Status
Available
Call number
Collection
Publication
Scribner (2006), Edition: Reprint, 272 pages
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 spanof twenty-one days, Chuck had three relationships end-one by choice, one bychance, and one by exhaustion. He snorted cocaine in a graveyard. He walked a halfmile 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.… (more)
User reviews
LibraryThing member ursula
Klosterman travels to various sites of rock deaths, such as the field where Lynyrd Skynyrd's plane crashed and the club where Great White's concert ended in flames. Along the way he throws out his usual continuous stream of pop-culture references and contemplates the state of his love life. Light
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and breezy, it's entertaining reading. Show Less
LibraryThing member echo_echo
This is just as much about how he deals with his past relationships as it is about his "go to several places of rock-star deaths" mission.
Read it if you like pop-culture, rock journalism type stuff.
Read it if you like pop-culture, rock journalism type stuff.
LibraryThing member derfla3101980
Mostly about unrequited loves and crushes he reflects on durring a road trip around the nation, visiting memorial spots where rock stars died.
LibraryThing member osmium_antidote
I didn't enjoy it quite as much as "Fargo Rock City" - it seemed fluffier. However, "Killing Yourself to Live" does give the reader a better understanding of who Chuck Klosterman really is - his fears, feelings, loves. It is more than just the music, but it is ALL about the music.
LibraryThing member deargreenplace
I have Seth Cohen (The O.C.) to thank for introducing me to Chuck Klosterman. I spotted him reading Sex, Drugs and Cocoa Puffs during an episode of The O.C., and the title of the book intrigued me so much that I had to hunt it down. It was entirely fitting that a geek of Seth's stature should be
Chuck Klosterman began his career as a journalist, writing mainly about music and popular culture. Killing Yourself To Live is his attempt to "understand why some rock stars don't start living until they die, why death equals credibility". Klosterman begins his journey at the Chelsea Hotel in New York, somewhat unsuccessfully. The hotel manager doesn't want him to talk about the hotel in his book, and insists that the room where Nancy Spungen died no longer exists. Undeterred, Klosterman picks up a rental car, stocks it with over 600 CDs for the trip, and sets off cross-country, taking in the site in Rhode Island where a fire killed over 100 Great White fans at a concert, the spot where Buddy Holly's plane came down, and a few others, culminating in a trip to Washington, where he visits Seattle and Aberdeen.
Klosterman is an entertaining narrator, and the book is peppered with soundbites, musings and tenuous analogies drawn between films and music. Not since High Fidelity (the film mind, not the book), have I enjoyed hearing someone describe music in such detail before. Klosterman describes, compares and critically evaluates the music he loves (rock music mainly), though it's a meandering journey and digressions abound, mainly on the subject of his old girlfriends. He discloses a lot of personal detail about his relationships, and what went wrong with them, and there's quite an analogy near the end of the book where each ex-girlfriend is compared to a member of KISS.
Near the beginning of the book, Klosterman states that "sexuality is 15% real and 85% illusion". Killing Yourself To Live is subtitled 85% Of A True Story. My powers of deduction are telling me that some of this book has been embellished somewhat, and at first I thought that this 15% illusion was to be found in the discussion of his relationships, and the almost unlikely fabulousness of the women who loved him. Then I thought it may have been in the characters he meets on his travels. I'm still undecided. The actual site visits are often fleeting and unremarkable, but that could be the point - even with the knowledge that someone died there to give a location meaning, years after the event it's just a location after all. Popular culture is assigning significance to the sites, and I think that Klosterman gets this completely.
It could be argued that there is too much of the author in this book, but then maybe that's also the point. Klosterman is an avid consumer of music and films, and more importantly he is infectiously enthusiastic about his passions. I have Chuck Klosterman to thank for introducing me to the Dixie Chicks, following his discussion of their song There's Your Trouble in Sex, Drugs and Cocoa Puffs. His writing has that effect on me. I'm off now to buy more Led Zeppelin albums.
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reading the work of a self-proclaimed music and pop culture geek. Of course, I use the word geek in an affectionate way, given that I myself am not entirely without geekiness (I actually took some notes while reading this book).Chuck Klosterman began his career as a journalist, writing mainly about music and popular culture. Killing Yourself To Live is his attempt to "understand why some rock stars don't start living until they die, why death equals credibility". Klosterman begins his journey at the Chelsea Hotel in New York, somewhat unsuccessfully. The hotel manager doesn't want him to talk about the hotel in his book, and insists that the room where Nancy Spungen died no longer exists. Undeterred, Klosterman picks up a rental car, stocks it with over 600 CDs for the trip, and sets off cross-country, taking in the site in Rhode Island where a fire killed over 100 Great White fans at a concert, the spot where Buddy Holly's plane came down, and a few others, culminating in a trip to Washington, where he visits Seattle and Aberdeen.
Klosterman is an entertaining narrator, and the book is peppered with soundbites, musings and tenuous analogies drawn between films and music. Not since High Fidelity (the film mind, not the book), have I enjoyed hearing someone describe music in such detail before. Klosterman describes, compares and critically evaluates the music he loves (rock music mainly), though it's a meandering journey and digressions abound, mainly on the subject of his old girlfriends. He discloses a lot of personal detail about his relationships, and what went wrong with them, and there's quite an analogy near the end of the book where each ex-girlfriend is compared to a member of KISS.
Near the beginning of the book, Klosterman states that "sexuality is 15% real and 85% illusion". Killing Yourself To Live is subtitled 85% Of A True Story. My powers of deduction are telling me that some of this book has been embellished somewhat, and at first I thought that this 15% illusion was to be found in the discussion of his relationships, and the almost unlikely fabulousness of the women who loved him. Then I thought it may have been in the characters he meets on his travels. I'm still undecided. The actual site visits are often fleeting and unremarkable, but that could be the point - even with the knowledge that someone died there to give a location meaning, years after the event it's just a location after all. Popular culture is assigning significance to the sites, and I think that Klosterman gets this completely.
It could be argued that there is too much of the author in this book, but then maybe that's also the point. Klosterman is an avid consumer of music and films, and more importantly he is infectiously enthusiastic about his passions. I have Chuck Klosterman to thank for introducing me to the Dixie Chicks, following his discussion of their song There's Your Trouble in Sex, Drugs and Cocoa Puffs. His writing has that effect on me. I'm off now to buy more Led Zeppelin albums.
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LibraryThing member trinityofone
In many ways, this book is more about Klosterman's failed relationships than about its ostensible purpose: touring the sites of a bunch of famous rock 'n' roll demises (from the room at the Chelsea Hotel in New York where Nancy Spungen was killed, to the greenhouse in Seattle where Kurt Cobain shot
But ANYWAY...there's still a lot to enjoy in this book. Klosterman is, as always, a highly readable writer. (See? Watch me pillage one of his more fun devices!) Thus, if you're in even a slightly morbid mood, I really do recommend it.
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himself) and analyzing what effects these early deaths had on the musicians' legacies. The whole thing is very entertaining while you're reading it, but at the end I found myself wishing (and remembering having wished the first time around) that there was more actual death discussed, and less "death of Chuck's love life." Klosterman skirts around some theories about how an early demise can actually bring a musician a weird sort of immortality (the discussions of Jeff Buckley, and yeah, Cobain, are particularly interesting) but he never really presents any kind of thesis and, I dunno, I'd've sort of appreciated even a half-assed one. He also, in his rant about why he hates L.A. and considers it the worst city in the country, seems to confuse "Los Angeles" with "Hollywood." BUT THAT IS ANOTHER RANT I WILL NOT TOUCH TODAY. *restrains self*But ANYWAY...there's still a lot to enjoy in this book. Klosterman is, as always, a highly readable writer. (See? Watch me pillage one of his more fun devices!) Thus, if you're in even a slightly morbid mood, I really do recommend it.
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LibraryThing member maquiladora
A prominent voice in contemporary pop culture writing(in my opinion,but hipsters do tend to stick together),Klosterman's follow up to 2003's Sex,Drugs,And Cocoa Puffs is pure paperback gold.
In this latest chronicle,we accompany Klosterman on a cross-country journey to visit the last resting places
In this latest chronicle,we accompany Klosterman on a cross-country journey to visit the last resting places
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of famous(and some not so famous) music legends. The combination of music and solitude quickly find Klosterman on the sub-plot of his own life.While this self inventory,in theory, could have easily been the nerdy laments of a jaded 30 something,Klostermans wit and frequent references to pop culture and music keep the story whole and on track. We end up identifying with him and maybe even being a little jealous....because I dont know about you, but I would love to be paid to go on an adventure like this. Show Less
LibraryThing member dvf1976
A fun listen.
A man and a woman are happily married for 10 years. During the tenth year the man dies unexpectedly. At the funeral the (now-) widow meets a man and greatly enjoys her conversation with him. A week later the widow kills her sister.
What happened?
If you're normal, you say that the widow
If you're schizophrenic, you say that the widow killed the sister because she enjoyed the conversation with the man at the funeral and wants to go to another funeral in order to see him again.
Of the folks I've posed this question to, I've only had one who gave the schizophrenic response.
A man and a woman are happily married for 10 years. During the tenth year the man dies unexpectedly. At the funeral the (now-) widow meets a man and greatly enjoys her conversation with him. A week later the widow kills her sister.
What happened?
If you're normal, you say that the widow
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killed the sister because she was talking to her husband.If you're schizophrenic, you say that the widow killed the sister because she enjoyed the conversation with the man at the funeral and wants to go to another funeral in order to see him again.
Of the folks I've posed this question to, I've only had one who gave the schizophrenic response.
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LibraryThing member dracopet
I bought this book because I really liked reading Xhuck Klosterman's articles in 'Spin' magazine. Turns out he doesn't work out so well when he has a whole book to ramble about Led Zeppln.
The book has a really great premise (he travels to places where famous musicians have died in a quest to gain
Too bad 80% of the book is about chicks Chuck Klosterman has made it with.
The book has a really great premise (he travels to places where famous musicians have died in a quest to gain
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some insight into death, pop culture, and music), and it does have some really funny and really insightful parts.Too bad 80% of the book is about chicks Chuck Klosterman has made it with.
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LibraryThing member jenn_the_eskimo
At first, I thought I would love reading this -- it was Eggers-y (road-trip, life dilemmas, made fun of itself for being Eggers-y) and there were hip little jokes about popular music. But it lost steam about halfway through and his ending soliloquy (actually spoken by his editor) about whether
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anyone would actually care about his non-love story with little plot or personal development was a little too on-point. He should've taken her advice. Show Less
LibraryThing member TakeItOrLeaveIt
probably my favorite of his, Klosterman travels around the US to different grave yards and murder grounds of famous rockers throughout the ages including Elvis, Kurt Cobain, and Jeff Buckley. his style is immaculate and very catchy. this book came out during the time I was all syked when new
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Klosterman came out. so yeah, I got it signed haha. Show Less
LibraryThing member RDHawk6886
The loose premise of he book is that Klosterman goes cross country to visit the sites at which various rock figures, some of marginal renown, have perished. More a book of late youth ruminations about the vagaries of love and attraction and trying to find the crossroad where the two meet. Not
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Klosterman's best but the guy is clever and entertaining to read. And pages 188-93 is some of the funniest shit I have ever read. Maybe not Klosterman's best but definitely worthwhile. Show Less
LibraryThing member Seven.Stories.Press
OK, so Chuck Klosterman veers into, well, nonsense quite often, but it's wonderfully yummy nonsense and I'd still marry him in an instant if he asked. Not that he will. But I'm just sayin'.
LibraryThing member StephenBarkley
What is it about premature death that makes musicians so famous?
That's the question that Spin editor Sia Michel used to convince Chuck Klosterman to embark on an epic road trip across America to visit the places where musicians met their demise.
Killing Yourself to Live started out as a feature
"Are you going to be able to write a compelling story that will dissect the perverse yet undeniable relationship between celebrity and mortality? Will the narrative illustrate how society glamorizes dying in order to perpetuate the hope that death validates life? Will you be able to prove that living is dying, and that we're all slowly dying through every moment of life" (233)?
That's not the story Klosterman came up with, however. In the end he realized that "love and death and rock 'n' roll are the same experience" (234).
This memoir is painfully narcissistic (not to mention exploitative of his relationships), but his brutal honesty makes for compelling reading. Klosterman doesn't seem to care what the reader will think of him or his moral choices. Add to this his encyclopedic knowledge of rock and roll culture and you get Killing Yourself to Live: a window into the mind of one of our generation's best cultural critics.
That's the question that Spin editor Sia Michel used to convince Chuck Klosterman to embark on an epic road trip across America to visit the places where musicians met their demise.
Killing Yourself to Live started out as a feature
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article for Spin, but ended up book-length when Klosterman decided to pack the story full of his musing on past lovers, turning this travelogue into a memoir. This article/book was supposed to follow a standard script. At the end of his journey, his coworker, Lucy asks him some questions."Are you going to be able to write a compelling story that will dissect the perverse yet undeniable relationship between celebrity and mortality? Will the narrative illustrate how society glamorizes dying in order to perpetuate the hope that death validates life? Will you be able to prove that living is dying, and that we're all slowly dying through every moment of life" (233)?
That's not the story Klosterman came up with, however. In the end he realized that "love and death and rock 'n' roll are the same experience" (234).
This memoir is painfully narcissistic (not to mention exploitative of his relationships), but his brutal honesty makes for compelling reading. Klosterman doesn't seem to care what the reader will think of him or his moral choices. Add to this his encyclopedic knowledge of rock and roll culture and you get Killing Yourself to Live: a window into the mind of one of our generation's best cultural critics.
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LibraryThing member dariazeoli
I am a sucker for pop culture and I like to be entertained. This book fit the bill. And yet, I wish the author didn't come off as such a jerk.
Enjoyed the narration and found this audiobook perfect for commuting.
Enjoyed the narration and found this audiobook perfect for commuting.
LibraryThing member ennuiprayer
Normally I'm not drawn to nonfiction books because I love the notion of other worlds no matter how realistic a book is, but Chuck Klosterman is by far my favorite writer when it comes to Esquire. I figured reading a book by him wouldn't kill me. And it didn't, but did make me realize just how
But what 85% of this odyssey is fact and what 15% is fiction? I'd like to believe that the whole thing is indeed fact, while some of the dialogue might just be on the spot because, as he mentions early on, he doesn't carry a recorder wherever he goes (I do. Seriously you can ask most of the people who are unfortunate enough to know me).
I know it's pretentious of me to compare my life at the moment with Chuck Klosterman's life during the time he complied the book, but the similarities are too obvious to ignore. Perhaps this is the life of every non-serious guy in the USA. Or perhaps what Klosterman does with music and KISS, I do with literature and books. Who knows. Pick up a copy, if you have the time.
And now a quote: "Are and love are the same thing: It's the process of seeing yourself in things that are not you. It's understanding the unreasonable."
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fucked up things can be when you're alone with your thoughts chasing the dead. But what 85% of this odyssey is fact and what 15% is fiction? I'd like to believe that the whole thing is indeed fact, while some of the dialogue might just be on the spot because, as he mentions early on, he doesn't carry a recorder wherever he goes (I do. Seriously you can ask most of the people who are unfortunate enough to know me).
I know it's pretentious of me to compare my life at the moment with Chuck Klosterman's life during the time he complied the book, but the similarities are too obvious to ignore. Perhaps this is the life of every non-serious guy in the USA. Or perhaps what Klosterman does with music and KISS, I do with literature and books. Who knows. Pick up a copy, if you have the time.
And now a quote: "Are and love are the same thing: It's the process of seeing yourself in things that are not you. It's understanding the unreasonable."
Show Less
Subjects
Awards
Village Voice Favorite Books (2005)
Language
Original language
English
Original publication date
2005
Physical description
272 p.; 5.5 inches
ISBN
0743264460 / 9780743264464
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