Chuck Klosterman

85% of a True Story

Killing Yourself to Live

Patrick Book

I love his ruminations and deep thinking about the meaning of pop culture. There's a smattering of that here, but it's waylaid by an extremely personal story about a bizarre love rhombus (Klosterman can apparently manage three gals at once, sort of?). It should/could be interesting but I really don't care about his personal life. You're going to tell such a salacious story and then leave out the only interesting part (I guess that other 15%)? What is there for me as a reader to be invested in?

Mary Rose Luksha

This is the third Chuck Klosterman book I have read, and I would say it's my favorite. Now, I'm glad I didn't read it first, I think Sex, Drugs, and Cocoa Puffs (SDCP) is a good introduction to his style so I wasn't just jumping in blind. 

But Killing Yourself to Live is actually relevant. I think Klosterman is obsessed with things and people being either 'ironic,' or 'unironic' in various forms. And while someone being 'unironic' isn't high on my compliment list, someone being authentic is. I think Klosterman is relevant because he's searching for authenticity. I think most great literary movements are based on authors searching - for life, meaning, love. And I think the MTV generation's search is for authenticity. His search is one I can identify with. 

I liked the themes in SDCP are also compelling, but because it's in essay form there isn't much time for Klosterman to develop certain themes that I really liked. But in Killing Yourself to Live, I think he built the theme up well and paced it well so I didn't even realize he was expounding on a theme until halfway through the book. But from what I've read, I think this is Klosterman's best work.

Megan Parrott

Helen Bright

Colton Ray

Nick Truden

Saara M

Shannon Smith 

Carter Rabasa

Michael Ernst

Anita Irsevic

Sveinbjörn Pálsson

Duality Diva

Crystal L

Anne 

For 6,557 miles, Chuck Klosterman thought about dying. He drove a rental car from New York to Rhode Island to Georgia to Mississippi to Iowa to Minneapolis to Fargo to Seattle, and he chased death and rock 'n' roll all the way. Within the span of twenty-one days, Chuck had three relationships end--one by choice, one by chance, and one by exhaustion. The road is hard. From the Chelsea Hotel to the swampland where Lynyrd Skynyrd's plane went down to the site where Kurt Cobain blew his head off, Chuck explored every brand of rock star demise. He wanted to know why the greatest career move any musician can make is to stop breathing...and what this means for the rest of us.--From publisher description.

85% of a true story

Killing yourself to live

Carolyn Yoo

Tasha Dykstra

Victoria Bartlett

Emily K McCullar

Bryce Thornton

Catherine Hickman

For 6,557 miles, from New York to Mississippi to Seattle, Chuck Klosterman decided to chase rock n roll and death across a continent. 21 days later, after three relationships, an encounter with various cottonmouth snakes, and a night spent snorting cocaine in a graveyard, Klosterman started to order his thoughts on American culture and the meaning of celebrity.

Christian Otte

Jonas Maaløe

Ketevan Marr

Killing Yourself to Live 85% of a True Story

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