Killing Yourself to Live: 85% of a True Story

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Killing Yourself to Live: 85% of a True Story

3.83 of 5 stars 3.83 · rating details · 15,502 ratings · 877 reviews

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. He snorted cocaine in...more

Paperback, 272 pages

Published June 6th 2006 by Scribner (first published June 28th 2005)

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Dec 05, 2007 Mike Lindgren rated it 1 of 5 stars

Shelves: nonfiction

As a longtime admirer of Chuck Klosterman’s writing on pop music and culture, it pains me to report that his latest book, Killing Yourself to Live: 85% of a True Story, is a dismal, shoddy piece of work. The premise is promising: Klosterman sets out on a cross-country road trip to visit all of the sites of rock ’n’ roll’s long, rich history of death. It seems a brilliant idea — Klosterman’s combination of irreverence and curiosity make him the perfect candidate to unseat the holy-pilgrimage seri...more As a longtime admirer of Chuck Klosterman’s writing on pop music and culture, it pains me to report that his latest book, Killing Yourself to Live: 85% of a True Story, is a dismal, shoddy piece of work. The premise is promising: Klosterman sets out on a cross-country road trip to visit all of the sites of rock ’n’ roll’s long, rich history of death. It seems a brilliant idea — Klosterman’s combination of irreverence and curiosity make him the perfect candidate to unseat the holy-pilgrimage seriousness (and pathos) of most writing on rock ’n’ roll tragedy.

It doesn’t take long for the project to turn sour. Here’s the problem: Klosterman is used to skating by on the wit and originality of his own personal world-view; in his last collection, Sex, Drugs, and Cocoa Puffs, his observations on MTV, pornography, video games, and so on, emerged from a perspective that led him to some surprising conclusions. There was a sense of play, of intellectual gamesmanship, that was fresh and engaging. In Killing Yourself, however, he’s become self-reflexive to the point where he can no longer discriminate between what is valuable and what is piffle; it’s all self-narrative. If he’s looking at something, he thinks his reaction to it — how it affects him — automatically matters simply because it’s him, Chuck Klosterman, looking at it. He has become too lazy and uninterested to make any serious effort at thinking or observing and analyzing what a specific site or incident might mean, and falls back on relaying what it means to him, at that moment.

The most devastating element here is the incomprehensible decision to let Klosterman devote much of the book to pseudo-Hornby writhing about the three (!) women with whom he’s currently involved (that is, either sleeping with or wanting to sleep with). Aside from being, at times, downright creepy, it’s both lazy and irrelevant: as smart and funny and interesting as Chuck Klosterman is, I couldn’t really give two shits about his love life. His self-absorption on this count goes so far as to include a chapter-long conversation between the three women and himself that takes place entirely in his head. What’s sad is that he seems to realize this; the book closes with an actual, real-world conversation between the author and one of his female colleagues at Spin, who urges him not to become “the female Elizabeth Wurtzel.” At this point, one tends to agree wholeheartedly with the criticism, and Klosterman’s only retort is to tell her that “her disdain can only be voiced if I do the opposite of what you suggest.” It’s pre-emptive critical damage control. It’s embarrassing.

It is unsettling to see how turning Klosterman loose on such a promising theme brings out his worst instincts as a writer, because his feature pieces for Spin are often brilliant. A perfect example was his reporting on the Rock Cruise, one of those only-in-America phenomena wherein 40-year-old couples pay to hear REO Speedwagon and Styx perform on a boat. It is hard to imagine a riper opportunity for superiority and ridicule, yet Klosterman never condescends to these people — working-class Midwesterners who are paying money to see over-the-hill versions of the two of the most reviled bands in rock history — and in the end lends both the bands and fans an odd kind of dignity. It is frustrating to know that the author is capable of such insights and then to slog through 235 pages of crap that wouldn’t make it onto a Weezer B-side. One can only hope Killing Yourself was just something he needed to get out of his system.

From THE L MAGAZINE, July 20 2005(less)

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Jan 23, 2011 William Thomas rated it 2 of 5 stars

Shelves: dont-believe-the-hype, non-fiction, ramblings

When judging Klosterman's work, what you're really doing is judging Klosterman. And yes, I say judging on purpose. Not criticizing. Because that would call for an in-depth assessment of a valuable work instead of a moral appraisal of the man behind the book. And I am judging him harshly in this book.

What was recommended to me as a great "road trip book" soon seemed like a chore, drudging through all of his pop culture references and insipid bullshit about his own life history. Like climbing up...more When judging Klosterman's work, what you're really doing is judging Klosterman. And yes, I say judging on purpose. Not criticizing. Because that would call for an in-depth assessment of a valuable work instead of a moral appraisal of the man behind the book. And I am judging him harshly in this book.

What was recommended to me as a great "road trip book" soon seemed like a chore, drudging through all of his pop culture references and insipid bullshit about his own life history. Like climbing up sand dunes, hard going and calf muscles burning, trying to find the oasis, but when you get over the ridge- there's more sand. And not a drop of water in sight. Only, it's more like a landfill. Yeah, a landfill, not sand. And you're climbing through everyone else's shit to try and find one salvageable piece of shit in the pile.

So here we are again listening to Klosterman, who it becomes more and more apparent isn't Mark Spitz. And I admit, I enjoyed some of Klosterman's other collections of essays because sometimes I am in the mood for his smarmy, spiteful, silly little shit-head takes on the world at large filtered through music and pop culture references. It's his bulwark and I understand that because the real world is too tough for him to deal with outside of the buffer of imagined connections and metaphors in the music, movies and books he reads.

And that really is the crux of Klosterman- he hides behind these things. Instead of making an honest assessment of life and his surroundings, he uses this sleight of hand in his pop culture internalizing to beat it back and not deal with it in any meaningful way. But we are supposed to think that he is thinking very deeply about his life and the world at large in regard and respect to pop culture. But he isn't. What little he does bring away from these analyses may seem deep but are rehearsed and forced. Making ontological connections from bad arguments.

So, in this, he connects even less to the pop culture he reveres and idolizes, and moves instead to make an even bigger pile of shit in this landfill I'll very loosely call "his work".

What this book is is a big heap of facts and rumors associated with different rock bands and their dead members. And intersperesed are pieces about his life that may or may not be true but which, in the end, matter very little. And that is the crux of this book. A big pile of crap you could have gathered off of wiki sites and wrapped around your own personal experiences. There is nothing really to take away except the petty gossip. So read it and get your fill of water cooler bullshit.

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Jul 03, 2007 AJ Griffin rated it 5 of 5 stars Recommends it for: anyone that just doesn't "get" me, really. And dudes who dig Kiss

...and Mr. Klosterman and I officially fall in love. If you're going to date me, you should read this book. If you want to learn how to smoke marijuana resin using parts of your car, you should read this. Don't read this book if you have epilepsy.

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Sep 29, 2007 Alex V. rated it 3 of 5 stars

I got a comment on an article once that said "Fuck Chuck Klostermand and his bullshit intellectualism, Cook is the new crown prince of music journalism" and who am I to disagree with SeductiveBarry's astute assessment? Ever since then, though, I've had a weird rivalry with Chuck Klosterman that, much like the romances exacted and protracted in this book, is completely one sided with myself as the hopeless loser, so outclassed that my opponent is likely unaware there is even a contest going on.

I...more I got a comment on an article once that said "Fuck Chuck Klostermand and his bullshit intellectualism, Cook is the new crown prince of music journalism" and who am I to disagree with SeductiveBarry's astute assessment? Ever since then, though, I've had a weird rivalry with Chuck Klosterman that, much like the romances exacted and protracted in this book, is completely one sided with myself as the hopeless loser, so outclassed that my opponent is likely unaware there is even a contest going on.

I read this book in spurts over the last 6 months, basically a chapter or two every time I found myself at the bookstore for an extended period of time which has allowed me to slowly digest what is wrong with it:
1) For a critic, he has rather pedestrian tastes in music. His insight is honest and dead-on, but his subject matter generally seems undeserving of the pedestal he erects.
2) This book is near wholesale rip-off of Ross McElwee's rather singular film Sherman's March, which came out 20 years before this book. Both follow through on a preposterous, dubious quest (Klosterman visits the sites of rock star deaths, McElwee retraces Sherman's march to Atlanta) only to use it as a vehicle for visiting old girlfriends and then sitting in hotel rooms reminiscing about them. But that is excusable, in that anyone with a soul and any creative talent wants to do their own Sherman's March after seeing it. McElwee is more insightful, but Klosterman is funnier and ultimately more human in the end.

What's right about it is more important:
1) He is funny as hell, up there with David Sedaris and John Waters as the funniest modern writers talking about their art/selves.
2) This book makes me want to write more, and write more about writing, and then write more about that unafraid of how meta one can go before one finally implodes. I wanted to tear through the ending so I could write this. but, most of all
3) He can project his heart with pinpoint accuracy on the reader. You fall in love with these woman that you feel you fail to know very well in the same way he fails to know them. He can make a Beckett scene out of being stoned in a Montana hotel laundromat and classical literature out of Def Lepperd .
4) He's a good enough writer that he made me write this in pathetic mimicry of the tone of the book. (less)

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Mar 02, 2009 Elliot rated it 4 of 5 stars

The first thing I'd like to say is that this is not a book about travelling around the country and commenting on the deathsites of famous rock and roll legends. This is a book about the loneliness, depression, and relationship issues of Chuck Klosterman, carefully woven into some sort of hip road journal.

Those expecting witty commentaries on the minutiae of our pop culture lives beware: this is terribly saddenning introspection, not comedy.

This is the kind of novel that's reading can only be fol...more

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Dec 08, 2008 Alysemac rated it 3 of 5 stars Recommends it for: people who had a 'Led Zeppelin phase'

Recommended to Alysemac by: The Dude

I don't know what all the fuss is about...He's a good writer, entertaining, and even those people who absolute hated this work admit they couldn't put it down.

Ya, it's self-centered, nihilistic, and one-sided. Yes, he has horrendous taste in music. The writing is unconventional train-of-thought banter, sometimes rambling, and occasionally difficult to follow. Agreed.

For making his living as a music writer, he really does endorse some God-awful bands. But honestly, do you know anyone that can te...more

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Jun 03, 2008 Susie rated it 1 of 5 stars

Shelves: i-commented

I wanted this book to be a Sarah Vowell's "Assassination Vacation"-style account of the US history of rock n roll deaths as narrated by the typically witty Chuck Klosterman. That seemed like that's what this book was going to be. BUT IT WAS NOT.

RNR history occupies maybe 2% of this book. 3% = talking about how great he thinks Radiohead is, 3% = talking about how great he thinks KISS is, 10% = talking about writing about music for a living and how much he hates the idea of this roadtrip, 30% = b...more

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May 17, 2007 Abe Brennan rated it 4 of 5 stars

Why do we care about Chuck Klosterman? There is nothing truly remarkable about his life. I disagree with 97 percent of what he has to say about music. The way he holds his political cards close to his chest makes me suspicious. And yet, once I start one of his books, I can’t put it down. Killing Yourself to Live is no exception. It takes us on a drug-fueled odyssey across the United States with stops at famous rock and roll death sites (the seedy hotel where Sid Vicious did himself in; the burnt...more

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Feb 20, 2008 J. Unfun rated it 5 of 5 stars

Shelves: favorite-pastbooks

I had been following Klosterman's columns in Spin for awhile. Though I disagreed with him on his view of punk rock. I liked his writing style. I picked this up when it came out in paperback. It changed my outlook on so many things. I know that sounds cheesy, but what Klosterman was writing about, was literally happening to me at that very moment (well most of it). This book is about Chuck traveling to various sites where rock stars had died. Site of the club where Great White played and the club...more

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Nov 23, 2008 Dennis Burke rated it 4 of 5 stars

Amazing. I Pushed this author off for such a long time only to regret it. If you haven't read Klosterman yet, take my recomendation... He's amazing

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Jan 10, 2009 Trin rated it 3 of 5 stars

Shelves: music, american-lit

Reread. Apparently I felt like a dose of rock 'n' roll death. Sadly, there's really not enough of that in here for my taste (oh man, that statement is so wrong); in many ways, this book is more about Klosterman's failed relationships than about its ostensible purpose: touring the sites of a bunch of famous rock 'n' roll demises (from the room at the Chelsea Hotel in New York where Nancy Spungen was killed, to the greenhouse in Seattle where Kurt Cobain shot himself) and analyzing what effects th...more

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Apr 04, 2013 Ev rated it 4 of 5 stars

Shelves: 2013, chuck-klosterman

Chuck Klosterman is like my guilty pleasure. He took a story he was writing for a magazine article and stretched it out into a 270 page book! I think I like him because he writes; how my mind works....one thing reminds him of something else, which leads him to something else and next thing you know he's off talking about something entirely different but relates it all together. The overall plot is O.K....but that's not really the point. I have a few favorite parts... One of them being how "Kid A...more

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Mar 04, 2013 Taylor Johnson rated it 3 of 5 stars

I don't understand every single pop culture reference Chuck Klosterman makes, but I still feel smarter for reading them.

The book tells the tale of two week long road trip Chuck Klosterman took on the urging of his editor at SPIN MAGAZINE to visit the sites of famous rock n' roll deaths in America.

Love, death, and rock n' roll are the major themes of this episodic road trip adventure. I think I enjoy Klosterman writing long form…you know what? I really want to sound smart and I have no idea why....more

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Jan 24, 2013 Abraham Thunderwolf rated it 3 of 5 stars

I bought this book at a thrift store in lieu of buying a shirt. It’s pretty good, although I am sure that CK is the kind of guy I would never be friends with and might in fact take a drunken swing at if he tried to say some smart shit to me. No, that’s horrible. Maybe it’s just the way I imagine his voice. Maybe it’s that author picture of him on the back cover, that smirk that says “Heh.” followed by something witty or some bullshit. But don’t let that dissuade you, the book is hilarious and I...more

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Jul 15, 2012 Jess rated it 4 of 5 stars

"We all have the potential to fall in love a thousand times in our lifetime. It's easy. The first girl I ever loved was someone I knew in sixth grade. Her name was Missy; we talked about horses. The last girl I love will be someone I haven't even met yet, probably. They all count. But there are certain people you love who do something else; they define how you classify what love is supposed to feel like. These are not the most important people in your life, and you'll meet maybe four or five of...more

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Jun 05, 2012 Ida Rand rated it 3 of 5 stars

wow, where to start/end/plot...i like him because it's like listening to someone you know talk about stuff no one really likes to talk about or when they hear you talking about they just nod. i read this book in real time, like he was speaking the whole thing, very nice, very believable, very much like watching a six hour That Seventies Show which is entertaining and ultimately unmemorable. I don't want to write anything 'bad' about him since I do really like his style and appreciate that he's j...more wow, where to start/end/plot...i like him because it's like listening to someone you know talk about stuff no one really likes to talk about or when they hear you talking about they just nod. i read this book in real time, like he was speaking the whole thing, very nice, very believable, very much like watching a six hour That Seventies Show which is entertaining and ultimately unmemorable. I don't want to write anything 'bad' about him since I do really like his style and appreciate that he's just doing it, just out there doing that thing that so many of us do but instead of saying they are going to write about music and existential angst within the context of white america, he's actually recognizing the inanity and going for it. He had me on his side until his love for Kiss came through. I have no respect for Kiss, they are the Target of bands, the band that is a crappy and heavily marketed excuse for art. They make no qualms about admitting that they are (and i know this is cliche) 'douche-esque' and to know that someone gives as much thought to them as legitimate bands hurts in a way he can't really be responsible for, saddens me. seriously, kiss sucks. his led zepplin critique i found spot on though, and i wish he wasn't such a boy, because women have the same phase--but the women in chuck's life seem to be relegated to back ground hotness and none of them seem 'human' as far as woman to woman goes (no talk of their friends, their dreams, their weaknesses, just them in relation to him, flat attractive ladies flirting with a guy too self aware (as if there is such a thing).
anyway, this is a great book to read if you like talking about stuff, music, the thought that everything kinda fun happens when you are in your 20's and Spin is a magazine that should be respected. I have never been a Spin fan, he talks a lot about "the offices at Spin" and makes sure we are all aware that he is both writing a book and a paid journalist for a very hip/drunk magazine.that's the rub with the self deprecation thing, he doesn't just own up to his own short attention span/vapidity, he has to frame it in the context of all the super hip things he does participate in--you are one lucky ginger mr Klosterman, glad you are able to sleep with the ladies, even if they do later not really kinda break your heart. NEVER SETTLE! you should keep writing about hot women (yes, they are all hot) who don't lead to lasting relationships forever (as long as you get paid).
i would like to see how he matures once someone happens to him more promethean than running out of pot. or maybe he just leads a charmed life, makes you wish there was a good war, he might be our generation's hemingway were he forced to give a shit. there are hot nurses during a good war, not the fat bitchy ones like now.

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May 25, 2012 Särah Nour rated it 3 of 5 stars

While I personally am not a fan of the self-indulgent memoir and more in favor of memoirists who balance personal divulgence with cohesive storytelling, indulgence can be forgiven in the hands of a self-deprecating, dryly humorous author like Chuck Klosterman. An author, essayist, and rock critic with an encyclopedic knowledge of pop culture, Klosterman makes Killing Yourself to Live: 85% of a True Story an honest, amusing and at times thought-provoking existential treatise on the rock stars who...more While I personally am not a fan of the self-indulgent memoir and more in favor of memoirists who balance personal divulgence with cohesive storytelling, indulgence can be forgiven in the hands of a self-deprecating, dryly humorous author like Chuck Klosterman. An author, essayist, and rock critic with an encyclopedic knowledge of pop culture, Klosterman makes Killing Yourself to Live: 85% of a True Story an honest, amusing and at times thought-provoking existential treatise on the rock stars whose fame only peaked once they kicked the bucket.

Upon being given an assignment to write an article for Spin magazine on society’s relationship with dead rock stars, Klosterman embarks on a three-week road trip that takes him everywhere from the big cities of New York and Minneapolis to the countryside of Montana and Mississippi, visiting the historic death sites of rock stars. During this time, Klosterman juggles relationships with three different women, does some recreational drugs—at some point snorting cocaine at the site of the Station nightclub fire in Rhode Island—and wonders whether he has Cotard’s syndrome, a rare mental disorder that deludes a person into believing they’re dead. Along the way he meets some colorful characters, such as Kurt Cobain devotees who maintain the belief that he was murdered, a drunken Uma Thurman lookalike who climbs on the roof of a building in heels, and a Cracker Barrel waitress who likes Franz Kafka.

Among Klosterman’s philosophical musings on the deaths of rock stars—whether by accident (Duane Allman) or suicide (Kurt Cobain), during a time of career success (Lynyrd Skynyrd’s plane crash) or fading popularity (Elvis Presley’s overdose)—are his commentaries on social hypocrisy; his meditations on what song he’d like to play while committing suicide; and an outlandish theory about Radiohead’s album Kid A unintentionally predicting the events of 9/11. Needless to say this guy is all over the place, and for every insight he offers, there’s twice as many ruminations on an unrelated topic.

While a lack of direction, as well as the absence of any conclusion, pervades the memoir, its saving grace is that Klosterman never pretends his narrative is anything more than it is. His unpretentious, self-deprecatory tone and willingness to admit his faults as a memoirist—and as a person—gives it a sort of charm, and makes him a relatable and entertaining narrator, with plenty of humor and wit to move the story along.

In short, don’t go looking for any profound insight on life, death, and rock’n’roll; just for a steady 256 pages of travel, philosophizing, and an endless sea of pop culture references. For those wanting more, Klosterman is also the author of the nonfiction book Fargo Rock City: A Heavy Metal Odyssey in Rural North Dakota; a collection of essays entitled Sex, Drugs and Cocoa Puffs: A Low Culture Manifesto; and two novels, Downtown Owl and The Visible Man; to name a few.

You can read this and other reviews at my blog: http://zeitgeist-sacha1689.blogspot.com/(less)

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Dec 04, 2011 Joshua Rupp rated it 2 of 5 stars

Shelves: my-reviews

Chuck Klosterman is an ego-maniacal, self-serving opportunity waster with no sense of priority or proportion. He has had sex more than three times and, with an insecurity rare outside of a Dungeons and Dragons group, wants us all to know about it. He isn't stupid, however, and realizes that if we knew that was all he was going to talk about we ... wouldn't read it. He covers for this by hiding his meandering verbal masturbation inside a good idea.

"Killing Yourself to Live" had an excellent prem...more

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Oct 02, 2011 Tom rated it 2 of 5 stars

Shelves: non-fiction

The premise of this book seemed to be visiting famous death sites of various rock stars, a musical Assassination Vacation. While the author does tour the country, and briefly muses about the role death plays in cementing a rock star's legacy, most of the book is about his love life. Perhaps if I knew the author better and his various paramours, this would be more engrossing. Like all of the Chuck Klosterman books I've read, the writing has a very conversational tone of a person getting lost in h...more

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Sep 28, 2011 Patrick McCoy rated it 5 of 5 stars

Shelves: biography-autobiography, non-fiction

I recently read Chuck Klosterman’s latest book, Killing Yourself To Live, and enjoyed it as much as his other books. It’s another witty, irreverent look at life, death, love, and rock and roll. Klosterman sets out to visit rock and roll landmarks-places where rock and roll fatalities took place. He drives a rented car from New York to Seattle. But with Klosterman, these experiences are filtered through his pop culture/personal sensibility and it becomes a sort of pastiche of obscure pop facts, p...more I recently read Chuck Klosterman’s latest book, Killing Yourself To Live, and enjoyed it as much as his other books. It’s another witty, irreverent look at life, death, love, and rock and roll. Klosterman sets out to visit rock and roll landmarks-places where rock and roll fatalities took place. He drives a rented car from New York to Seattle. But with Klosterman, these experiences are filtered through his pop culture/personal sensibility and it becomes a sort of pastiche of obscure pop facts, personal history, and travel log. Here’s a choice personal memory/observation:

When you are a male entering the 10th grade, there are only four kinds of people on the planet: girls you want to fuck, girls who are unfuckable, guys you want to kill, and guys who seem generally okay. For a10th grader, those are the only four demographics for the entire world population. Obviously, that worldview changes as you become an adult; now that I’m 31, I realize there are at least six categories.

I didn’t know that there were people who could listen to Ratt followed by Raidiohead or Drive By Truckers followed by Def Leppard-but Klosterman is one of the few. There a great passage where explains how Radiohead's album "Kid A" is the soundtrack for 9/11. Along the way you get the differences between pot smokers and coke snorters, his only truly bad drug experience, what it’s like to be a rock critic living in New York among the hipsters:

In New York, I sometimes catch glimpses of Ryan Adams at a bar called Hi-Fi, and he seems to be living the most stereotypical hipster-ish life imaginable (i.e., always rumored to be addicted to drugs, always rumored to be dating Parker Posy, always falling off the stage in Liverpool, always leaving angry voice mails for rock critics in Chicago, etc.). His life is almost imaginary, and it seems like his feelings and emotions should not relate to anyone, except for Courtney Love.

He also has some great pop culture observations, consider this about Falco:

Everybody in America thinks of Falco as a ridiculous one-hit joke rocker from Vienna who’s only remembered for a novelty single, 1986’s “Rock Me Amadeus.” Europeans, however, thought that he was some kind of controversial genius (several of his songs were banned from international radio, including a track called “Jeanny,” which certain listeners interpreted as a glorification of rape and murder). In the “90s, he fled the omnipresent media and lived like a sultan in the Dominican Republic, only to die there in 1998 when his Mitsubishi Pajero was hit by another car. The lesson: Europeans have terrible taste in everything.

Reading Klosterman calls to mind all the intense conversations I've had with my college friends about such subjects as the best Simpsons secondary characters, who you'd rather have sex with Sally Jesse Raphael or Oprah, etc...ridiculously entertaining.(less)

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Jan 07, 2011 Michelle Cristiani rated it 4 of 5 stars

Shelves: memoirs

Chuck Klosterman, a writer for Spin magazine, traveled around the country visiting spots where famous rockers died. In the process he reflects on his life - mostly the women in it - and manages to use music as an analogy for pretty much everything he goes through. (A highlight is comparing his entire romantic past to the career of the band Kiss, down to the minute changes in cast and crew.) His analysis of Kurt Cobain is spot-on.

I like this guy. He's funny, he knows a lot about pop culture, and...more

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Sep 22, 2010 Meagan rated it 2 of 5 stars

Shelves: books-read-in-2010

This is a memoir from a writer from SPIN magazine who is writing about death and rock and roll. How they are linked and how a true rocker only becomes a god when he dies. Or that is what I think he is traveling from New York to Seattle by car, visiting various places where rock star died. From the Allman Brothers to Kurt Cobain.

The book itself seems to be how he views his life through music. Which is common and I would imagine a writer for a music magazine would do this...I think I'd be surpris...more

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Sep 01, 2010 Parksy rated it 4 of 5 stars

Shelves: humorous, non-fiction

Loved it. Great take on rock and roll, love, and pop culture. Really like how he writes.

From Publishers Weekly
Klostermanfollows up on 2003's Sex, Drugs, and Cocoa Puffs by expanding on an article he wrote for Spin about driving cross-country to visit several of America's most famous rock and roll death sites, from the Rhode Island club where more than 90 Great White fans died in a fire, to the Iowa field where Buddy Holly's plane crashed. Along the way, Klosterman opines on rock music, never afr...more

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Jun 28, 2010 Lindsey rated it 3 of 5 stars

Shelves: addictive, could-not-put-down, love-to-be-a-hater, nonfiction, cross-country

I love how full of shit this guy is.

For all of the people who hated this book because they thought Klosterman has 'terrible taste in music' I think they might have skimmed over this one part:

So many of the rock concerts I've attended have been filled with people who were there only to be there, who just wanted to be seen by other people who were there only to be there... ... Half the people who attend concerts only go so that they can tell other people that (a) certain shows were amazing, and (b

...more

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Jun 27, 2010 Scott Huizenga rated it 3 of 5 stars · review of another edition

In this round, Chuck Klosterman expands a journal article into a book narrative of his cross-country trip to seek out the death sites of multiple rock stars. Unsurprisingly, he focuses most of the narrative in the Midwest, from where he hails. Also, unsurprisingly, he delivers some memorable one-liners and anecdotes mixed in with many throw-away references to KISS, Fleetwood Mac, and pop culture generally.

The most refreshing aspect of Klosterman is his unapologetic focus on pop culture and rock...more

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Jan 11, 2010 Lana. rated it 2 of 5 stars

Shelves: non-fiction

This review has been hidden because it contains spoilers. To view it, click here.

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Nov 02, 2009 Kevin rated it 4 of 5 stars

Chuck Klosterman.....not sure how to describe this. He's. He's a stream of consciousness writer which can be hit or miss with me. For example, I hate Charles Bukowski, but I tend to like Henry Miller. I think Chuck Klosterman is snarkier and much funnier than the former and as interesting as the latter. It's hard for me to credit stream of consciousness writers with much as they pride themselves on writing off the top of their heads. They're like buying a square mile of ocean from a chef and agr...more

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Jul 07, 2009 Stacy rated it 1 of 5 stars

When I first saw that this book was apparently about rock n roll and traveling across the country to visit the death sites of many of rock n roll's finest, I was very intrigued. However, I was not very far into this train wreck when I started dreading having to read it through. Being "85% of a true story" I thought it might be written in a similar story telling fashion to other partly true biographies, such as James Frey's A Million Little Pieces, however Klosterman's story just proved to be an...more

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Apr 22, 2011 Jim rated it 2 of 5 stars

Shelves: nonfiction

Sarah Vowell, Tony Horwitz, or Canada’s Will Ferguson, should pick up this book, read it, and then decide to do it correctly. Yes, I know, that may be a harsh critique, and it is not that I totally hated it, but when I grab a book that has such laudable reviews and expect something more stimulating and, well, educational and enlightening, mixed with actual humor, I am mightily disappointed when the result is something like this. Lazy and self-indulgent. I know some people revel in this style of...more

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Feb 05, 2009 Bookmarks Magazine added it · review of another edition

Armed with 600 CDs in the back seat, a task of gargantuan rock

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About Chuck Klosterman

Charles John "Chuck" Klosterman is an American pop-culture journalist, critic, humorist, and essayist. He was raised on a farm near Wyndmere, North Dakota and graduated from the University of North Dakota in 1994. After college he was a journalist in Fargo, North Dakota and later an arts critic for the Akron Beacon Journal in Akron, Ohio, before moving to New York City in 2002.

More about Chuck Klosterman...

Books by Chuck Klosterman

Sex, Drugs, and Cocoa Puffs: A Low Culture Manifesto

Chuck Klosterman IV: A Decade of Curious People and Dangerous Ideas

Fargo Rock City: A Heavy Metal Odyssey in Rural North Dakota

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Quotes from Killing Yourself to Li...

“We all have the potential to fall in love a thousand times in our lifetime. It's easy. The first girl I ever loved was someone I knew in sixth grade. Her name was Missy; we talked about horses. The last girl I love will be someone I haven't even met yet, probably. They all count. But there are certain people you love who do something else; they define how you classify what love is supposed to feel like. These are the most important people in your life, and you’ll meet maybe four or five of these people over the span of 80 years. But there’s still one more tier to all this; there is always one person you love who becomes that definition. It usually happens retrospectively, but it happens eventually. This is the person who unknowingly sets the template for what you will always love about other people, even if some of these loveable qualities are self-destructive and unreasonable. The person who defines your understanding of love is not inherently different than anyone else, and they’re often just the person you happen to meet the first time you really, really, want to love someone. But that person still wins. They win, and you lose. Because for the rest of your life, they will control how you feel about everyone else.” — 757 people liked it

“Art and love are the same thing: It’s the process of seeing yourself in things that are not you.” — 411 people liked it

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Killing Yourself to Live: 85% of a True Story

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