Eating the Dinosaur, Chuck Klosterman
Eating the Dinosaur, Chuck Klosterman
2 Rating(s)
List: $23.95 | Sale: $16.77
Club: $11.97

Eating the Dinosaur

Author: Chuck Klosterman, Ira Glass, Errol Morris

Narrator: Chuck Klosterman

Unabridged: 6 hr 39 min

Format: Digital Audiobook Download

Published: 10/20/2009


Synopsis

After a bestselling and acclaimed diversion into fiction, Chuck Klosterman, author of Sex, Drugs, and Cocoa Puffs, returns to the form in which he’s been spectacularly successful with a collection of essays about our consumption of pop culture and sports.

Q: What is this book about?

A: Well, that’s difficult to say. I haven’t read it yet—I’ve just picked it up and casually glanced at the back cover. There clearly isn’t a plot. I’ve heard there’s a lot of stuff about time travel in this book, and quite a bit about violence and Garth Brooks and why Germans don’t laugh when they’re inside grocery stores. Ralph Nader and Ralph Sampson play significant roles. I think there are several pages about Rear Window and college football and Mad Men and why Rivers Cuomo prefers having sex with Asian women. Supposedly there’s a chapter outlining all the things the Unabomber was right about, but perhaps I’m misinformed.

Q: Is there a larger theme?

A: Oh, something about reality. “What is reality,” maybe? No, that’s not it. Not exactly. I get the sense that most of the core questions dwell on the way media perception constructs a fake reality that ends up becoming more meaningful than whatever actually happened. Also, Lady Gaga.

Q: Should I read this book?

A: Probably. Do you see a clear relationship between the Branch Davidian disaster and the recording of Nirvana’s In Utero? Does Barack Obama make you want to drink Pepsi? Does ABBA remind you of AC/DC? If so, you probably don’t need to read this book. You probably wrote this book. But I suspect everybody else will totally love it, except for the ones who totally hate it.

About Chuck Klosterman

Chuck Klosterman is the bestselling author of many books of nonfiction (including The NinetiesSex, Drugs, and Cocoa Puffs, I Wear the Black Hat, and But What If We're Wrong?) and fiction (Downtown Owl, The Visible Man, and Raised in Captivity). He has written for The New York TimesThe Washington PostGQEsquireSpinThe GuardianThe Believer, BillboardThe A.V. Club, and ESPN. Klosterman served as the Ethicist for The New York Times Magazine for three years, and was an original founder of the website Grantland with Bill Simmons. 


Reviews

Goodreads review by Scott on December 14, 2024

Sadly, I discovered Chuck Klosterman too late in life. His incredibly thoughtful, intellectual essays on popular culture which were very relevant roughly ten years ago are, unfortunately, totally irrelevant now. This is weirdly ironic considering the essays in his 2009 book “Eating the Dinosaur” are......more

Goodreads review by christa on October 28, 2009

Here's a confession: I did not read Chuck Klosterman's entire book "Eating the Dinosaur." This slighting came with his permission, nay, his insistence. Klosterman busts through the fourth wall in his essay about football to suggest that if you aren't into football, you can jump this chapter. " ... I......more

Goodreads review by Gus on December 28, 2009

For one take on Eating the Dinosaur, check out Anthony Shafer's review, which kicks ass in it's own way. Chuck Klosterman's previous series of essays, Chuck Klosterman IV read more like a collection of rarities and half-formed ideas that left me wondering if Klosterman might be more enthralled with h......more

Goodreads review by Derek on November 29, 2010

Meh. I hoped that Eating the Dinosaur would be a return to form for Klosterman, after the unreadable novel Downtown Owl. In retrospect, it occurs to me that Klosterman's books have gotten steadily less entertaining with each one that is published. Sex, Drugs and Cocoa Puffs had me laughing out loud,......more

Goodreads review by Nathan on March 16, 2023

Was feeling pretty meh about this book until the final chapter and the analysis on the unibomber. The audiobook isn’t very long so might be a fun thing to add to your list, but not the best work from Klosterman by a large margin......more