Sex, Drugs, and Cocoa Puffs - A Low Culture Manifesto

Book #2

This book was selected becuase we read the synopsis while we were all drunk and I think it said something about Saved By the Bell and we all thought that was awesome and that it had to be the next book.... we will see how our judgement fares under the influence of alcohol, we may decide that the books need to be selected pre-drinking!

Countless writers and artists have spoken for a generation, but no one has done it quite like Chuck Klosterman. With an exhaustive knowledge of popular culture and an almost effortless ability to spin brilliant prose out of unlikely subject matter, Klosterman attacks the entire spectrum of postmodern America: reality TV, Internet porn, Pamela Anderson, literary Jesus freaks, and the real difference between apples and oranges (of which there is none). And don't even get him started on his love life and the whole Harry-Met-Sally situation.
Whether deconstructing Saved by the Bell episodes or the artistic legacy of Billy Joel, the symbolic importance of The Empire Strikes Back or the Celtics/Lakers rivalry, Chuck will make you think, he'll make you laugh, and he'll drive you insane -- usually all at once. Sex, Drugs, and Cocoa Puffs is ostensibly about art, entertainment, infotainment, sports, politics, and kittens, but -- really -- it's about us. All of us. As Klosterman realizes late at night, in the moment before he falls asleep, "In and of itself, nothing really matters. What matters is that nothing is ever 'in and of itself.'" Read to believe.
Name:Chuck Klosterman
Current Home:New York, New York
Date of Birth:June 05, 1972
Place of Birth:Wyndmere, North Dakota
Education:Degree in Journalism, University of North Dakota, 1994
If you had a book club, what would it be reading -- and why?I don't understand book clubs. (awesome!)
What are your favorite kinds of books to give -- and get -- as gifts?I don't like getting books as gifts. It always creates this weird pressure: You suddenly have to read some weird novel, because you know the person who gave it to you will ask what you thought of it. I don't want any gift that dictates my behavior.

What are your ten favorite books, and what makes them special to you?

• Atlas Shrugged by Ayn Rand -- This is a wonderful book that expresses a philosophy I generally agree with. However, the main reason I like to list it as my favorite of all time is because it makes unambitious faux intellectuals incredibly annoyed.
• Animal Farm by George Orwell -- I'm not sure if there has ever been a book that so accurately illustrated complex ideas with this much brevity and simplicity. I don't think there was a better 20th-century author than Orwell.
• The Trial by Franz Kafka -- Intimidating, but also eternally insightful; there are few notions more relevant than the possibility of everyone being guilty of something, even if they don't know what that something is.
• The Tipping Point by Malcolm Gladwell -- It is virtually impossible to read this book and not think about every element of culture differently.
• The Corrections by Jonathan Franzen -- I find it hilarious so many people try to seem smart by insisting this book is overrated. It's an almost perfect modern novel.
• A Supposedly Fun Thing I'll Never Do Again by David Foster Wallace -- This is an essay collection, so it's kind of cheating to claim that this is the best book of the 1990s. However, this is the best book of the 1990s. It's normally impossible to be both hyper-brilliant and laugh-out-loud funny simultaneously, but Wallace seems to do that effortlessly. I wish I could rip him off, but I can't; I'm just not smart enough. I'll never be smart enough. Wallace is like a literary cyborg.
• A Season on the Brink by John Feinstein -- I read this book three times in 1989. Still the best sports journalism I've ever seen.
• The Time Machine by H. G. Wells -- I don't know why, but I vividly remember reading this book in sixth grade (far more than anything else I read as a youth). I don't think I've ever enjoyed reading a book as much as this one.
• Fight Club by Chuck Palahniuk -- There are ideas in this novel that people will not appreciate until the current cultural era has ended.
• Where I'm Calling From by Raymond Carver -- This is where I learned how to begin and end stories.
  

YUM!