Killing Yourself to Live

85% of a True Story

By: Chuck Klosterman

Narrated by: Patrick Lawlor

Length: 7 hrs and 30 mins

Publisher's summary

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 21 days, Chuck had three relationships end, one by choice, one by chance, and one by exhaustion. He snorted cocaine in a graveyard. He walked a half-mile through a bean field. A man in Dickinson, North Dakota, explained to him why we have fewer windmills than we used to. He listened to the KISS solo albums and the Rod Stewart box set.

At one point, poisonous snakes became involved. 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.

©2005 Chuck Klosterman (P)2005 Tantor Media, Inc.

Critic reviews

"A treat for the adventurous." (Booklist)
"Klosterman has clearly established that he has a potent voice all his own." (Publishers Weekly)

Good ol' Chuck

I've been reading CK since '07. Always enjoy his work. This is definitely classic

Not what I expected.

Was hoping for more about the actual musicians and their stories. Mostly about Chuck's own love life. Not bad, just not what I was expecting.

Good, But Not What I Expected

I enjoyed this book, but it wasn't what I expected from the editor's description. This is a memoir. It's not just about rock n' roll and death, it's about the love life of Chuck Klosterman (and I'm not quite sure why he doesn't narrate this book).

I enjoy Chuck's personality. His references to the music he listens to and relates to are sometimes obscure, but always fantastic.

However, listeners/readers ought to know that rock n' roll is the relatively quiet backseat friend in this story. It's really you and Chuck riding up front.

Klosterman Rocks

To all the girls I loved before. Inside Chuck’s head for almost 3 weeks, as he catalogues rock n roll deaths and the ghosts of girlfriends past. Patrick Lawlor is the best narrator and captures Chuck voice brilliantly.

Klosterman Stuck In His Own Solipsistic Purgatory

I read it because I’m a Chuck Klosterman completist.

I recommend the rest of his work—including the novels—over this.

Great read!

I feel like I was Chuck for awhile in my early twenties and this book describes that version of myself very well.

An odyssey of ex-girlfriends crap record taste

I loved Chuck's latest book, "The Ninties." It was phenomenal, and I wanted more.... but this......
It started out well, with some very good moments in it. However, if there's one thing I've gotten good at, it's identifying exactly when an author has run out of interesting things to write about. About halfway through, I knew I was in trouble. Klosterman spent more time comparing his fav ex-girlfriends to Kiss albums than he did discussing all the famous and dead Seattle musicians combined. He spent more time writing about Whitesnake than he did Buddy Holly, and Whitesnake (for better or worse) are still alive. And now I know more about a conversation he had with a white girl in a FUBU sweating in North Dakota than I do about the location of where Skynyrd had their plane crash. Chuck, next time, go to LA. It may have been more interesting.

Great book, good starting point.

Start here if this is your first Klosterman audio book. He doesn't read this one.

Hilarious and insightful.

Chuck is a true observational genius. He can put into words things that are true and applicable to your life all while being funny and insightful. Such a pleasure to read.

Has little appeal

As another review by Lori made clear, the book's description is misleading. The author drones on about his personal life which isn't interesting enough to merit this kind of attention. Sparse actual references to music. I felt myself getting stupider the longer I listened and, admittedly, stopped after two hours.