exaggerate details of his life that he deems positive and he may also try to downplay or even remove the aspects that he believes cast a negative image on to him as a person. The book is a memoir which allows for the author to deeply explore aspects of their life that they may have never looked at in great detail, but it also has the trap of causing the author to alter their life story so that others may think positively of them. A memoir can be a powerful tool, but it can also completely ruin the validity of a story if the author decides to take certain liberties with it.
The topic of the book is the interesting childhood of Augusten Burroughs. It begins with a brief overview of his early childhood, mentioning how his parents seemed to not be focused on him and some of the habits that he formed. One of the habits that the book specifically mentions is how he would wear his mother’s clothing and pretend that he is a television star. He also seemed to have a rather strong attachment to his mother, mostly due to the fact that to him, she resembled the stars that he would watch on television. Another thing that he did was keep his cloths and his possessions perfectly cleaned and organized, he also tended to gravitate towards thing that would be seen as being glamorous, such as a mirror that was painted gold.
Augusten’s parents also
October 23, 2011
Period 5
AP Psychology
Book Review
Running With Scissors: A Memoir
Hello, as you probably know each quarter I am required to read a book for the course AP Psychology. For this quarter, I chose the book Running With Scissors by Augusten Burroughs. The publisher of the book is St. Martin’s Press in the United States and it was published in the year of 2002. The author of the book is also the subject of the book due to it being a memoir. He is qualified to write this book because he is writing about himself and his own life. He may be biased due to the fact that he is writing about himself. He may try to exaggerate details of his life that he deems positive and he may also try to downplay or even remove the aspects that he believes cast a negative image on to him as a person. The book is a memoir which allows for the author to deeply explore aspects of their life that they may have never looked at in great detail, but it also has the trap of causing the author to alter their life story so that others may think positively of them. A memoir can be a powerful tool, but it can also completely ruin the validity of a story if the author decides to take certain liberties with it.
The topic of the book is the interesting childhood of Augusten Burroughs. It begins with a brief overview of his early childhood, mentioning how his parents seemed to not be focused on him and some of the habits that he formed. One of the habits that the book specifically mentions is how he would wear his mother’s clothing and pretend that he is a television star. He also seemed to have a rather strong attachment to his mother, mostly due to the fact that to him, she resembled the stars that he would watch on television. Another thing that he did was keep his cloths and his possessions perfectly cleaned and organized, he also tended to gravitate towards thing that would be seen as being glamorous, such as a mirror that was painted gold.
Augusten’s parents also