4.5 solid chuck

The essays are hit or miss and some go on way too long, but Chuck Klosterman has a good wit and good observations about low grade culture. A bit outdated but for a certain age group, it’s also a fun look back.

This is a two-star books with a few five-star chapters.

I almost quit multiple times while speeding through chapters with so many disparate cultural references that I couldn't connect the dots, BUT then you hit a chapter like "Toby over Moby," which perfectly describes modern country music, and you keep on trucking.

Constructed like a loose collection of essays, Klosterman hits a ton of interesting topics, but also loses me in the midst of 90's NBA references and depressing reflection on his love life.

I had never read or even heard of Klosterman when I saw this book and read a few pages. He’s hilarious and deals with economic principles and theories in ways that anyone can understand and find a way to get their inner geek on. I’ve since ordered 3 more books by Klosterman.

Turns out 20th century pop culture isn’t really my niche. Also I can’t tell if this guy is an eccentric or just a douche?
I did end up warming up to the writing style by the end.

This book started out great...nice and insightful...As it progressed, however, I've found myself removing stars from the rating.

He tries too hard to tie everything up in a neat little bow...every essay has to end with a witty little wrap-up sentence, dripping with a false poignancy, essentially wrapping it up with his original statement. It started feeling as formulaic as pop music.

It was when I got to Toby vs Moby that I found myself closing the book, and throwing it across the room. He stretches pretty far throughout his essays to make a point that isn't always there, but this one...When he had the audacity to tell me that the Dixie Chicks are more talented and relevant to music than the whole of the grunge era, when he proclaimed that pop country trumps alt country I began wondering where his head was, exactly. Then I flipped the book over and realized he's a writer for SPIN magazine, and it all made sense.

He's so quick to discount so many people's taste as some sort of a hipster fashion accessory; if you listen to Hank Senior, you're a poser, if you listen to alt country, you're a poser earning $56k+ a year with no true understanding of the working class. I'm sure I'll finish the book eventually, but I'm wary of it all, now.

I was willing to take his hatred of the Lakers with a grain of salt, but when he tries to tell me that the Dixie Chicks are the Van Halen of the next generation...Jesus.

Funny, incisive, and very clever. Sometimes it feels like Klosterman is trying a bit too hard, but overall he's got some great material in here even though I disagree with a fair bit of what he says. I guess my only real complaint is that the author seems a bit overfond of the word "ironic" but whatever, it's an interesting book, definitely worth reading, especially if you're in the right age range (like you can remember MTV's Real World when it came out).

3.5 stars

"The middle film in the Star Wars trilogy, The Empire Strikes Back, remains a legitimately great picture . . . it's now completely obvious that [it] was the seminal foundation for what became 'Generation X' . . . [it] was the first movie that people born in the seventies could understand in a way that went outside of its rudimentary plot-line. That's why a movie about the good guys losing - both politically and romantically - is so integral to how people my age look at life." -- from the 'Sulking with Lisa Loeb on Ice Planet Hoth' chapter, pages 150-151

Klosterman's earlier Fargo Rock City - an excellent collection of twenty essays that focused on 80's heavy metal music - made me want to seek out more of his material. With Sex, Drugs, and Cocoa Puffs the author expands his subject matter to include all sorts of things on the pop cultural radar: reality TV shows, celebrity sex tapes, serial killers, organized religion, country music. A drawback this time is that the book can seem sort of dated - first published in 2003, a few of the topics (MTV's The Real World, The Sims computer game, digital music sounding the death knell for making mixed tapes) were then-timely, but now may resonate only with the Gen-Xer age group or just seem sort of antiquated. However, when he kept to less-limiting topics - 'Appetite for Replication,' where he shadowed a hard-drinking GNR cover band eeking out an existence on weekend gigs; or "George Will vs. Nick Hornby,' where he explained how soccer (often touted as the world's most popular sport) has never quite taken hold in America - he was in much better form. So while not everything presented was a must-read, he had some occasionally sharp moments of insight and humor.

I'd be lying if I said this book did not absorb me. I devoured it in a few days, which I rarely do. It's an easy read, even though I wasn't familiar with all the popular culture items referenced inside. And let's face it, Chuck is eloquent, smart, kinda funny, and his observations are usually interesting.

Which is not to say they are not total bullshit. I mean, all this would be nice to listen to over dinner, if your conversational partner didn't have any illusions about its severity and weight. But to actually take it as social commentary, would be like trying to balance an elephant on top of a house of cards. The guy is throwing around dubious or outright false premises like a drunkard would swing a two handed sword -- causing damage without really understanding what he's doing, and destroying trees in the process.

I am not sure the author doesn't know this, either. I am not even sure that he doesn't assume all readers would understand it right away. This just that kind of book. Read it to copy some phrases to make conversation with, and to pass the time when in an airport.

really good stoner book. read it while unemployed.

This was interesting enough to merit me finishing the book (albeit over an extended period of time...not exactly the kind of book I would consider a "page-turner"). I feel this would have been more interesting and applicable to someone born in the 80's as a lot of the pop culture references are from the 90's. Comparable to Malcolm Gladwell's analyses but a "pop-culture" focused approach.

Klosterman is a terrible writer. This book reads like a collection of New Yorker articles written by someone who is mildly developmentally disabled. The boring and insightless writing contained within was off-putting enough that I don't even want to read Klosterman's "heavy metal" book, either. Do not waste your time on this book.