Eating The Dinosaur – Chuck Klosterman

Jill — Wed, 20 Jan 2010 03:18:46 +0000

Hoorah! The second book in my two thousand and ten challenge, proved to be much more interesting than the last.

Eating the Dinosaur was a collection of 13 essays that ranged between, Nirvana-Weezer-Football-Basketball- Technology- ABBA- Laughtracks, with mentions of Obama-Twitter-Facebook-Tropicana-Chuck Palahnuik- and even James Frey.

My favorite essay would have to be the one that compares Kurt Cobian to the leader of a cult in the USA which reffered to their religion as Davidian’s. I knew nothing about either, but it was a really great read that made me want to actually listen to Nirvana’s ‘In Utero’.

Also! The piece about time travel is also very very interesting. As well as the one entitled ‘Abba 1, World 0.’ I am ABBA’s least favorite fan so this was a great peice for me to read. Do I like ABBA any more? No. But am I now a bit intrigued about their path to success and how they really are their own genre? Yes.

My roommate Michelle insists that Klosterman’s better works are in his previous books which are currently on loan to Mr.Blake Brooker, so perhaps later down the year I will look into what else Chuck Klosterman has to say about everything. Perhaps you should read her blog too. It’s more interesting, which I will only give her due to her 8 years my senior.

Next: Everything is Illuminated – Jonathan Safran Foer

Bright Shiny Morning – James Frey

Jill — Sun, 17 Jan 2010 20:06:46 +0000

This is the first book I read in 2010, and hopefully it will be the worst.

I have read both of James Frey’s previous novels ‘A Million Little Pieces’ and ‘My Friend Leonard’ and thoroughly enjoyed the first, a little less the second. However, ‘Bright Shiny Morning’, his first book not about his own personal life, was.. dull.. to say the least.

The book, comprised of several different stories about life in Los Angeles, USA was hard to follow, stories could consist of one to ten parts. And the ends of the stories were predictable.

The only part of this book I really appreciated was the three segments of ‘Fun Facts about LA and Not Fun Facts’ which describes random facts about LA such as ‘it is legal to flock less than 2,000 in Los Angeles County with a permit.’ ‘it is illegal to sit on top of a outdoor patio table in LA’ etc. Did you know, 65 people in LA have the legal name ‘Jesus Christ?’

I didn’t.

However dull, I suppose I’m glad I only spent 15 ish days working my way through this book.

Next: Eating The Dinosaur – Chuck Klosterman

[My Goal? To read more books than I see movies. Successful? Probably not. Hopeful? Fuck yes]

Reading is Green and Trendy.

Eating The Dinosaur – Chuck Klosterman

Bright Shiny Morning – James Frey