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3.58 AVERAGE
3.58 AVERAGE
I'm a fan of Klosterman - the non sequitur pop culture references to obscure 1990s indie band b-sides mixed with sardonic takes on random topics are the reason I pick up his books. This collection is the most cohesive non-random and focused that I've seen from him and the idea of looking at villains - the contradictions, motives, and perceptions - is really enjoyable. It's more serious than his other books but its reverence seems appropriate. A nice read I enjoyed over the course of a weekend in Tofino.
Mixed feelings about this one. Chuck was trying to show that some of the people we view as non-Villains to be a villain. The book was really slow at some parts and other parts I felt were easier to read. This book was not as good as the last one I read by Chuck, But What If We're Wrong? Thinking About the Present As If It Were the Past. I was hoping this one would be as good as the first one I read, but this book didn't seem to be on par. I Wear the Black Hat felt like he was stretching to make some people be evil. He had some good points but not enough to make me feel the book was a great book.
I love reading Chuck Klosterman books, it's as if the man has gotten inside my head and put to paper all my thoughts and philosophies. I imagine a good number of people that grew up in the 80's can relate as well.
Chuck makes me a better reader for one simple reason, I need to have a dictionary with me at each reading to allow me to understand all the new words that Chuck introduces me to.
Chuck makes me a better reader for one simple reason, I need to have a dictionary with me at each reading to allow me to understand all the new words that Chuck introduces me to.
It was an entertaining collection of essays and introspective, but not totally what I was looking for in regards to an examination of villainy.
This book started out really strong and really funny - he starts a chapter by extolling the reasons why he hated Bruce Springsteen as a 12 year old. And, as a person who often worries about not being the protagonist (while still being the central character) in the story of my life, it makes me feel less alone that this book is out there.
However, somewhere in the middle he loses his own plot a little and his thesis goes awry.
I'm not sorry I read the book, it was a perfectly fine book. I just wanted it to be more so "something", and it's the "something" I can't quite articulate. The only thing I know for sure is that somewhere during the chapter about Andrew Clay Dice until probably the chapter about Hitler, he lost me a little and it was hard for me to give this more than an "it's okay" kind of rating.
However, somewhere in the middle he loses his own plot a little and his thesis goes awry.
I'm not sorry I read the book, it was a perfectly fine book. I just wanted it to be more so "something", and it's the "something" I can't quite articulate. The only thing I know for sure is that somewhere during the chapter about Andrew Clay Dice until probably the chapter about Hitler, he lost me a little and it was hard for me to give this more than an "it's okay" kind of rating.
Reader, I liked this more than I anticipated. I was reading a friend's copy and left so many sticky notes (rather than marking up the pages). It reads true, even a few years after publication.
honestly I wasn’t a fan. it had to same problem that the psychopath test had, i felt that the author took the entire book trying to convince us HE wasn’t evil. i was expecting a much deeper outlook and incite in villains and why we identify with them but instead i was left confused and the set up for each story was way too long and descriptive than it needed to be.
Klosterman's a fantastic writer, one of my favourites, and whilst this may be a lesser work of his - having a fairly filmsy thesis for his discussion on villainy and only rarely making the kind of transcendent cultural arguments he found so easy to conjure up in his first few books - it's still highly readable and very funny.
Typical Klosterman- fun read with some bits that really make you think.
funny
reflective
medium-paced