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Eating the Dinosaur Audiobook
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Publisher Description
Chuck Klosterman has chronicled rock music, film, and sports for almost 15 years. He's covered extreme metal, extreme nostalgia, disposable art, disposable heroes, life on the road, life through the television, urban uncertainty, and small-town weirdness. Through a variety of media and with a multitude of motives, he's written about everything he can think of (and a lot that he's forgotten). The world keeps accelerating, but the pop ideas keep coming.
In Eating the Dinosaur, Klosterman is more entertaining and incisive than ever. Whether he's dissecting the boredom of voyeurism, the reason why music fans inevitably hate their favorite band's latest album, or why we love watching can't-miss superstars fail spectacularly, Klosterman remains obsessed with the relationship between expectation, reality, and living history. It's amateur anthropology for the present tense, and sometimes it's incredibly funny.
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"What a lot of clever ideas this guy has. I'm told it's not his best work, which is actually a pretty good compliment. The essay on the NFL got me thinking about my own business and how I should do things a little differently. Hopefully they will be valuable insights, and not just interesting ones."
— David (4 out of 5 stars)
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“In the course of the collection’s thirteen essays, Klosterman burrows into overexposed but underexplored departments of American pop culture. Declaring himself ‘post-taste,’ he evaluates not the merits of certain phenomena but the ways we ‘us’ them.”
— New York Times -
“Author and cultural commentator Klosterman …one of few cultural essayists to enjoy a wide readership…thrives on challenging his readers.”
— Publishers Weekly -
“Klosterman returns to deconstructing pop culture to its base elements…The result is a collection as much about the author and his way of thinking as it is about his topics. In both cases, the author is unique. Funny, irreverent and fascinating—Klosterman at his best.”
— Kirkus Reviews
Awards
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A New York Times bestseller
Eating the Dinosaur Listener Reviews
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" Parts of this were really good and others just didn't work for me. "
— Jill, 2/19/2014 -
" nowhere near as fun as sex drugs and cocoa puffs. the format is sort of interesting and more stream of consciousness, but i am not loving it.... "
— Kristi, 2/17/2014 -
" Read it in about four days, so i guess you could say i enjoyed it. The essay on the Unabomber is brilliant. "
— Greg, 2/12/2014 -
" Klosterman, too cool for school? Every now and again I'm impressed. But not consistently. It was more of a resounding "meh." "
— Gina, 1/23/2014 -
" Another Klosterman book, another enjoyable collection of essays about pop culture. "
— Chi, 1/4/2014 -
" I loved Klosterman's take on modern society and how cultural influences are found throughout pretty much everything we do or say or even think. I found this book intriguing in it's philosophical discussions about everything from football plays to the music of ABBA to the Unabomber. "
— Grace, 12/28/2013 -
" this probably shouldn't have been my first Chuck Klosterman book...I liked it, but I wanted to love it. But I didn't, and that made me disproportionately sadder. "
— Jessica, 12/3/2013 -
" Just love his stuff. He's so smart and thought- provoking. The fact that it's about pop culture is just the cherry on the sundae. "
— Jenny, 11/22/2013 -
" This book made me come to a realizations that I had not wanted to come to for a long time: I am the target demographic for a book sold at Urban Outfitters. "
— Glenn, 11/21/2013 -
" Some good essays in this one. I enjoyed it. "
— Eric, 11/16/2013 -
" I understand why he's a target of some people. But I like him for just the reasons those people dislike him. "
— Ray, 11/6/2013 -
" Spot on cultural and media critiques. What fascinates me is the way that Klosterman evolves and builds an idea. Skilful and super entertaining. There was one essay using a sports analogy and I skipped that. "
— Lou, 10/31/2013 -
" Another quirky and sometimes brilliant set of essays by Klosterman. I especially liked his dissection of the cultural importance of Ralph Sampson. If I had to chose between CK and M. Gladwell, I am leaning toward CK. "
— Jason, 10/23/2013 -
" Wow I loved this book. While I grew tired of the music essays, I thought that the whole book was very intriguing. I'm very much so looking forward to my next Klosterman book! "
— Jimmy, 9/30/2013 -
" Fantastic read. Klosterman's series of essays is entertaining and thought-provoking. Highly recommend to any twentysomething seeking media critique. "
— Victoria, 4/24/2013 -
" The usual Klosterman. Some good, some great, some that I skim through. "
— matteo, 11/28/2012 -
" Chuck is always insightful, and some of these essays were really deep. They made me think about myself in a different way, and that's what a good book does. "
— Chip, 11/12/2012 -
" Overall, I really liked Chuck Klosterman's narrative voice. He's a smart guy with lots to say on random topics. I wasn't such a fan of the two sports related essays, but I really liked some of the others, particularly the one about time travel and the one on laugh tracks. Good read. "
— Rachel, 10/30/2012 -
" "I'm depressed a lot, usually for no reason (although sometimes I'm just hungry, which often feels the same)." "
— A., 9/2/2012 -
" Not sure what I thought...didn't really follow the theme of the book, and I don't think enough like Klosterman (or even follow many of his casual references) to feel like I was having a "conversation" with him. "
— Julianne, 11/23/2011 -
" Interesting and thought provoking..but I wouldn't read it again. "
— Kristyn, 10/29/2011 -
" Not my favorite of his books but it had a couple of gems inside. "
— Sasha, 10/8/2011 -
" if only i can be half as persuasive as Chuck in making logical arguments about seemingly crazy topics. Full of interesting ideas, must read for all smartasses. "
— Howard, 6/25/2011 -
" So far it is not nearly as entertaining as Sex, Drugs, and Cocoa Puffs: A Low-Culture Manifesto. I'm holding onto it for a rainy day. "
— Leah, 6/23/2011 -
" Really this would be like a 3.8. I generally like what Klosterman writes but I expected more "
— doug, 6/22/2011 -
" I've been picking at this since the start of the year. Chuck Klosterman is always fun to read. I enjoy all of the pop-culture references and all that. The essay on the Unabomber that closes the book is probably my favorite in the collection. "
— Brooks, 6/21/2011 -
" La de da look how smart I am. "
— Joe, 6/16/2011 -
" If you like comparing random musicans and sport anologies with social culture and maybe a little sociology than this is the book for you! "
— Linda, 6/14/2011 -
" Interesting stuff. I could have done without the sports references, but I appreciate Chuck Klosterman's selections and input. "
— Rebecca, 6/6/2011 -
" <br/>I never thought that an essay on ABBA would become a literary ear worm for me, but I've been thinking about it for nearly 6 weeks now. You should, too. "
— Bradley, 5/4/2011 -
" I don't know why I like Chuck Klosterman so much. No one else I know seems to. Maybe I just like an interestingly constructed argument even if it sounds superfluous or ridiculous when I try to describe it someone 10 minutes later. "
— Mike, 4/30/2011
About Chuck Klosterman
Chuck Klosterman is the bestselling author of eight nonfiction books, two novels, and a short story collection. He has written for the New York Times, The Washington Post, London Guardian, Billboard, GQ, and more. He served as the ethicist for the New York Times Magazine for three years, appeared as himself in the LCD Soundsystem documentary Shut Up and Play the Hits, and was an original founder of the website Grantland with Bill Simmons.
About the Narrators
Ira Glass is the host and creator of the public radio program This American Life. HE started working in public radio in 1978, when he was 19, as an intern at NPR’s headquarters in Washington, DC. Over the next seventeen years, he worked on nearly every NPR news show and did nearly every production job they had: tape-cutter, desk assistant, newscast writer, editor, producer, reporter, and substitute host. He spent a year in a high school for NPR, and a year in an elementary school, filing stories for All Things Considered. He moved to Chicago in 1989 and put This American Life on the air in 1995. In 2013 Ira Glass received the Medal for Spoken Language from the American Academy of Arts & Letters.
Edoardo Ballerini, an American actor, director, film producer, and multiaward–winning narrator. He has won several Audie Awards for best narration, including for 2019’s Best Male Narrator of the Year. He was named by Booklist as winner of their 2023 Voice of Choice Award, and was named a Golden Voice by AudioFile magazine in 2019. He has narrated over two hundred audiobooks, from classics to modern masters, from bestsellers to the inspirational, from Nobel and Pulitzer Prize winners to spine-tingling series, and much more. In television and film, he is best known for his roles in A Murder at the End of the World, The Sopranos, 24, I Shot Andy Warhol, Dinner Rush, and Romeo Must Die. He is also trained in theater and continues to do much work on stage.