And Cocoa Puffs - A Low Culture Manifesto

This book is terrible. Klosterman starts out with a few pages eluding to the fact that he is so superficially witty that he has been able to fool several attractive women into sleeping with him despite the fact that he apparently isn't attractive. Congrats, buddy. I suppose his goal here was to assure the reader that he is absolutely shallow enough to cash in on this book despite its weak material. I guess, at the very least, that's a trait I can identify with.

Anyway, each chapter in this book contains a fairly self contained essay that is meant to examine a particular aspect of American culture as compared to, affected by, and/or resulting from a particular piece of pop culture. Unfortunately, Klosterman's understanding of most topics (both the deeper social topics he tries to explore and the actual pop culture references) is as superficial as his wit.

Basically, you could break the entire content of this book down into one sentence; stupid people emulate what they see on TV because they are often also shallow and because their lives suck. Add in about two hundred pages of topical references you won't understand unless you're between the ages of 30 - 35 and sentences along the lines of 'I'm not cool but here is what a cool, ironic person would say about this topic, which just happens to be the same opinion I hold, or maybe I don't' and you'll be readily prepared for the content of this book.

"Sex, Drugs, and Cocoa Puffs" is an essay collection that draws comparisons between popular culture and important social and interpersonal issues. It also happens to be extremely witty at times. Chuck Klosterman is a writer for Spin magazine, so he clearly knows pop culture and can write quality essays. The best of his work here truly encapsulates life. Who cannot relate to this quote? - "Every relationship is fundamentally a power struggle, and the individual in power is whoever likes the other person less." That profundity, by the way, is from an essay that discusses the merits of "When Harry Met Sally"; another section proffers the genius of Billy Joel. Yes, Klosterman is a bit of a hipster geek.
Pop culture references are sprinkled throughout the book, but sometimes it stretches a bit too much for the sake of a clever analogy. In the forward, Klosterman assserts that, at times, he feels as though "everything is completely connected." Unfortunately, he is not adept enough to make all of his essays into a cohesive whole (as other reviewers have noted). Ultimately, the book feels like a loose collection of unrelated but very funny skits. Although that debit doesn't sink the book, it does lessen its impact. In addition, Klosterman is sometimes too self-aware for his own good; several times, he makes reference to liking something "unironically" - such as "Saved by the Bell." His definitive goal seems to be achieving irony. While this credo certainly makes "Sex, Drugs, and Cocoa Puffs" a funny read, it can become rather tedious as well. Overall, I'd recommend this book, but with reservations.

There were only three essays I found interesting in this waste of paper (or e-ink, I should say).
Other than the saved by the bell, marilyn monroe/pam anderson, and cover band essays, I found this book unreadable.
I got so bored reading it I started skipping chapters, hoping to find something that I could stand to read, until I found myself at the end.
How so many people rated this book 4 and 5 stars I'll never understand.
Don't waste your money and time.

I starting rereading this book recently. I don't know what initially had me start- but I did. This book is made to be reread.

During this editions of reread #2 I started thinking about snapchat- and of course what got me thinking about snapchat was naked chicks. Some friends of mine were discussing a newly freaky artist on the forefront of the underground world of snapchat. This artist is attempting to break barriers in a very popular underground society.

Anyways... I digress. The thought that was briefly discussed at the beginning of this review is as follows:

"Porn is taking over snapchat. Not just porn- but outrageous behavior. There is no hiding the hideous bc the intention of snapchat is to see something then forget you ever saw it.

Do what you want guilt free because the world will forget what they saw. Oh! The world realized how to capture the moment anyway? It's okay... it took effort to capture the moment. So maybe this means that they like you! They wanted to see more of you!! That's exciting :)

So then the upgrade came- snapchat notified its users when a screenshot was taken.

Now that it was in the open, you had to discreetly "hate" that they took a snap of you. But, again, secretly you need the attention- it feels good to feel wanted... no matter how demented of a way you get it.

Eventually though, thoughts evolved from this reaction to the complete opposite reaction. Now it's an invasion of privacy that they kept an image of you! How dare snapchat allow that to happen!!

So snapchat comes out with a new upgrade- except this time they don't enable current software to run more efficiently, rid the software of extra unneeded storage space, fix any issues- instead they create an expensive creative distraction. That's now allowed them to upgrade all the softwares while still appeasing the "security" mandated.

In the end- I'm downloading snapchat now after a long break to see what I've missed. To see how far "we've" come, or if I've come to a point where I just question even more. Plus I want to see live action porn.

My criticism of Volumes is not one of playing ability but taste. I enjoyed the parts that sounded "djent" but the rest wasn't to my liking. There are a couple of good tracks on here but if you were looking for another Meshuggah or Animals As Leaders this is not going to do it for you. A band with potential though.

I absolutely love Mr. Klosterman’s most recent books: I Wear the Black Hat, But What If We’re Wrong?, and X. Because of that, I’ve been going back through his early work with mixed results. The main problem with his early work: immaturity. Even though he writes about interesting topics and has some very clever ideas which he will expand upon in later years, he presents himself in a way that makes it difficult to think of him as any more than a typical music/movie/pop culture critic.

Any yet, as I read this, I couldn’t help but notice how many of the essays here feel right on target for today even though they were written more than 15 years ago. As I was watching a recent World Cup game I was also reading his take on soccer in “George Will Vs. Nick Hornby”. I may not agree with his feelings on soccer but I loved his connection of youth soccer to his experience of youth baseball. This very funny essay is spot on about what parents actually want when they send their youngsters to a sports league.

As a fellow member of GenX, I was taken with his analysis of The Empire Strikes Back as the seminal film of our youth in “Sulking with Lisa Loeb on the Ice Planet Hoth. (Reality Bites is the film of our young adulthood, apparently.) His discussion of serial killers via the three people he knows who know serial killers (“This Is Zodiac Speaking”) hints at some of his future writing. After the recent murders of 5 people at the Capital Gazette newspaper, his insights into journalism in “All I Know Is What I Read in the Papers” is as appropriate today as ever.

In fact, I could go through each essay in this book and find something positive to say. Of course, some things he says are dated. (I doubt he would name check Charlie Rose today.) I also found the “interludes” mostly annoying. However, the most annoying thing is the adolescent tone he takes from time to time, particularly about drinking, drug-taking, and his relationships with women. That said, there wasn’t an essay here that I didn’t enjoy and find something interesting.

I suspect the Mr. Kosterman might be depressed to think that his recent work is “mature”. He probably has a great nostalgic love for that hard drinking, drug-taking, rock ‘n’ roll young writer he used to be. I can respect that. Still, there are two important things to note here. First, in the essays in this book you can see the themes that are going to make him ultimately rise above the crowd of his contemporaries. Second, he is a much better writer (and thinker) now. That doesn’t make this book any less worthwhile.

At his best, Klosterman offers witty, funny, creative commentary on pop-culture. He's like the guy at a party who never stops talking about frivolous crap, yet, through the frivolity, he occasionally manages to produce some surprisingly profound insights into society and the human condition. He's like People Magazine for college students.

The essays are quick, entertaining, sometimes insightful, but I wouldn't go out of my way to read Klosterman again.

Some favorite quotes:

On coolness:
"The desire to be cool is--ultimately--the desire to be rescued. It's the desire to be pulled from the unwashed masses of society. It's the desire to be advanced beyond the faceless humanoid robots who will die unheralded deaths and never truly matter, mostly because they all lived the same pedestrian life. Without the spoils of exclusionary coolness, we're just cogs in the struggle."

On the equality of the sexes:
"For the past twenty-five years, culture has been obsessed with making males and females more alike, and that's fine. Maybe it's even enlightened. But what I've noticed--at least among young people--is that this convergence has mostly just prompted females to adopt the worst qualities of men. It's like girls are trying to attain equality by becoming equally shallow and selfish."

On kids:
"The nicest thing you can say about children is that they haven't done anything terrible yet."

I was somewhat hesitant going into Chuck Klosterman's "Sex, Drugs, and Cocoa Puffs." Some have claimed him to be the best culture essayist of our time; other denounce him as being little more than a smug hipster troll with nothing important to say. Would I enjoy his work, or would I find his writing similar to actual cereal: cheap, airy, unsatisfying, and devoid of any real content? The only way to know for sure was to dive into this slim volume and decide for myself.

I'm glad to say that I loved Klosterman's offbeat selection of essays. Yes, he gets somewhat hipster-y from time to time, enough to repel a number of readers (as evident by the negative "Most Helpful" reviews), but I didn't pick up on the classic levels of smugness or pretension that define the worst of the hipster archetype. In fact, there's a lot of self-deprecation and awareness of his shortcomings as a person, enough to where I did not pick up on any kind of true grandiosity or condescension -- if there is any of that in his essays, it's usually exaggerated for comic effect.

This is an incredibly funny book; many parts of it had me laughing out loud, and I would frequently read excerpts to other people to share in the humor. It's also very well-written and thought-provoking, which is impressive given some of the subjects Klosterman chooses to write about: I will admit that I have never closely analyzed topics like "The Real World," The Sims, or Pamela Anderson, but I really enjoyed considering these as important and relevant issues to the culture of this generation.

Bottom-line: This was a great book. If you enjoyed the lovely, challenging, and quirky non-fiction prose in David Foster Wallace's "A Supposedly Fun Thing I'll Never Do Again," you'll probably enjoy what Chuck Klosterman writes in this collection. I will definitely be looking out for his other non-fiction books in the future.

For his second book Sex, Drugs and Cocoa puffs: A Low Culture Manifesto, Klosterman put together what is basically a collection of pop-culture based short essays in which he investigates American culture for the most part, and himself. In his first effort, Fargo Rock City the book was more or less linear and felt more united whereas this is a collection of essays that still shows unity to each other because they're all about the same thing essentially, pop culture. I always thought that the way he got through was by demonstrating a point relating it to his personal life, whether he uses the band KISS or MTV's The Real World TV show it works, make us think or laugh to ourselves and comes across as effective. Most of Klosterman's books are at the core of it all, an examination of society through social and cultural events that may or may not be of some relevance to you, yet the author manages to constantly make good points and references. There's just a real honesty about Chuck that makes him sympathetic as an author and that also makes you want to like him as a person which is ultimately his strong point (and his willingness to give readers details about his personal life also helps).

Some of the content may seem a little outdated by now because of changing times but some of the topics he covers are interesting and for the most part, reflective of pop culture or society at that point and that makes it relevant in itself. Personally, I can still relate or remember most of what is the book. Not everyone has played Sims or seen The Real World, but through Chuck's prose we understand them and the way he uses those pop culture references to examine either society, himself, or whoever it is he's talking about is always from an intelligent, well thought angle. He certainly provides enough to prove his points. The Pamela Anderson/Marilyn Monroe piece was somewhat striking and the angle he has on them and their impact on culture if you will, was dead onI don't think he will make every reader gain an appreciation for Billy Joel or that I agree entirely with his essay on the man but it doesn't mean it's not enjoyable and that he doesn't have strong points, kinda like most of the book come to think of it. Like how he compares the 1987 Lakers and Celtics to the Democrat and Republican parties respectively, it's just a fun angle he has and it's entertaining.

It's not my favorite out of Klosterman's work but it's still a readable, fun, clever effort. I think the biggest problem is that although those essays are in their own ways all funny and good reads that make you evaluate society and how people think, Sex Drugs and Cocoa Puffs isn't as effective as it could or should have been. Instead of linking the essays together or making them cohesive with each other so that we get the bigger picture, we have for the most part a collection of well-written essays but unrelated to each other. Unfortunately it reads as such because they're all clearly separated from each other and. But with that said, it's still an entertaining read and Chuck remains as witty and clever as ever . This time around the topics are not just music related and the author's pop-culture scope is expended which adds another dimension to Chuck's writing.

Klosterman himself in one his presentations on reading in North Dakota said that this was from an objective possibly his worst, because it was rushed and contradicted itself at times (like when he says that Pamela Anderson was the 1990's Marilyn Monroe and then proceeds to explain why but tells us that he hates when people compare the two, if that makes sense) etc. Yet it's also his best-selling work and many people enjoy it, and so do I. It's flawed but brilliant and if you're into Chuck's prose and his other books you'll love this one as well. If you're new to Chuck's work or something about pop-culture, it's still a good book but perhaps not the one I would start with. As a concept of a collection of cultural essays, Sex, Drugs and Cocoa Puffs works rather well and some of the points explained through pop-culture are undeniably brilliant or at least engage the reader. As I said it's probably not as effective as some of his other work (at least to me) because although the content is good and interesting, the content is similar but not connected so it really feels as if you're reading a collection of essays. Pop culture junkies will find a lot to like here; I like it very much myself and it's a good read. Much of the ideas Klosterman proposes are still engraved in my head and have made for interesting conversation topics and debates. Not his finest, although some would disagree with me but I'd say it's worth it. 3 ½ stars.

Most attempts at addressing popular culture tend to follow the Aldous Huxley snobbery and the standard bearer of Amusing Ourselves to Death: Public Discourse in the Age of Show Business in which everything is looked upon with suspicion as part of a low culture that is rapidly turning everyone stupid. This makes sense as many of the academics discussing popular culture make their money from an elitism that allows their readers to think that they are smarter than the vulgar herds and the dirty underclass. Click your tongue in disgust at Jerry Springer and you're halfway to tenure. Place Jerry Springer and shows like The Wire: The Complete Series under the same rubric and you are serious. Forget the fact that Shakespeare, Dickens, The Bronte Sisters and Charlie Parker were all once considered vulgar pop culture (the last by Aldous Huxley who hated jazz even as he wrote tedious books).

In this scene, it's still a novelty to find a critic that takes pop culture seriously. Everything Bad is Good for You: How Today's Popular Culture is Actually Making Us Smarter comes under sharp attack (by English teachers who can't write and rely way too heavily on "social science"-inspired studies of dubious merit) for stating television, video games, etc. are actually beneficial. Smart Web sites like The AV Club are shuffled aside. And pop culture critics like Nathan Rabin and Chuck Klosterman are more often dismissed as hipsters than taken seriously.

This would be a shame as Klosterman is a hilarious and insightful writer. Some of his targets are pretty soft (like blaming his love life and the love life of every guy who has ever held on to a hopeless crush because friends do end up together on When Harry Met Sally) and some of them have the air of "are you kidding me?" (such as his chapter on The Real World where he happily supports the use of incidental music to announce the emotions that you are supposed to be feeling in every segment) but for every easy joke or strange observation, there are dozens of instances of insights so profound that they completely change the way you look at the artwork. Some of my personal favorites include the one about how Woody Allen gave nerdy guys a chance with hot women and how the fact that Billy Joel divorced the woman that he's singing about in "Just the Way You Are" is awesome because it means that no matter how much you think you might never love another, you are wrong.

This is an excellent and intelligent book about pop culture that will survive long after several of the subjects are forgotten.

I had recently read 'I Wear the Black Hat,' another Klosterman essay collection, and I had enjoyed it so I decided to revisit his other books of essay compilations. This is the first book I started with since I remember it being the very first Chuck Klosterman book I had ever read. Somewhere in the middle of the book, though, I realized I wasn't enjoying it as much as the first time around. Don't get me wrong, I'm not saying I started hating the book completely; I still think Klosterman is intelligent and funny, and writes about a lot of topics that I'm either interested in or were interested in at some point in my life. The one aspect of this book that kind of turned me off to it was the fact that Klosterman kept everything at arm's length--he never admitted to liking anything or hating anything either. In his essay on Billy Joel he admits to liking many of his songs, but he also makes fun of him for being uncool. He has also taken the time to watch just about every single 'Saved By the Bell' episode, and then goes on to spend pages deconstructing the show, but at no point does he admit to actively liking the show. Same goes for the 'Real World.' He has watched multiple seasons of this show, yet it's clear he doesn't think it's that good of a show. I could go on, but you should see my point.

And I completely understand that he's using these pop culture touchstones in order to say something about our culture at large, but I still couldn't believe how he could be so ambivalent about everything he wrote about when he had evidently taken a lot of time to familiarize himself with all these subjects. I think this is the main reason why the people that don't like this book think he comes off like a douche. He makes it seem like he's above everything he writes about. Thankfully, I think that's only really true when it comes to this book. It's been about six months since I finished it, but I don't remember 'I Wear the Black Hat' having this problem; I am also currently reading 'Chuck Klosterman IV,' and finding that essay collection far superior because it still retains his sense of humor but drops most of the pretentiousness that I detected in this book.

What's interesting is that while Klosterman possesses an air of superiority over the topics he writes about, when it comes to writing about himself he does so with plenty of self-deprecation. He admits that he's weird and funny-looking, and doesn't shy away from telling a story about getting fired. There's a really funny bit in the book where Klosterman posits that the chance of anything happening is 50/50. What are the odds that you'll die of cancer next year? Or what are the odds that you'll win the lottery? The odds for either scenario coming true are 50/50 since either it will happen or it won't, simple as that. Well, 50/50 is basically how I felt after finishing this book: Some of it I liked and some of it I didn't.

Reading Klosterman is like drinking at a frat party late one night and finding yourself engaged in a heated debate with a know-it-all pop culture geek. I share many of the author's interests, but I disagree with most of his opinions. In spite of these differences I find his writing to be engrossing.

In "Sex, Drugs, and Cocoa Puffs", author Chuck Klosterman sets about tipping many of the sacred cows of his A-D-D generation with a collection of essays on topics like the Simms, Saved by the Bell, Guns and Roses tribute bands, Billy Joel's coolness (or the lack thereof), The Empire Strikes Back, the Celtics/Lakers rivalry, porn, and little league baseball.

My personal favorite of the lot is titled "What Happens when People Stop Being Polite." It's about MTV's reality show "The Real World" that began in the summer of'92. Unless you were too young, didn't have cable, or lived in a cave, there was no escaping this show twenty years ago. I would tune in to try to catch a little "Enter Sandman" or Soundgarden's latest offering and TRW would inevitable be on. Klosterman contends that "The Real World" caused a whole generation of young Americans to try to morph themselves into the role of one of the seven strangers picked to live together on the show. Face it, we all know at least one Puck.

I'm a pretty jaded dude, but "Sex, Drugs, and Cocoa Puffs" made me laugh out loud a few times. If you came of age during the late 80's-early 90's, this book is a must read for you. It will help you gain insight on why our generation is going to be ultimately responsible for the coming Armageddon.

Sometimes I read or purchase a book simply because of the title. That's how I discovered the writings of Don Miller (PRAYER AND THE ART OF VOLKSWAGON MAINTENANCE) and that's how I discovered the writings of Chuck Klosterman. I was browsing through a bookstore at the airport in Portland, Oregon waiting for my departure time to draw near. I had already read the book I had brought with me on the trip here and now I needed something to read on the way home. What to do, what to do. And then I saw this quirky little title, SEX, DRUGS, AND COCOA PUFFS. "Cool title," I thought and I bought the book.

SEX, DRUGS, AND COCOA PUFFS isn't quite like any other book I've ever read. I've read essays on pop culture (heck, I've even written a few myself) and I've read books that contained several essays about pop culture. However, this is an entire book of essays about pop culture. Not only that, but each aspect of the culture that is examined isn't something that is normally even discussed. When one understands that and then also realizes that each essay either evokes some deeper understanding of reality or has an important point to make, then one begins to see how great a book SEX, DRUGS, AND COCOA PUFFS is.

Klosterman examines such ideas in this book as why even though Billy Joel is great he will never be cool, why Pamela Anderson is the post-modern Marilyn Monroe, how WHEN HARRY MET SALLY has screwed up more men and women and their relationships than any other romantic movie in cinema history, the differences between Laker people and Celtic people and why it’s important to know the difference, how THE EMPIRE STRIKES BACK is a representation of what it means to be a Gen-Xer, and why even though SAVED BY THE BELL was one of the most un-realistic tv shows ever made it portrayed a very realistic concept about modern life. In pontificating and deconstructing these various aspects of our culture, Klosterman uses plenty of very personal stories that help tie things together. Of course, along the way he also throws in allusions from everything to ALLY McBEAL to THE DARK CRYSTAL to Guns N' Roses to MOMENTO and Radiohead and uses some really big words such as "iconoclast", "byzantine", "rapscallion", "solipsism", and "voracity". I found this vocabulary invigorating, but some might be turned off by it and think that Klosterman is purposely trying to be ironic--writing about things that people never normally write about but using big words in those writings to come up with some pretty amazing conclusions. To be honest, I find very little in this book to be ironic. Instead, I find it to be a very fascinating and extremely interesting read. Highly recommended for self-proclaimed "geeks" everywhere.

I couldn't help picking up Chuck Klosterman's Sex, Drugs, and Cocoa Puffs: A Low Culture Manifesto (Now With A Middle). I first became acquainted with the writing of Klosterman in his columns for Esquire magazine-he is always funny and interesting in his digressions of pop culture. He tackles everything from cereal, porn, video games (Simms City), sports (the Boston Celtics/LA Lakers rivalry as a means of self determination-why soccer is lame), music (the non-ironic virtues of Billy Joel, the travails of a Guns& Roses Tribute band, why country music will outlast other types of music), TV (extensive analysis of Saved By The Bell and The Real World), celebrities (why Pamela Anderson tells us who we are), generational analysis (Gen X and its relation to Star Wars, the unrealistic model of maleness in Lloyd Dobler-a character from the movie Say Anything), pop fascination with serial killers, the misconception of a biased media, the unusual world of rock critics, and religion (on the popularity of the Left Behind series of Christian novels. Most of this is quite entertaining, especially if you were born in between 1965-1975. I found myself laughing out loud a lot, but sometimes I was wondered if he really believes all of his cockamamie theories-because it sounds funny or ridiculous. However, several of the essays contain a certain logic. So in some ways the essays can be quite thought provoking. Here's a tidbit about how mass media affects relationships:

" Pundits are always blaming TV for making people stupid, movies for desensitizing the world to violence, and rock music for making kids take drugs and kill themselves. These things should be the least of our worries. The Main problem with mass media is that it makes it impossible to fall in love with any acumen of normalcy. There is no "normal," because everybody is being twisted by the same sources simultaneously. You can't compare your relationship with the playful couple who lives next, because they're probably modeling themselves after Chandler Bing and Monica Geller. Real People are actively trying to live like fake people, so real people are no les fake. Every comparison becomes impractical. This is why impractical has become totally acceptable; impracticality almost seems cool. The best relationship I ever had was with a journalist who was as crazy as me, and some of our coworkers like to compare us to Sid Vicious and Nancy Spungeon. At the time, I used to think, "Yeah, that's completely valid: We fight all the time, our love is self-destructive, and-if she was mysteriously killed-I'm sure I'd be wrongly arrested for second-degree murder before dying from an overdose in her parents' basement." We even watched Sid & Nancy in her parents' basement and giggled the whole time. "That's us," we said gleefully. And that was the best relationship I ever had. And I suspect it was the best one she ever had, too."

At any rate, a fun, easy and entertaining read.

I have purchased this book four, yes four, different times. Three paperback versions and an audiobook version. The explanation for this is simple, I lent out my first copy, purchased here at the store many moons ago, read it, adored it, and started telling all my friends about it. I eventually lent it out, and that friend loved it so much that they just never returned it. I asked for it a few times, forgot about it and didn't think about it again until I wanted to reread it. So yeah...that's happened three times with three different friends. You could say I need new friends, but honestly, the book is so good that I'm kind of happy to take the hit and spread the love. It's a book for everyone, but ESPECIALLY if you're in your late 20's or early 30's. There is a lot of 90's references for good nostolgia. Just do it. Just buy the book and thank me later. Happy reading!

This book was profoundly boring. The entire crux of the book is the author just talking about "stuff." I'm very confused by what you should take away from the book, or why it would be worth the reader's time. Perhaps if you're familiar with every obscure piece of pop culture you can enjoy it, but like another reviewer writes, I just don't know the references. In most of the essays I feel like my understanding of the theme relies on the references. In addition, his writing style is extremely abrasive. I can't shake the feeling that he thinks himself better than his reader and is subtly speaking down to me. I just can't find any pleasure in reading it. Sure, one or two of the essays made me laugh a bit, but as a whole I feel this collection fails to make its point.

A very enjoyable series of essays about pop-culture from a smart, clever, angry, and extremely talented writer who is a self-confessed junkie of all things Gen-X, Gen-Y, hipster, geekdom, nerdsville and otherwise.

"Billy Sim" dissects the computer gaming phenom of The Sims; "Appetite for Repetition" takes an up-close-and-personal view of a Guns-n-Roses tribute band; "Being Zack Morris" explores the odd cultural obsession with "Saved By The Bell"; and 15 variously-themed essays delve into not only the psyche of Klosterman but, by extension, the psyche of America.

In the trade paperback version, there are extra nuggets of Chuck-mania -- after each chapter, a quick shot of dialogue, banter, or, in the case of "23 Questions I Ask To Decide if I Can Really Love Them" (following Chapter 10) a hilarious, freaked-out rorshach test for the morally ambiguous. Not all the essays hit the mark, but the majority do, so a definite recommend. Cintra Wilson's book "A Massive Swelling: Celebrity Re-examined As A Grotesque Crippling Disease and Other Cultural Revelations" is funnier and wittier by far, but Klosterman works in a slightly separate universe that is equally satisfying.

This book of various essays on pop culture is nearly priceless. Klosterman finds so much relevance in so many throw away items in items in pop culture at times its astonishing. And hilarious. I never thought Saved By the Bell or MTV's Real World could inspire even an interesting paragraph, but Klosterman finds a way to show the significance of these items at the same time conceding their banality in two excellent essays. It's very impressive.

The essay on breakfast cereal was completely mindless, and completely laugh out loud funny, especially the descriptions of the socialogy and psychology of various cartoon characters in breakfast cereal ads.

Klosterman will take positions you'd never think he'd defend, like describing the brilliance of Billy Joel. I can barely tolerate this artist, but Klosterman has made me reconsider him, and frankly, he was about the last person I'd expect to do this. Nor does he take himself too seriously, as he describes his attendance at a Pop Music Conference for academics and music critics, which he totally skewers, even though he readily admits the conference is made for people like him.

And sprinkled through the book are some very insightful comments and insights about the human experience. And Klosterman clearly exposes his personal weaknesses throughout.

Is it perfect? No. There are moments where Klosterman comes across like somebody drunk or stoned at a party who thinks he knows it all, and clearly doesn't. Not all of the essays are great. A comparison between Marilyn Monroe and Pamela Anderson as the representative sexpots of their generation isn't anywhere near as profound as Klosterman thinks it is, and is about twice as long as it should be. And the chapter slamming soccer is a pointless, claiming that his experience as a youth baseball coach made him realize how soccer has failed in America. Uh-huh.

Let me digress that in the United States, many go to endless lengths to say why soccer in un-American, or fails to capture are collective interest, or will fail as a sport, when the fact of the matter is, the just don't get it. In other countries, people will freely admite they "don't get" baseball or American football, but Americans feel we need to go to endless lengths to avoid saying "I don't get soccer". You might say Klosterman inspired me to write this commentary on his commentary.

But ANYWAY, read this book, laugh a lot, look at the world a different way, and enjoy a few nuggets of wisdom.

I thought this insightful and hilarious commentary on modern sociocultural life was so great! From the beginning where he (rightfully) blames Coldplay for ruining the average person's concept of love to the end where he notices how the Left Behind series just reminds us that most of us will never reach heaven by their strict regulations and everything in the middle (The Empire Strikes back sets the tone for a life of disappointment, a Guns and Roses cover band, the Real World sectioning the population into 7 distinct personality types, and my personal favorite, an obsession with serial killers) is literarily stimulating, thought provoking, and hilarious. I wish this guy was my best friend. The book starts off stronger than it ends, but this I think is more a mistake in layout than in the essays in the book. Every chapter makes me smile and want to call my friends and read it to them. I've had several friends ask to borrow it, and after learning how long the list is, went ahead and bought their own copy, and are damn glad they did so.

Although he covers wildly varied topics, Chuck Klosterman's lively, stylish collection of essays speaks for and largely to one generation: Gen X. The author focuses not just on pop culture, but instead on pop culture's detritus. He doesn't discuss the best pop culture products. Rather, he covers the random bits and pieces that interest him. Some of these subjects merit his attention, such as popular television shows like The Real World, which have shaped later genres. Some of the other topics to which Klosterman turns his intelligence, ready wit (and occasionally profane tongue) are less obviously relevant - such as the meaning of breakfast cereal ads. He would argue that it doesn't matter, that everything in a society is connected and every part of popular culture tells us something about the way of life that produced it. Even so, you could still debate just what these specific items communicate - and while Klosterman's conclusions are always entertaining, many of them are highly debatable. In the areas such as music and celebrity journalism, where he is deeply experienced, his conclusions are more convincing and his ideas are most interesting. In other areas where he seems to spin positions from a more limited perspective, he is intriguing, but much less convincing. Despite this mixed menu and mixed perspective, we recommend this clever manuscript to pleasure readers who want a fun ride through pop land and to serious readers who are trying to understand the Gen X mindset.

Considering the subject matter, this book could have been a lot worse than it was. Now this doesn't sound like much of a compliment, but in my mind it is. The ability to draw interesting conclusions from the analysis of Billy Joel and Saved By The Bell alone is worthy of appreciation. Although portions of this work are a bit tedious, much (if not most) of it are very worthwhile.

My favorite chapter is the one featuring the analysis of the Empire Strikes Back as the basis for the stereotypical Gen-Xer. We are a generation of whiny Lukes, Chuck opines, overeducated idealists who can't seem to shake off their confusion about where their lives are headed. The line: "essentially, Luke went to the University of Degobah with a major is Buddhist philosophy and a minor in physical education" has to be one of the most hilarious things I have read.

The point is, there are pearls of wisdom here, moments that make you (or me at least) sit upright and say "yes!! that is so true!" What I wonder is whether this book will have much value at all to those who do not have the shared experiences Chuck is describing. In a sense, this "manifesto" is for insiders only. Sections covering areas of less interest to me (Sims, for example) were harder for me to grasp.

But that is small stuff. What we have here is a sharply-written collection of essays finding meaning where none is easily discernable. Genius? No. But for some of us, it's likely to be the most fun book we'll read in years.

I usually make note of brilliant and memorable lines from the books I read. In the case of Klostermans manifesto, I'd essentially be photocopying the entire book if I wanted to capture every brilliant insight and hilarious witticism. Klosterman attacks every topic under the sun, and he states his random philosophies as absolute fact. He expounds on subjects endlessly, tying together outrageous theories about every aspect of pop culture.

Klosterman as a music and culture critic is entirely love-it or hate-it. Read the first essay before you buy this book, and if it grabs you, you're in for a treat.

On p 182 Klosterman discusses hitchhiking. He states he was told never to hitchhike because drivers who pick up hitchikers are serial killers. Then he was told that all hitchhikers were serial killers. "According to what I learned in public school, every person on the freeway was trolling for destruction. I used to imagine nomadic, sadistic drifters thumbing rides with bloodthirsty Volkswagen drivers, both desperately waiting for the first opportunity to kill eachother. Hitchiking seemed like an ultraviolent race against time."

Chuck Klosterman makes an interesting arguement in the introduction to his book "Sex, Drugs, and Cocoa Puffs". He states that pop culture in many ways is connected, and proceeds to attempt several essays which each relate an appreciation of what most people would kindly refer to as "crap". Sometimes this reliance on pop culture references can be too cute for its own good, and there will be some moments when you wonder why Mr. Klosterman is not currently residing in a mental ward.

Things get off to a promising start, with an examination of why real relationships cannot live up to the fictional representation of such films as "When Harry Met Sally" and "Say Anything". The essay sets up Klosterman's usual set-up for each piece: a long paragraph or two about something slightly related to the main topic, then a sudden and revealing link to the main topic. In other words, the type of essay you're supposed to write for creative writing class. The fact is, sometimes Klosterman's tangents are intriguing. But after a while, you might find yourself wondering why the hell he went through all that to get to the main point of discussion.

As other reviewers have pointed out, some essays feel like perfectly-constructed examples of pitch-perfect expositions on such topics as "The Empire Strikes Back", "Saved By The Bell", and serial killers (as well as a drop-dead hilarious piece on the existential dread of cartoon ceral pitchmen). Other times, though, they seem to be magazine articles culled to fill out the required length of the book (the Guns and Roses cover band essay would not be out of place in "Spin", where Klosterman is employed, but it seems to not quite fit despite being about something less than reality). All in all, it's a typical case of good essays sometimes being hidden between odd or just plain "bad" pieces. It's the same with any essay collections for the most part.

Klosterman's most interesting piece is the "Empire" one, which posits it as the inspiration for much of Gen X culture's outlook. To think about it, he has a point: the bad guy wins, the main hero doesn't win because he rejects his parent's way of life, and everything that could go bad does. The last piece, about the rise of "Left Behind" and Kirk Cameron in contemporary Christian circles, avoids the typically lazy bashing that most other writers use when approaching this subject. He points out that, up to a point, they are to be admired (he points the the moment when that admiration should end, however).

Klosterman also offers insight into the media that argues bias on either side of the political spectrum is trumped by the desire to sell papers, sports journalists slowly grow to hate their professions because of atheletes and fans, and newspapers are programmed for illiterates. He makes some good points that should be considered in any journalism classes.

Chuck Klosterman puts himself and his tastes out there, and you have to respect that whether you agree or not (Ken Tucker is particularly and oddly viscious about Klosterman in his own book about TV). His writing is bold, incisive, and best taken as the ravings of a slightly mad person who nonetheless sees a lot of meaning in things that most other people take for granted. "Sex, Drugs, and Cocoa Puffs" is sometimes too cute in its assumptions, but it makes up for that by being unfailingly fun to read. And that's really all you could ask of a book that discusses the ethical dilemmas of Zack Morris or whether John Cusack should apologize for raising the collective expectations of the world's women. There's plenty to enjoy in Chuck Klosterman's work, and you might find yourself looking differently at culture once you finish it.

This was my first experience with Chuck Klosterman and, man, this guy has a lot to say. His writing style is conversational, introspective and manic. He seems to pick two non-similar contemporary items (cereal, sex, for example) and just gets into a frenzy. Fortunately, he is a great writer. He is not some blogger hack that likes to rant. He can really write! He has had work published in was a staff writer for various publications including Spin, Esquire, GQ, The New York Times Magazine, The Believer, and The Washington Post.

One of my favorite essays is entitled "George Will vs. Nick Hornby." He answers the often repeated question, "why is soccer not as popular in America as other countries." Great question. It seem like every ten years or so a columnist cites some statistics that indicate youth partition in soccer is never higher and this is the harbinger of a new wave of soccer fanaticism in USA. However, as always, TV. viewership of soccer matches is abysmal. What happened to all those little kids that played soccer? Klsoterman nails it. Basically, they were MADE to play soccer by mommies that want them to participate in sports. By the time they are old enough to choose their own hobbies, they hate soccer and never care to see a match again in their lives. In America, soccer has always been the sport that kids play that aren't good enough to play the other sports. As Klosteman more eloquently puts it: "To say you love soccer is to say you believe in enforced equality more than you believe in the value of competition and the capacity of the human spirit." Kids that play soccer are the outcasts of others sports, therefore, "Mr. Pele's hopeless dystopia" will never be popular in America. Great stuff. Some of other questions that Klosterman poses and answers are:

How is bland breakfast cereal related to our puritanical repressed sexuality?
Why do sports writers hate athletes?
Why are celebrities hard to interview?
Why have reality shows turned real people into clichés?
How can a tribute band function in real society?

He is the king of the divergent thinking as he seems to make connections among everything. Even the design of the book is a metaphor. The content is a mishmash of articles he wrote for various publications; kind of greatest hits, or more accurately, a mixed tape. At his best, Klosterman's writings encompass his love-hate relationship with reality. His stories often describe a coming to awareness by himself (for example his story about creating an avatar on SIMS and trying to make him happy) or of others (life as a member in a Guns n' Roses tribute band). He approaches contemporary cultural topics with humor (spiced with hilarity) and intelligence (with spurts of genius).

Since cracking open the spine of David Sedaris' Naked, I have had a newfound love for the art of the essay. A friend loaned me this copy, with the advice, "Just wait till you get to the Zack Morris part!" Despite my temptation, I did read the essays in consecutive order. And overall, this is a funny collection - yes, the Zack Morris essay was definitely my favorite, but I also enjoyed the large section of hypothetical questions. The book is definitely heavy on MTV's Real World references, which didn't interest me as much as Saved By The Bell. I found the collection to be a bit uneven, with some essays definitely stealing the limelight more than others - like the one on the "serial killer connections"! It will be interesting to see what other topics Klostermann will tackle.

This is an interesting book for people in their twenties. Though taking pop culture references and tying those to societal behavior is nothing new, Klosterman sometimes intelligently places real and intense thoughts about subjects that weren't meant to be dissected socially. He goes into how the Sims, Saved by the Bell, the 80s Lakers-Celtics rivalry all represent or influence society in one form or another. This book contains 18 disjointed, unrelated chapters explaining Klosterman's view of random popular culture phenomenons.

The good part about this book is that at some points it's smart and hilarious at the same time. Klosterman's view on Soccer and why neither he nor America will ever accept is worth the price of the book alone. The first half of the book is far superior in that you'll find yourself laughing at loud (like I did on a plane). If you had part of your life influenced by random and useless things like toys or television shows when you were a kid, then this sort of sheds light on how minute items can influence anyone.

There are two bad parts about this book though. Since he devotes a chapter to a random idea based on an aspect of culture, you'd be somewhat interested in that aspect. He went on a giant tirade about how classical country music is better than modern Nashville country music. Not only did I not care about that genre of music, I was unaware of the division of classical and modern country, nor did I really want to know about such a division. The worst part of this book is that he does a lot of useless explaining of random facts in detail that really aren't intriguing, funny or interesting, and doesn't incorporate these long winded details to anything noteworthy. In the chapter where he describes religious fanatics, he gives a boring and long summary of a religious movie for almost no reason. The second half of the book is really chalked full of such useless information and provides nothing interesting, funny or thought provoking at all.

By the way, there is hardly any mention of Sex, Drugs, or even Cocoa Puffs in this book.

All in all, it's interesting and unique, but the latter chapters were so dull that it left a dull taste in my mouth. There were some great chapters, but the inconsistency just makes it an average book at best.

And that "certain generation" includes me. I think Klosterman is maybe one year younger than me, so I understood virtually all his pop-culture references. The Sims, Saved by the Bell, The Real World, Lloyd Dobler. If you don't know what any of these are, you probably should skip this book. If you do, you should probably read it.

I've never read anything by Klosterman before, but I don't know why. I laughed through the whole book. I see some people didn't like the ending chapters, but one of my favorite sections was actually near the end, on what you should really be afraid of in terms of the media (hint: it's not the "liberal media" bias everyone talks about). I wanted to copy that section and send it to at least 5 of my friends.

Also great, though not particularly unique, is his view on why people today have unsatisfying relationships. I've long held similar theories (that we're constantly bombarded by unrealistic ideals of love through movies/music/television), but he presents it better and funnier than I ever could.

Do I think, say, my mom would enjoy this book? No. Do I want to give a copy of it to all my friends? Yes.

Now, you and I both know that the phrase 'philosopher' gets thrown around much too much these days. Anyone with an idea about life is instantly branded as such, even though they do not really deserve it, which is not to say that there are less intelligent or skilled, they just are not philosophers, people doing battle with man's very purpose and exsisitence and drive (see KRS-ONE). That said, Chuck Klosterman is a philospher. If Socrates had the question "What is justice?" then Klosterman has "What is coolness?" Sure, at first that sounds silly, but think about it: can you actually define coolness? I strongly doubt it (no offense). Is it merely being liked? Is it follwing trends or breaking away from them? Klosterman struggles with these questions, analyzing various aspects of soceity to do so (nothing is too minute or too big for him to take on, be it the Trix Rabbit as a William S. Burroughs/Christ figure, the coolness of born-again Christians, or how the 80's NBA rivalry between the Celtics and the Lakers explains everything that needs explaning). In between each essay (which are, for no stated reason, deemed 'tracks' like they would be on an CD), Klosterman offers little vignettes from his life, some no more than two paragraphs, some a couple pages long. They add to Klosterman's own personal identity. Of course, I've totally ignored his humor up till now. The man is freaking hysterical, no if's and's or but's about it. So in conclusion: but this book. It's the best new writing you'll get your hands on in a while.

Mr. Klosterman opens by stating that no woman will ever satisfy him. By the end, he's put down half of America, wants to punch Magic Johnson, slams cover bands plus Kid Rock, and even takes a jab at Jenny McCarthy (but who can blame him on this last point!). Mr. Klosterman is a very angry man; he would say he's honest, I would say he's angry. In his defense, he's a very good writer, who's analytical, has an interesting take on things, and has a creative way of expressing himself. Overall, this is actually a pretty entertaining read that I also found a bit unpleasant due to his vitriol. Author of Adjust Your Brain: A Practical Theory for Maximizing Mental Health.

I have a 30 yo barely single professional son. He says this book is his Bible - so I read it. What better way to find out who or what this boy worships?

Klosterman is an entertaining writer, serving up a unique critique of post-modern popular culture. Although each essay contains a major theme, over 400 individual entries are in the index - songs, movies, personalities from all entertainment venues, sitcoms, concepts, rock bands, periodicals, organizations, events - even a little religion thrown in for the "Left Behind" crowd.

*Billy Joel is popular because he's so good, he doesn't have to be cool - whereas the usual rock band doesn't have to be exceptional if they are consistently cool.

*Our author got fired from being a Little League baseball coach one high school summer for trying too hard to win. I'm just impressed when a high school kid takes on that kind of responsibility - but you may have to consider an "enhancement factor" for this story.

*excerpts about self-delusion, evolutionary psychology, and philosophy - without the formal terminology, especially in his bit about Woody Allen. He wouldn't be interested in a girl uncool enough to be interested in him.

*tribute to Guns 'N Roses as he travels with a band trying to duplicate their songs and general funk.

*instructions on how to be a conversationalist (he has enough material for three dates only): "First, make an intellectual concession (makes listener comfortable). Next, make a completely incomprehensible but remarkably specific 'cultural accusation' (makes you insightful). Finally, end the dialogue by interjecting slang lexicon that does not necessarily exist (makes you contemporary). Example: When talking about sports: I mean, come on - you just know that Rodney Rogers is sitting in the locker room before every game reading Nietzsche, and he's totally thinking to himself, "If Ron Artest tries to step to me one more time, I'm gonna slap jack his brisket, Philly style."

A pervasive nihilistic attitude runs through this book - the angst of single yuppy-hood, deliciously judgemental, documenting the rites of final passage toward marriage, responsibility, and adulthood. I liked it.

Chuck Klosterman's essays strike a chord with me, and most likely with a number of people between the ages of 25-35. He talks about life and the meaning and condition of life as reflected in the various forms of entertainment we have absorbed throughout our lives.
There will be something for you to latch onto and other things to disagree with in each essay. Each is similar to topics of conversation at every bar or cocktail party in America. The only frustrating thing is that it's a book, not a dialogue.
Because many books of essays are thoroughly new and educational to me, I am content to sit back and read them and let them teach me. But Klosterman's essays are like the conversations I have with people almost on a daily basis. I am not used to having to sit still and listen to someone's theories on the Real World and how it has changed our lives and the way we see ourselves without being able to respond in kind.
However, that's also the satisfying thing about these essays. Whether you love Coldplay or hate them, whether you think being a Celtic fan is an expression of your Reagan-era conservatism, or if playing the Sims has ever sparked existential thoughts, or it's just about buying new stuff or torturing your simulated alter ego, in other words, whether you agree with Klosterman's expostulations on his subjects or not, you will at least be sparked to think about these things.
By that I mean not just thinking about Saved by the Bell, or Lloyd Dobler or the Real World. I mean thinking about whether in this day and age we can ever be satisfied with a relationship; whether we live our lives in a self-absorbed, self-examining, exhibitionist way as a result of reality shows; and whether people really do drift in and out of our lives without our really noticing, and what that says about our own self-centeredness.
It's an interesting book and the only thing I could wish is that it also came with one dinner with the author so that you could reply to him and give commentary on the things he has written.

Yes, Chuck Klosterman is a narcissist- he admits as much in this book, using seemingly trivial events from his life to reconstruct an alternate universe, where low culture is dissected and assumes great psychological importance throughout the various essays that comprise Sex, Drugs and Cocoa Puffs.

Interestingly, there isn't much about any of the eponymous subjects in the book, yet the tome doesn't suffer for it; indeed, the essays stand out by themselves, yet still forming a satisfying whole and forming some kind of perverse narrative. There's quite a bit of tongue in cheek in the theories that Klosterman espouses throughout, and you'd have to be fairly young and unworldly to take him at his word on everything he says.

This is cultural riffing at its most satisfying, and while some articles are culturally relevant (the Sims article being an amusing existential exercise in particular) overall this is a light, fun collection for those whose lives are consumed by low culture.

I expected a weak treatise on modern media, and was surprised by an honest, sometimes dark and always entertaining view of pop culture.

Traversing from Saved by the Bell, to the Sims to the evil of When Harry Met Sally, Klosterman observes our mass culture, and makes sense of what it means to us. What succeeds in the mass media environment does tell a lot about us, and this book brings some solid points of view to it. View it as a lower brow version of Bobos in Paradise.

The book reads quickly and well, as you're drawn into finding his jaded and barbed opinions on all these cultural icons. It'll go quick, and give you a new lens to view what's popular around us.

Although I have a penchant for fiction, this book is very high on my list of works to recommend to other avid readers. Nobody can make a point quite like Chuck Klosterman. Granted, he sometimes supports his opinion by saying (in essence), "I believe this, therefore it must be so" -- but even then, he's so damn believable. (More often than not, though, he provides more than enough evidence to support his claims and opinions.) Chuck's essays in this compilation are easy to read, thought-provoking, humorous, insightful, and just plain fun. I'm a sucker for pop culture, and this book helps me feel better about that, in a way. It gives me proof that my intellectual side can somehow coincide with my lighter, more bubble-gum (read: guilty-pleasure) side. Thanks for that, Chuck -- and also for making me laugh and think at the same time. In my experience, that's rare.

I recommend borrowing this book from your hip literary friend, who already owns it. It has some very funny chapters, and some of the interludes between chapters are truly great. However, it's really unsatisfying in large doses; after finishing a lot of the chapters, I just felt that I had wasted my time. Klosterman has a nice dry wit, and he's good at BSing about quirky topics. But that's really not enough for me to buy a book. Skim it at the bookstore or get it from the library; this is not a book that you'll ever want to reread.

this is exactly the kind of book so-called hipsters cling to, namedrop, and reference when discussing 'popculturally-relevant-events-common-people-don't-understand-but-i-do-because-i'm-cool-and-hip-and-use-words-like-uber.' in the age of 'best week ever,' a bazillion blogs devoted to 'pop cultural,' and beating the term 'gen-x'er' to death, a book 'analyzing' said phenomenon is wholly unnecessary.

to his credit, klosterman does have a nice comedic eye when it comes to observing pop culture phenomenons. what initially drove me to read this book was his opening 'essay' in which he reference coldplay as a facsimile of travis who was a facsimile of some other band i don't remember. that made me laugh. i was hoping for more of the same.

instead we get pretty vapid 'analyses' of 'saved by the bell,' pornography, and well, i really don't remember what else (that's how impactful this book was on me). the subject matter is certainly ripe for analysis, but klosterman just tries way too hard to extrapolate meaning and signficance out of most of his material. sorry, chuck, but 'saved by the bell' was just a geeky tv show for kids. don't read too much into it. it reminds of so-called 'academics' who overanalyze every single word of a short story or novel and forget the fact that literature should sometimes just be enjoyed for the sake of it.

most of the time klosterman, unfortunately, comes off sounding like a poor man's douglas coupland, who wrote the two definitive 'gen-x' novels, 'generation-x,' and 'microserfs.' i say unfortunate because klosterman does often exhibit a keen eye. however, one page of either of couplands shames any of klosterman's 'essays.' also, i don't know who served as his editor, but most of the essay, while occassionally interesting, where shambolic, rambling, poorly organized, and frustratingly unrealized. klosterman would be well-served to get himself an editor capable of keeping him on track and focused. too often klosterman tries to display his supposed cleverness (just like david eggars), but more often than not (just like david eggars), it's just empty calories.

i don't mean to sound overly cynical and critical, but in the end this book a sometimes pleasant diversion, but little else. just like it's titular reference point, 'sex, crugs, and cocoapuffs,' is ultimately a sugar-coated cereal with little substance or nutritional value.

I loved this book. I disagreed with the author on about a good third of the material, especially his views on Soccer, but we're all entitled to our opinions. I did appreciate reading an opposing point of view that was rarely offensive, except again, in his diatribe against soccer.

There really isn't much more I can add to these reviews that others haven't put in already. This was one of the smartest and funniest books I have ever read. Its not for the type of person who accepts the world at face value; instead its for the type of person who questions everything, and can live with an opposing viewpoint without tossing the book down in anger.

Klosterman for president. Loved the book loved his crazy ability to connect pop culture to collective societal conciousness that may only exist to Chuck himself. Nevertheless, I found myself agreeing with him alot of times or just going with it. The essay that really stuck out to me as literary genious was the missing sock one. Histerical. The 23 questions? Brilliant! It made up for the sports references and defending country music(why I gave it 4 stars and not 5). I heart this guy.

'A Low Culture Manifesto' is an excellent subtitle for Klosterman's tome on pop culture. Klosterman is an excellent writer that combines personal memoirs with witty analysis on recent pop culture. Sex, Drugs and Cocoa Puffs and Fargo Rock City are 2 of the funniest books I've read in recent years. Fargo is a great read, especially for a reformed metal-head. Cocoa Puffs tackles a wider variety of subject material, thus appealing to any one that's watched a reality tv show, was ever curious about Internet porn, or was a closet Saved by The Bell fan...I'd say that includes just about everyone.

As the subtitle implies, Klosterman has spent more time and energy thinking deeply about "low culture" than most academics have spent studying the so-called "important" things.

This is not an indictment: Pondering things that aren't terribly important -- like what it's like to be in a Guns-N-Roses Tribute Band (for example) -- can be quite refreshing. In fact, I found it to be a welcome diversion from my normal diet of political books.

Granted, as a fellow Gen Xer who spent some time in North Dakota, I probably identified with Klosterman more than, say, a 50-year old from New York might. But I figure if every Gen Xer in North Dakota were to purchase this book -- that's at least 250 copies, right there!

In all seriousness, I think this book would resonate best with people born between 1968 and 1978.

Manifesto? No. Essay collection? Yes. Can one tread the razor's edge between ironically tragic and tragically ironic, and manage to say something concrete and memorable? Can one deliver profound insight into Life and living by extensive deconstruction of lame TV shows, vapid celebrities, and the way the rest of Idiot America so desperately, needily relates? This seems to be Klosterman's game here, but he doesn't really walk that edge; he just keeps hopping back and forth across it. The conclusion of the foreword clues you in: "In and of itself, nothing really matters. What really matters is that nothing is ever `in and of itself.'"

Okaaaay, so jump on in.

It's something when a book can make me actually laugh out loud, and Klosterman's book did that about a half-dozen times, like when he asks if two titles in the born-again-Christian/Armageddon "Left Behind" series, The Destroyer is Unleashed and The Beast Takes Possession were Ronnie James Dio albums. I'll give him that much: when he's rolling, he can write some really funny and entertaining stuff, absolutely hilarious. That being said, within a couple of weeks of finishing this book I was struggling to remember what it was all about. I remember an essay about The Sims, ruminations on porn and the Internet, extended dialogs on Saved By the Bell and a chance Olympia, Washington (just screaming Sleater-Kinney) encounter with a serial killer, and some stuff about dating and working and scratching a living as a defiant Gen-X slacker, but that's about it.

Other reviews have called his essay subjects "stupid," but I'd argue that "inventive" probably would be a more accurate description. He's a serious geek who's totally gay for Star Wars, porn, basketball, reality TV, movies and music, but he's also a guy who doesn't just sit and bob his head; he's got that thinking thing going on, too. That comes through in the rambling and ultimately self-contradictory and confusing--yet thoroughly fun to read--essay on the true musical genius of Billy Joel, where somehow Serpico,Steely Dan, Patrick Henry, the Clash, the suckiness of the Eagles, World War II, the Sex Pistols, the Carter administration's relationship to Born to Run, Elvis Costello, Randy Newman, Catch-22, and Raymond Carver all orbit cosmically around the Piano Man. And that's just 12 pages of riffing. Later we're informed that Pamela Anderson is the "most crucial woman of her generation," and it takes another 12 pages of extended footnoted dissection to attempt to make it all clear.

Klosterman is at his best when he lets his own personal details slide into the cultural riffs, when he contextualizes his wide-ranging abstracts with concrete examples of where he's gone, what he's done and seen, and what he truly thinks about the issue at hand. The best parts were his admissions of failure, his admissions of lying and deceit when it comes to women, how most of the pieces he wrote as a movie reviewer were so soundly rejected because they offered insight and analysis, more than a shallow synopsis and a formulaic thumbs up/down. These aren't raw, juicy secrets, just simple personal admissions of failure and disillusion, and I found it to be the most connective writing in the entire book.

My absolute favorite part of the book is the list of 23 questions Klosterman has devised to test "whether (he) can really love" someone. These are great ice-breakers, and good for use in the office as well. They're definitely a way to get to know someone, if they answer truthfully. My only disappointment here was that he offered no answers from either himself or others.

There are some little things in this book that did endear Klosterman to me: The table of contents has a credits listing just like album liner notes. He actually uses footnotes for intellectually relevant portions of his discussions, and just for fun, too (man, that comes in handy for that painful The Real World narrative). And there's actually an index! This is a brilliant addition, a perfect intellectual counterpoint to the footnotes, but the editorial execution is sloppy; there are tons of names listed in the book which do not make it to the index.

Bottom line: If you're older than 45, most likely you're just not going to get it, period. The references that make up Klosterman's cosmology will be a complete mystery. If you're looking for organized, linear, straightforward media and pop-culture analysis, then Klosterman's scattershot, jump-cut, ADHD approach will infuriate you. But, if you're plugged in to TV and music and mainstream American media, and you are able to think past next week's "American Idol" to questions of what it all means and where all this is headed and what it's doing to us as a society, then this book will resonate with you, and you'll enjoy it, as I did.

While the language used is simple, giving an appropriate amount of time to the concepts presented required me to set it down and think for a few hours in between chapters. I am torn by this novel. Klosterman is the pied piper of popular culture. I found myself easily drifting towards his school of thought without any protest or hesitation. However, when I finally scrutinized the ideas he was presenting, I realized that I didn't agree with about half of what he was saying. I don't think that the power of the internet and technology is exemplified in amateur porn, but rather a grandfather texting, or youtube.
As an artist I am jealous of pop stars and icons. Beyonce will have an opportunity to reach millions more than my art will. For this reason I wanted to read this book. I wanted a serious dissection of popular culture. For the most part, I got it. I loved the sections on The Sims and cover bands. I found those to be the most interesting and have the most implications to my life.
I would recommend this book to those who think that pop culture has nothing valid to offer, or those who are obsessed with pop culture. I don't know if I would give it to anyone in between.

This was the first Chuck Klosterman book that I have read and i can promise you that it will not be my last, and if you read this also then it will not be your last either. As you read this you discover that Chuck Klosterman has an amazing way of putting things that we would never think of ourselves. From Pamela Anderson to The Sims Chcuk Klosterman talks about it all in this very up-beat and self-fulfilling book. I will not explain much about this one because i do not want to ruin any of it for anyone, and with that being said i do promise you it is an amazing book that you must read. I plan on reading all other books written by Chuck Klosterman and writing (better) reviews about them. Thank you and please read this book, you will not regret it. Also check out his other books.

Chuck Klosterman's "Sex, Drugs, and Cocoa Puffs" is the most culturally precise (and hilarious) piece of literature I've ever read and I suspect it's that way for many other people who read "Sex, Drugs, and Cocoa Puffs." I imagine that there are two camps of Klosterman readers; the ones who own up to being caught in the sticky web of cultural relevance and acceptance, and the ones who don't. For the latter, this book will annoy the hell out of you. For the former, you'll be-as I was-relieved to know that one's vast and seemingly infinite knowledge of pop-culture is not denotive of some sort of intellectual deficiency. As Mr. Klosterman, with great hubris, socially dissects some of the guiltiest cultural pleasures to arise in the last 20-30 years while maintaining a pretense that almost guarantees you'll have to refer to a dictionary at least once or twice during a reading.

Covering an expanse of topics that range from Billy Joel's inability to be cool, to housewife pornography, to the Timothy LaHaye's apocalyptic "Left Behind" volumes, Klosterman provides a very personal and perhaps ethnographic view of social trends within the last couple of decades. The book is riddled with a mix of intimate social encounters, cultural inclinations, and philosophical musings, all tied together through the eyes of a really weird guy. He details topics like MTV's hit reality series "The Real World" and interlaces anecdotes about a former roommate with a proclivity for consuming an inordinate number of hotdogs and how they, like the 1992 cast of "The Real World," were consumed by the art of argument. Ostensibly, the material discussed in this book seems rather trite and moreover lowbrow. But it becomes succinctly obvious throughout each essay that while many of us have mindlessly given into the mass appeal of reality programming and Bay Watch babes, there is always room in Chuck Klosterman's brain to tease apart the psychology from the trend. And after he's beaten the proverbial horse of analysis into glue, he makes you laugh with his ridiculously etymological footnotes.

Perhaps the crowning glory of "Sex, Drugs, and Cocoa Puffs" is that it captures the irony of a generation - caught in a malaise of confusion, educated, but still caught up in mass consumerism and pop-culture servitude. We have an enormous amount of potential, but we're cramped by emotional insecurity and require a renewable prescription for Zoloft. We do stupid things and adhere to stupid ideas, but we can use big words to qualify ourselves. We're adults, but we still eat flavored cereal. We're complicated and contradictory. This seems to be Chuck Klosterman's message, and it's a message that's delivered with an unparalleled savvy and humor.

An aside: I met Chuck Klosterman at a bookstore reading the other day in Los Angeles. After the reading I asked him to sign my book, and I was incredibly nervous. I wound up saying something about being relieved that I hadn't accidentally spit on him or thrown up. I couldn't help but think about the absurdity of my comments, but I was also thinking about how someone like me had come to revere an author who is renown for his sprawling commentary on stuff on television, the radio, in books, and on the Internet. I am more concerned with pop-culture than I have readily acknowledged in the past. However, Klosterman's insights have made him the savoir-faire for those of us who have been in pop-cultural hiding. I no longer feel like I have to hang my head in shame in discussions where people brag about their neo-ludditism or how their parents never allowed them to watch television as children. I've come to believe that all of those things aren't necessarily bad. In fact, they can be quite thought-provoking conversation pieces with the right set of neural wiring.

-Kristen M. Powers

Were you aware that some people are so insecure and/or vacant that they adopt one-dimensional personalities and behavioral paradigms from popular works of fiction? Did you know that some relationships don't work out because the participants have an unrealistic notion of love due to watching too many movies? If so, you probably don't need to read this book. Even if you didn't know these things, you probably still shouldn't, because you might be naive enough to believe Klosterman's implication that these are somehow distinctly late-twentieth-century, television-era phenomena. Did you know that your musical tastes don't necessarily have to be governed by how "cool" the artist is, by how the genre and style would tend to affect your "image?" I would hope so, at least if you're over the age of 22. I read the blurbs about this book and thought to myself, "Maybe this is some undiscovered genius of a cultural critic who will really shed light on the modern experience." Nope. Klosterman talks about behaviors that people have been exhibiting for millenia and pretends he's making new observations because he illustrates his points using semi-new pop culture products. This is hack work. If you're the kind of person who would be interested in reading a book on culture, you can probably skip this because you're probably already at least as observant as Klosterman. This truly is "low-culture," but not in the way the author thinks.