Book Title: Eating the Dinosaur
Author: Chuck Klosterman
Published: 2009
Pages: 265
Category: nonfiction, nonfiction: short story, nonfiction: essays
After reading Sex, Drugs and Cocoa Puffs, I knew it would only be a matter of time before I picked up another book of Chuck Klosterman’s.
Eating The Dinosaur didn’t particularly stand out as different in my mind than Sex, Drugs and Cocoa Puffs, but it didn’t have to. I thoroughly enjoyed another set of witty and interconnected essays on life, written in a sense of humour that definitely appeals to me.
I particularly enjoyed his take on New Media. New Media is an area that I pride myself on being knowledgeable about, and find very interesting. Klosterman explains its appeal in one paragraph, stating that
“…people are answering questions not because they’re flattered by the attention; they’re answering questions because they feel as though they deserve to be asked. About everything. Their opinions are special, so they are entitled to a public forum. Their voice is supposed to be heard, lest their life becomes empty.” (20)
And then of course, his style includes a gratuitous use of footnotes, which I adore. I don’t know really why it is, but I simply love footnotes in novels, extra bits of information peppered throughout the pages. Maybe it is because it feels similar to discovering DVD extras on movies. Whatever it is, I think it adds a lot to the experience of reading.
I also loved Klosterman’s musing on what makes us, as adults, depressed in today’s society, and he settles upon “the possibility that one’s life is not important, and the mundane predictability of day-to-day existence.” (102). A lot of Klosterman’s observations I feel are quite accurate, and he talks about them with a blunt edge of truth that is very refreshing after reading other books that make it more flowery or embellish more, while at the same time actually saying less.
I really enjoy Chuck Klosterman’s style, and I will definitely continue to read his books in the future.
Philippa Adams 
you should defintley read his other stuff. you can borrow them off me if you want – i have everything except his novel. there are three others – the one that was meant to be an autobiography but is way more about music (fargo city rock), the one that if IIRC is an expansion on a magainze piece which is also about music (killing yourself to live) and his collection of articles (chuck klosterman iv).
I will definitely take you up on that!