Columbine in Around the Year in 52 Books

Jan 21, 2014 Jennifer W rated it it was amazing · review of another edition

Maybe I should reread this book every 5 years for the rest of my life. I last read it in 2009, right when it came out. I was so moved by it then, and I still am, but somehow, the edges have softened. Perhaps because I'm not learning about it all for the first time. I didn't have to face palm every time I learned that something I thought I knew was totally inaccurate. I didn't have to seethe when I read about the Jeffco police covering up that they knew Eric was on a path to massive destructive e ...more

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Feb 10, 2017 Graceann rated it it was amazing

Shelves: history

This fascinating, infuriating, and ultimately chilling deep dive into the massacre that ushered the era of the school shooting into existence (after a more than 30 year absence from US life) is something that I recommend to every parent, every person working in education, and anyone who would like to have an idea of how things like this can come to happen in a "civilized" society.

Eric Harris and Dylan Klebold gave signs of what they were planning for 20 April 1999 for literally years prior its This fascinating, infuriating, and ultimately chilling deep dive into the massacre that ushered the era of the school shooting into existence (after a more than 30 year absence from US life) is something that I recommend to every parent, every person working in education, and anyone who would like to have an idea of how things like this can come to happen in a "civilized" society.

Eric Harris and Dylan Klebold gave signs of what they were planning for 20 April 1999 for literally years prior its actual occurrence. They kept journals, Eric wrote disturbing essays, they were arrested for steadily escalating offenses, they tormented and threatened classmates and former friends. It was all there, with nobody connecting the dots.

The most terrifying thing of this whole book for me was that Eric, especially, had everyone snowed with his Oscar-worthy performance of the penitent youth, and it would have worked, very easily, on me. Apparently (and I was previously unaware of this), this is a hallmark of psychopathy. Psychopaths use the system in order to learn how to work it. Tell people what they want to hear, sing the song that sounds best to their ears, and you can get away with just about anything (and he did). The other unnerving thing about this is that, often, there are no ways to spot a psychopath from a distance. These guys planned, to an extraordinary degree, an operation that, if it had worked as visualized, would have blown up the school they attended and killed hundreds. Eric Harris's avowed goal was to outdo Timothy McVeigh in his bombing of the Murrah Federal Building in Oklahoma City. Most of the planning took place, quite literally, under the noses of the authority figures in their lives.

I hasten to add that I mention the following not as a matter of shame to the Harrises and the Klebolds. They thought they were doing right by their kids, and in their shoes, I probably would have made the same or similar choices. Hindsight is 20/20, and I'm sure they've spent every day since April 1999 trying to figure out what they could have done differently. They were strict with their kids, but gave them substantial amounts of privacy. This is certainly different from my own upbringing, and I'm only ten years older than they would be now. The result of that is that they had hours upon hours of time to themselves, and more privacy than I often have as an adult, to make videotapes, build bombs, and napalm, go off on raids onto other peoples' property, and procure weapons (and then hide all of their tools of death in their rooms). My parents had no qualms about rooting around in my room just if they'd decided that they wanted to know what I had. I couldn't even leave a blanket in a different spot in my room without my mother noticing it. This was the experience of most of my peers, too. I was advised that the room I occupied was in their house and it was thus not my room, but theirs. This worked for them in two ways - they were able to keep very close tabs (as far as they knew) on my activities; and I moved out very shortly after my 18th birthday. Most of the time, snooping parents are just annoying. Here, snooping just might have saved 13 lives, but how could these folks know that their sons were planning this?

I was very interested in the post-massacre lives of the survivors and the families of the murdered. This having been the first mass school shooting since Austin in 1966, news outlets screwed up in many, many ways in covering it, and didn't even come close to landing on the true narrative. Then there is the obvious cover-up of previous complaints that had been made about Harris (especially) and Klebold in the years and months leading up to the massacre. Finally, there is the horrific way that one parent received confirmation that his son was among the murdered. It is a monstrous thing to lose a child in any event, but then to be informed in the way this poor man was - I was aghast.

In the years since 1999, there have been so many recurrences of mass murder in so-called "safe" places that it's tempting to become numb to it. From Kindergartners to college students, to adults going to work in mundane jobs, to attending a worship service - nobody is truly safe. Which brings me back to the terrifying thing about it - how can you spot a psychopath? Answer: you can't. ...more

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Sep 10, 2009 Shirley J rated it really liked it

Dan Cullen spent 10 years compiling the information that help us all learn and hopefully understand what the motive might have been, the outcome of the investigation, what went right and wrong with the rescue, and what victims experienced after the ordeal. Cullen's writing style reminded me of Hampton Side's "Ghost Soliders". ...more

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Jul 05, 2009 Jennifer W rated it it was amazing

Shelves: mental-health, non-fiction, back-and-forth

Wow. What an amazing and important contribution to our understanding of how and why these things happen. The answer is that for some things there are no answers, there may never be any answers, but it's important that we understand that even when events play out right in front of us, *nothing is as it appears.* I applaud those who were courageous throughout this entire tragedy, and continue to live the best way they can: the victims, the victims' families, the killers' families, the 1st and 2nd ...more

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Apr 04, 2010 Jesse rated it really liked it

When I told Jennifer that I was reading this book, she asked "Why?", and the truth is, I asked myself that same thing a few times. Not because I didn't like the book, but because of the harshness of the subject matter. However, I feel like this book does a very good job of trying to portray a horrific event accurately and as unemotionally as possible, which is no small task given the event in question. In the end, I found that I learned much that I did not know, and came away with a greater appr ...more

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May 12, 2018 Judi rated it liked it · review of another edition

Shelves: recorded-books, history, crime

And so it goes day by day. On and on and on. Are folks gettin' numb to school, mall etc. etc. shootings? This book chronicles in agonizing detail, a bit redundant for me, the killings and the lead up to them etc. Now, today, 2018 the country is so divided on gun control that there seems there will never be compromise. In future I would much rather read a book that addresses possible solutions to the ever increasing killings. There are many sources, folks that carry the onus. Initially Igave this ...more

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Apr 15, 2009 Ainsley rated it really liked it

Shelves: history, read-2009

This is a very, very good book. It's compelling and insightful. Informative, but never dry. ...more

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Dec 13, 2009 Heather rated it it was amazing

WOW! This was the hardest book to read EVER! I cried much throughout it and was forced to put it down many times. Thank you, Mr Cullen, for providing facts and dispelling the myths surrounding Columbine. Everything I've heard, saw and read about Columbine is now in ruins because of this book. This will be something that sits with me for a very very long time. We are Columbine! ...more

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