What I've Read: Killing Yourself to Live: 85% of a True Story

My summer of Klosterman continues. Or maybe it's my spring of Klosterman. Oh, hell, who gives a crap. Either way, I polished off another of his books last week, this time his second book, "Killing Yourself to Live."

The book is pretty much his recounting a road trip he took across the country. Not to visit anyone in particular; instead, it was to visit places where people died. Music stars, more specifically. Like Cobain, Skynard and others. While it seems like an interesting journey, you can tell from the reading that it's rather boring and not nearly the big deal or cultural eye-opener music fans might consider it.

So instead the book ends up becoming this excellent exploration into relationships and love. He details his relationship with three women, and each represents a certain side of Klosterman, exposing his passions, fears and dreams. You can tell throughout the book that he made the decision somewhere along his drive that this was a far more interesting tale to tell than the bland fields and discreet locations where these rock stars either OD'd or crashed in a small plane. I don't mean to trivialize their deaths, either, but I certainly began to appreciate the stories of his relationships with the girls because they more closely resembled relationships I'd had with previous girlfriends.

Reviewing the first book of his I'd read, I mentioned that since he's both close to my age and also way smarter than me in putting thoughts into interesting words, I feel a kinship through the pages and think we'd probably be friends or decent acquaintances if we knew each other. Or most likely he'd brush me aside and find someone more interesting, but with two books down a three more to go, I'm not really caring anymore and just enjoying the reads.