That's not as dreadful as it may seem. The former Akron Beacon Journal feature writer turned magazine writer turned book author writes in a loose style suitable for those looking for something quick, airy and enjoyable.

Bathroom author might annoy those who consider Klosterman the voice of his generation (you know, like Seth Cohen from The O.C.). The voice of a generation title, previously held by the likes of F. Scott Fitzgerald and Bob Dylan, is kind of silly considering Klosterman writes chiefly about pop culture. But maybe that lofty title is merely an indictment of the times.

But ANYWAY, as our dear subject likes to say, Chuck Klosterman IV: A Decade of Curious People and Dangerous Ideas is a collection of pieces Klosterman has written for his many employers, which include Esquire, Spin and The New York Times Magazine.

There is an ideal in the music business that an artist releases a compilation of past works between normal albums to remain in the public's consciousness. This helps sustain any momentum the artist has going into another work. Kind of like when the Smashing Pumpkins released Pisces Iscariot between Siamese Dream and Mellon Collie and the Infinite Sadness. That analogy can be used here for Klosterman's fourth book. IV is the bridge between Killing Yourself to Live: 85% of a True Story, which chronicled a cross-country jaunt to places rock stars died, and Klosterman's first novel.

The book is divided into three parts. The first part, by far the book's largest, is profiles mostly from Spin, where Klosterman was a senior writer. The profiles begin with Britney Spears, who Klosterman claims is ``the most famous person'' he's ever interviewed. It's an odd way to start a section that mostly profiles artists who are the antithesis of Spears.

Although Klosterman worked at the Beacon Journal from 1998 to 2002, little of that work was included in IV. The exception is a humorous story about Akron-area psychics from December 1998.

The second part is essays, culled mostly from his column in Esquire. Each essay is introduced with a hypothetical, which are both funny and slightly perplexing and reminiscent of his second book, Sex, Drugs and Cocoa Puffs.

The third part is Klosterman's first piece of published fiction. This is the most interesting, possibly because it's the only original material in the book, or possibly because it's based in Akron.

The story, titled You Tell Me, is about Jack, a man who, like Klosterman, is from North Dakota and works for the daily Akron paper. Outside of a before-work dabble with drugs, the fiction begins when a woman falls from the sky onto Chuck, er, Jack's car.

The story was written in 2000, so it should be interesting to see Klosterman's progress as a fiction writer. If nothing else, IV shows how Klosterman has grown as a journalist over the years.

The title is an obvious riff on Led Zeppelin IV and even has the weird, unidentifiable symbols that puzzled fans of Jimmy Page and the boys. Klosterman's four symbols on the book's jacket could stand for any number of things.

It's this strangely intelligent confluence of topics that makes Klosterman appealing and why he's been successful. He writes about things you know about, and probably have an opinion on, and he does it in brisk fashion.

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