Chuck Klosterman's 6th book due Tuesday

Charles John Klosterman's sixth book will be released Tuesday, Oct. 20. For pop culture nutcases and his Beacon Journal colleagues of nearly a decade ago, he's known as Chuck Klosterman, who has even been compared to Hunter S. Thompson (if you have to ask, you either took too many drugs at the time or you're too young).

Chuck's latest, 256-page tome is titled "Eating the Dinosaur" (Scribner). It is, of course, pop culture pieces. His first book was "Fargo Rock City," which he wrote in 2001 when he was the Beacon Journal's pop culture critic. Very loosely, it's based on his teen years as a metalhead music follower in Wyndmere, North Dakota (population 498).

Chuck was born June 5, 1972, in Breckenridge, Minnesota, but was raised on a farm near Wyndmere, North Dakota, and is a 1994 University of North Dakota graduate. He parlayed eight years of working on newspapers in Fargo, North Dakota, and the BJ into becoming a pop culture guru. Chuck chucked Akron for New York City in 2002.

As he is quoted explaining it, "I was fortunate that I was at newspapers for eight years, where I wrote at least five or six stories every week. You get used to interviewing lots of different people about a lot of different things. And they aren't things you know about until you do the story."

He took a spin as senior writer for Spin till the magazine spun out of control after housecleaning by the new owner. His resume includes Esquire, GQ, New York Times Magazine, The Believer, The Washington Post and a summer gig last year as guest professor for literature at the University of Leipzig's Institute for American Studies in Leipzig, Germany.

Chuck's other books are "Downtown Owl," a fantasy trip through a made-up North Dakota podunk; "Chuck Klosterman IV," subtitled "A Decade of Curious People and Dangerous Ideas"; "Killing Yourself to Live," a 6,557-mile journey to places where rock stars died; and "Sex, Drugs and Cocoa Puffs," his New York Times best-seller which caused People magazine to write that Chuck has "spoken for a generation" about pop culture.

Chuck's fame got him TV appearances, playing himself, on a 2007 "E:60" episode on ESPN, in 2007's "Britney: Off the Rails," a 2006 episode of "Amazon Fishbowl With Bill Maher," in the 2005 "Metal: A Headbanger's Journey" and the 2004 "Spinal Tap Goes to 20."

He also is executive producer for the 2009 film, "Killing Yourself to Live," based, of course, on Chuck's book.

For more quotes by Chuck, go to:

http://www.brainyquote.com/quotes/authors/c/chuck_klosterman.html

For Chuck's Facebook page, go to:

http://www.facebook.com/pages/Chuck-Klosterman/14129674625?v=wall&viewas=0

If you want to book an appearance by Chuck, he is represented by the Lavin Agency. Go to:

http://www.thelavinagency.com/speaker-chuck-klosterman.html

To see photos of Chuck, in a cornfield (Szalay's?) promoting "Fargo Rock City" during his BJ days and at his Leipzig discussions, and his "Eating the Dinosaur" book cover, click on the headline.