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Killing Yourself to Live | 
 enlarge | Author: Chuck Klosterman
Publisher: Scribner
Category: EBooks
List Price: $11.99
Buy New: $9.59
You Save: $2.40 (20%)
Rating:  86 reviews
Sales Rank: 8900
Format: Kindle Book
Media: Kindle Edition
Number Of Items: 1
Pages: 272
Dewey Decimal Number: 70
ASIN: B000FCKB0C
Publication Date: July 21, 2005
Availability: Usually ships in 24 hours
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| Editorial Reviews:
Product Description
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 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.
Download Description
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 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.
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| Customer Reviews: Read 81 more reviews...
 Narcissistic, yes, plus insulting! August 3, 2008
1 out of 1 found this review helpful
This "journalist" is not qualified to comment on the multitude of musical artists he bashes; this fact is obvious by the evidence that the book wanders through his boyish experiences with women--which are, pathetic.
Aside from his boring, self-indulgent babble regarding first-time female experiences and pointless encounters with drugs and new-found friends, he blatantly insults some of the most legendary artists of all time, downplaying their careers and success (ie, relates the career of Waylon Jennings to the Dukes of Hazzard theme song). As the book progressed (if you want to call it that), the author continues to demonstrate his lack of research and/or knowledge about any of the individuals he speaks of, showing his lack of interest and his own immaturity in being able to draw any meaningful takeaways.
The author, for instance, goes to the Skynyrd plane wreck site, but does nothing once he gets there. Thanks for sharing. Profound. Do you have any first-hand experiences with members of this band? Then you just aren't qualified to say a word.
I couldn't endure the last few chapters. It went in the trashcan. Don't bother. It's the worst book I've ever encountered. And by the way, love how it is plastered with positive quotes from the press on the inside cover. I'd love to read the full reviews, because I am certain these blurbs are nothing but cherrypicking. A young, uninformed egomaniac who needs to go back to writing single newspaper paragraphs about local talent.
 Chuck Klosterman is the kind of man I would want a summer romance with July 16, 2008
JUST SHUT UP AND BUY IT. I've read this and a Decade of Dangerous and they are both highly entertaining and very addicting if you are into music, obsessive habits and cosmic ideas. If you do not have a sense of humor, do not buy this book. If laughing out loud in quiet public settings is not your forte, then maybe you should pass on this one. I've bought many copies for that special kind of friend and the ones I haven't met yet. -amen
 Unfathomable, in a not so good way... July 14, 2008
Overall, I guess you could say I kind of enjoyed it...
However, I was really suprised to see how he wrote endlessly about himself. This book is completely lacking an insightful, charming, and inspiring voice - like I thought it would have. There were very few "laugh out loud" moments and I just found that I couldn't wait to finish reading it. This book didn't have any realism; any soul. I felt like he was just talking out of his butt, so I found him hard to fathom, hard to grasp, and hard to relate to. Whether this is 85% of a real story or not, he didn't give enough analysis or honesty for me to believe any of it.
 I should have given up earlier July 6, 2008
I flipped through the book in the bookstore and thought, "oh, this sounds kind of cool" when I got to the part about cocaine people and pot people, because it was funny and ironic and pathetic and he knew it. Some of the book was really interesting; specifically, I liked when he talked to strangers. His boring romances are boring. Why are you wasting my time? I finished the book hoping he'd say something worth reading. The only thing I'm going to remember--of any worth, anyway--was his description of intelligence as "knowing what to do without being told," which was actually quoting Nixon about Kissinger. Nice.
I just wish he were a little smarter. Then it could have been a good book. Until then, stick with Spin, Mr. Klosterman.
wonderful read May 23, 2008
This is by far my favorite book by Klosterman. It was the second book I read by him, but he was definitely more relatable than in "Sex, Drugs, and Cocoa Puffs." I would definitely recommend it as a first read to anyone who wants to get into his works.
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