Confession of a Confessions Junkie

So I could confess to many, many things like my my love of barbecue pork rinds that I only let myself eat on vacation or that I have NEVER seen an episode of Friends.

No, instead my confession is that I think I have a growing obsession with other's train wreck lives as brought to me on TV and in books. Case in point the last 3 books I have read: Magical Thinking and Possible Side Effects both by Augusten Burroughs and Look Me in the Eye by his brother John Elder Robinson. Couple this with the fact I just saw David Sedaris again live and I think I am proving my own point.

I really didn't plan to read these 3 books back to back but I had put them in my queue at the library and all of them came in just before spring break. The thing is that I can read both Burroughs or Sedaris really quickly as most stories are in short story format, perfect for someone like me who can change topics in a conversation like a schizophrenic on a day pass. Both authors are classified satire or more suitably "trashy memoir writers."

So back to why I would push little kids out of the way at Barnes and Noble at the next book release for either author's next collection of the absurd? At times reading their achingly funny work is like watching The Office or Curb Your Enthusiasm. It's hard not to cringe at the level of intense personal memories, even if embellished.

I cannot imagine writing about stopping up a toilet at a party and then being caught throwing the evidence out a window(Sedaris). I about ran off the road laughing at a Burroughs story about a character names Druggie Debbie that kept poster sized hard core pornographic images superimposed with safe driving messages in her back seat and used them whenever she was cut off. But, his next story about giving his dog away to the ASPCA as he could barley function as an alcoholic much less a pet owner was tragic and deplorable.

In either case the mix of hytariclly funny stories paired with stories that reveal dysfunctional families, addiction, struggles to accept sexual orientation make for some addictive reading on my part.

So in that vain... Hi My Name is Heather and I am a Confessions Junkie. Don't let me near a TV with Celebrity Rehab on or I won't be leaving the house for a while.