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ultimatekate's review against another edition
5.0
This book was HYSTERICAL. I mean, there were times where I was crying I was laughing so hard. And I liked the way his essays flowed from one topic to the next. My mind works much the same way; while I wouldn't necessarily compare Van Halen to The Dixie Chicks, the comparison makes absolute sense to me.
So let me tell you about the book. It's a collection of essays on pop culture, and by "pop culture", I mean everything from basketball to music to "Saved By the Bell" to the draw of tribute bands. The author is a little bit older than I am (read: 8 years), which means I didn't get all of his pop culture references (for instance, I don't really remember the Celtics/Lakers rivalry in the 1980s, considering I was 0-8 years old), but I think most people who grew up in the 1990s would get a lot out of it.
So let me tell you about the book. It's a collection of essays on pop culture, and by "pop culture", I mean everything from basketball to music to "Saved By the Bell" to the draw of tribute bands. The author is a little bit older than I am (read: 8 years), which means I didn't get all of his pop culture references (for instance, I don't really remember the Celtics/Lakers rivalry in the 1980s, considering I was 0-8 years old), but I think most people who grew up in the 1990s would get a lot out of it.
jess_mango's review against another edition
4.0
I admit it. I am a pop-culture junkie... I watch reality TV, both the "high-brow" (is there really such a thing?!?!) and the totally trashy. Klosterman's book was a collection of witty essays about different aspects of pop-culture. I really enjoyed most of them... the ones about sports weren't quite my thing though.
lindsayaunderwood's review against another edition
2.0
I really wish more people would write about pop culture and I wish it wasn’t this guy. Tbh if I read this 15 years ago I would have loved it.
deanna_rigney's review against another edition
4.0
A cluster of pop culture observances, including references to Saved By The Bell, breakfast cereal icons, The Empire Strikes Back, and amateur porn, all neatly bound together. Klosterman is witty and he finds intriguing social commentary among our pop culture habits. I definitely disagree with him on one point where he says all women are in love with John Cusack, but they only love the Cusack from Say Anything, not his other characters. Lloyd Dobler was sweet, but I've always been a Martin Blank gal myself.
libellum_aphrodite's review against another edition
Klosterman had some good lines and an occassional insights, but it was hard to get at mired down in raunchiness and unseemly sex jokes. I gave it up a little more than halfway through after his commentary on The Waking Life demonstrated that he lacked the intellectual analysis to really get at the shallowness of American culture that he is trying to critique. I wouldn't recommend bothering with it.
jilly7922's review against another edition
4.0
liked the book, interesting, liked the style of writing, I liked the random comparisons, and how it presented the growth and change over the media throughout time.
jjankunas's review against another edition
2.0
The book was mildly entertaining. I didn't hate it. If you've ever gone to a party and there was a guy who was drunkenly rambling about any random topic in a know-it-all manner and you found his arguments compelling but inexplicably annoying, this book is the prose of that fellow. I guess I'm finding white male perspectives less palatable as I age.
isantelli5764's review against another edition
funny
lighthearted
reflective
medium-paced
3.75
Fun book, made me think and made me giggle but for the life of me I can’t tell what the core argument was.