"I need high ceilings."

Just finished reading Running with Scissors. Excellent book. It's based on the personal memoirs of Augusten Burroughs, a boy who survived quite possibly the most insane and ridiculous childhood ever.

And then I picked up the movie. Not as good, but still good. It gives form to the physical madness that surrounded Augusten at such a young age. Imagine living in a house where the mother eats Kibble, the father uses shit as a way of interpreting God's will, one daughter believes her cat talks to her, and the other daughter is a total free-spirit with a foul mouth (I mean that figuratively). Add to that, mentally ill patients being treated in the house, and you have one twisted childhood.

This book is great because it's a story of survival over adversity. Okay, that's soooo cliche, but oh so true. Augusten is a man of superb resilience and inner strength. Even when the odds were stacked against him, he managed to find humour and wit in his environment, and this unique ability to turn unfortunate circumstances into positive experiences made him a better person than most. Instead of wallowing in what could have rapidly become his own personal hell, he used his talents in writing to keep himself sane. He also provided a much older version of himself with insights into the mind of a teenager who struggled with his demons and those of the people around him.

The reason why you need to read this book is because it shows us just how amazingly simple it is to believe that things will get better. Searching for normalcy is often the path to self-discovery and the revelation that what is normal usually isn't.