Eating the Dinosaur

Chuck breaths humanity and wit into his essays. He also cleverly has his interview pieces with the actual interviewees and other clever pieces are performed with actors. Chuck uses pop culture to delve deep into the human psyche, finding existential truth in the oddest of places. This book made my two hour commute seemingly fly by in minutes.

This collection of essays is a bit of a hodgepodge of narratives on pop culture, technology, and Chuck's innate observations on everyday life. There isn't a clear flow to the stories, which is annoying but somewhat intriguing all at the same time. He discusses topics ranging from the Unabomber to football, ABBA to time travel, all the while adding his unique flair of witty hipster-nerd humor. It had me laughing out loud during some parts and zoning off uninterested during others. If nothing less, this book will get your thoughts going.

Humorous and philosophical essays in Klosterman's own pop-culture-writ-large idiom. Read by the author himself, and in some cases by his interview subjects (Ira Glass, Errol Morris). It's strange and interesting to hear someone reading their own remarks after the fact. Overall enjoyable, and if you've liked Klosterman's previous works you won't be disappointed. Lost 1 star just for being regrettably short, and in need of some kind of cohesive narrative (although this might apply to all his essay collections).

Chuck Klosterman is the type of person you want to have at a bar table with you. His massive brain has dissected everything ten ways to sunday; from ramifications of time travel to cultural implications of nipple slips. His essays are fascinating, his delivery is uniquely him. Inside all of us is a hidden nerd waiting for something to obsess over, Klosterman not only accepts that nerd, he indulges it.

This book is an easy listen and you'll be sad when it ends. I was.

Eating the Dinosaur is worth the listen or read, but is not the best Klosterman book to start with. So if its your first, I would go with Killing yourself to Live. If you like pop culture, sports, or dry/witty humor you will probably like this.

Klosterman could probably be described as a cultural critic, but that just sounds like a way of saying that he writes about whatever the hell he feels like. The essays in this book seem to confirm this. More illuminating and interesting than hanging out with a stoner, but not far off from that experience.

His place in the sphere of middlebrow criticism seems so unique that he is probably deserving of a Chuck Klosterman essay. If you like Klosterman's writings in Esquire or Grantland, you will probably enjoy this. If he annoys you, don't bother, this won't change your mind.

I found this book by looking up Ira Glass in the Audible search engine, and I then found out Cuck Kosterman was part of bill simmon's grantland network. As I love both Simmons and This American Life, I figured I'd give this book a try. It turned out to be a great decision--this may be my favorite audio book so far. Klosterman is a strange mix of the two above mentioned fellows with a bit of gladwell. I think Klosterman's insights are more interesting than gladwell's and if you like his works, I'd think you'd like this book. I plan to read his entire canon.

Even though I enjoyed IV and generally any insightful discussion of pop-culture, I was reluctantly to buy this audiobook because of the few and generally negative user reviews. "Self-absorbed Twaddle" , "Couldn't get into it" and "Ho Hum" they said--what the f*ck, other reviewers! Clearly if you are not interested in dissecting the minutia of pop culture you have come to the wrong place--but as this sort of this goes Eating the Dinosaur is as good as anything out there excepting maybe Malcolm Gladwell at his best or the better "This American Life" episodes, but both of those are more general interest and less pop/rock obsessed, so the comparison is not entirely level. Also, there is a great interview about interviews with Ira Glass, who makes an appearance on the audio book. Don't pay attention to the negative user reviews. If you like Klosterman's other books or if you like Rob Sheffield or you just like music and pop-culture in general, you will like this book.

I usually like the odd books or movies. However, this book was just too out there for me. The Description of the book is right on, he just talks about everything. He's telling you about it though as if it were a thought happening in your mind. Just thinking about things and saying it. I thought it was way to vague and could never get into the book. You might like it if you like listening to some ones random thought process on the world. I won't say I don't like the book though because it just didn't interest me.

I didn't quite grasp most of this book until Klosterman finally hit on a topic or two that I can identify with. And I consider myself pretty well versed and well read. Overall, not bad if you don't mind listening to a bunch of essays..... but I could have (should have) taken a pass on this one.