I knew little about the book before I began reading. I didn't realize that this is the author's story.

I have to admit that during the course of reading.. I began to question my own sanity. So if I question my own sanity does that make me sane? I know that I often have conversations with (actual) people in my head and begin talking to them in real life without them having insight that we had been having a conversation in my head.

I didn't like the flow of the book. It wasn't in chronological order.. so I kept getting a little confused.

I haven't seen the movie.. but I have a feeling this might (for me) be one of the few where the movie is better than the book.

I am sending this to pelikanol as part of the Lifetime Release Challenge.. it is also on their wishlist. bonus!!

Thank you so much for sending me this book. I can't wait to read it :D

Wow, this was a quick read. I opened the book yesterday afternoon to read a few chapters, but I ended up reading the entire book in a few hours. The book is easy to read and it felt to me sometimes as if it were a series of short stories with the same subject. It didn't really touch anything deep, but I was very happy to see copies of her journal in the book. Those are very interesting. The book isn't a great litterary work, but it's certainly interesting if you like to hear about people and their recovery.

Thanks again for sending the book, karen-r :-D

I´m going to see if there´s enough people for a bookray with this book. Please PM me if you´d like to join.

Since this is a bookray and it will not return to me, there is no stress about finishing the book real quick and please do ship it cheap if you can even if it may take a bit longer. But please do notify me if the book is stalled for a longer period or somehow disappears from the face of the earth, so I can let the other takers of the bookray know about it :-) When you´ve finished the book then PM the next person on the list to get their mailing address.

Please make a journal entry when you receive the book, so we know it´s safe with you.

The shipping order may change in order to fit with peoples shipping preferences.

BettyBoekwurm - Portugal (pref. Europe)
veleta - Spain (pref. Europe - can ship intl.) - asked to be skipped
Aberpeter - USA (pref. USA - can ship intl.)

Sent to Bettyboekwurm on 7 November

This book arrived last Friday, but I only had a chance to make a Journal entry today. I started reading it last night, and I'm already halfway through. I'm really enjoying it so far.

Thanks for sharing!

I really enjoyed reading this book. I couldn't seem to tear myself away from it. It made me think about the limits of sanity and madness, and of who gets to establish those limits.

Very interesting. I really enjoy reading books about madness and sanity (I don't know what that may say about my own sanity, but anyway...). This book was fantastic, especially since it was told in the first person.

Thanks for sharing. I'll be sending it on tommorrow morning.

Arrived in the mail two days ago... will start reading it very soon.

Since the book was autobiographical it was much more interesting than if it were a work of fiction. With Susanna having a Borderline Personality Disorder in the 60's it makes me wonder how "normal" she may have really been by today's standards. There are many teenagers today who probably have the same or similar symptoms as Susanna and are not diagnosed. They are probably trying to discover who they are and may even end up in trouble while others maintain a fairly normal life through the support of family and friends.

Overall I thought the book was interesting although not necessarily a great literary piece.

I borrowed this book from a member of my administration team at work. She mentioned it to me as I am a psychology major and therefore mental health is definitely an interest to me. It will next be passed to my co-worker.

I thought this book was very informational. I plan on working in the mental health field myself and it was great to get a perspective of that world, but instead as a patient, rather than a health care provider. The book causes you to question what is "normal" or "abnormal," or do those categories even exist?

I once had an internship in a psychiatric unit of a hospital and found it rather intriguing that some of the details that Kaysen wrote about is true to some psychiatric units of this day. I suppose I assumed a lot has changed in the last thirty years, but that may not necessarily be the case...at least in some aspects.

I recommend this book. It's a quick read and quite interesting. Kaysen does a great job of giving the reader a first-hand view of her experiences.