Rating: 
Summary: Uneven
Review: The author of "Fight Club" releases a collection of essays, it's my current work out book (excellent reading is done on stationary bike), the short self-contained stories are not too bad for the activity
The book is divided in 3 parts:
"People Together" which are sorta "slice of life/journalistic" writings, it deals with subjects as obscure and diverse as castle building or demolition derby
"Portraits" which is on famous people (some more famous than others), the one I read on Amy Hempel at Borders really made me want to get this book
There's a weird one with Juliette Lewis and scientology, Marilyn Manson, a really boring one about a woman who trains dogs for rescue (seek death)
"Personal" are a bunch of essays about the author and fame, mostly related to his most famous novel "Fight Club"
Well written but content is uneven
Rating: 
Summary: "after fight club, the volume gets tuned down(...)"
Review: ...Well, the same could be said of Mr Palahniuk's inspiration lately.
Here is a compilation of his writing which reads more like articles than essays : demolition, castles, marilyn manson, hollywood, ghosts, etc... it's more of a bazaar. Gonzo journalism somehow...I skipped a lot of chapters just like i pick the juicy parts in my newspaper.
I enjoy very much Mr Palahniuk novels, but it's not because you have talent and you sell, that you must publish everything you write.
If you're a fan, you'll buy it anyway.
Otherwise, wait until it's in paperback or get it at your local library. The price is defenitly not worth it. His Portland, Oregon guide is at least much more fun to read.
Rating: 
Summary: I Loved It
Review: A fantastic book. A bit of a departure from "Fight Club" but still a great book. I have to agree it has a lot in common with "My Fractured Life" which is good. The strangeness in fact has wonderful pull and reward. I loved it.
Rating:
Summary: Mr. Palahniuk, we want more!
Review: Fantastic! Every word this man places into our line of sight holds power. Indeed, this is yet another powerful work that shouldn't be missed. Although a true fan like myself would have read the articles in this book long before it was assembled. Either way for those true fans or just half way's, the book is awesome. Not a 'Survivor" but awesome. Oh, and Chuck, I'll be on line for your next book and the one after that, etc.
Rating:
Summary: B-Side Stories...
Review: From the author whose novels have always focused on people out of the mainstream, "Stranger Than Fiction" is a collection of essays/stories/articles that focus on real-life weirdos and other non-conformists.- Demolition Derby drivers that crash around in farm combines.
- Amateur wrestlers trying out for the Olympics
- Men who build castles
- Disaster rescue people and their dogs
- etc... While most of the pieces are very good, there are a couple weak spots, most of which consist of the person just talking and very little writing by Chuck. I am a fan of his writing style and would have liked to see more of that instead of those couple interviews. My guess is that they were just thrown in to fill out the book. I gave it 5 stars because of those 6-8 pieces that I really liked (worth the book price alone). If you like this book, check out "Fugitives and Refugees", also by Chuck Palahniuk. It is a collection of pieces and lists about his hometown of Portland, Oregon.
Rating: 
Summary: Crunchy Palahniuk Crisps
Review: Get your new and improved crunchy palahniuk crisps. You can eat and eat and still won't feel like you've had a meal. In fact, we encourage you to digest them slowly. Take your time. Each crisp will taste about the same as the next. Now, for a limited time, each bag will have 2- count 'em- two special prizes. An Amy Hempel instructional video and.... your very own Marilyn Manson Tarot reading. (all bags are coated with special preservatives to keep these previously baked crisps fresh)
Rating:
Summary: Too much fat, not enough Chuck
Review: I am a huge fan of Palahniuk's work. Let's get that out there straight-away. That being said, there isn't all that much here, even for the die-hard Palahniuk fan. It's mostly work recycled from magazines and such, and much of that comes off as filler. Now collections are fine, but this one feels a bit too much: "padded out." There are, however, some great pieces here, some genuine "Palahniuk" moments, unfortunately they are too few. The candor one expects from him, the incisive humor, often seems missing.It reminds me of the MTV Real World intro: "Find out what happens when people stop being polite, and start getting real..." Here, we find what happens when Palahniuk does the opposite. Chuck, unexpectedly, is a little too polite at times here. Profiling some whacked out celebrities (Juliette Lewis), drunken cowboy combine demolition drivers, reclusive oddities inside their self-built castles... Chuck treats them with kid gloves. Maybe it's his old journalistic "neutrality" kicking in, but even still, he isn't all that neutral. He paints a picture just enough biased to be less-than-journalistic, but not opinionated enough to really get the reader revved. It's all very factual, all very boring. The mordant, nihilistic, culture-effacing humor is often missing. When he's talking about himself, his life and his friends, he seems to regain his license to range free. Here we find insights, humor and the sort of satirical commentary of modern life that one would expect from Palahniuk. Unfortunately, as Entertainment Weekly pointed out, it's largely insight from the Fight Club era and seems a bit dated now. If you're a fan, there is enough you'll like to warrant the purchase price. There is some bio and some old-school Palahniuk riffing that will keep one going till his next fiction release. If you aren't a fan, this isn't the place to start. It's a scattershot amalgam of pieces that have no underlying connection and are more often than not less interesting than the strange fiction Palahniuk usually writes. He always says his novels come out of the stories he hears, unfortunately, those truly "stranger than fictions" did not make it into this collection.
Rating:
Summary: Better Than Fiction
Review: I'm a Palahniuk fan despite, but I found this book to be better than some of his fiction. There are some articles about being a writer, being a writer who has his novel turned into a major Hollywood movie, being a writer who has to deal with the strangeness of Hollywood; and does some great articles on Juliette Lewis, Amy Hempel, and Andrew Sullivan. I love his perspective, his insight, and his voice.
Rating:
Summary: A Little out of the Ordinary
Review: If you are looking for that book to fill the void after reading, or even watching "Fight Club" the movie, well this book is not for you. I was miss led at first also. I was really looking forward to the next great fiction novel from Chuck after "Diary". Once I read a few pages I just had to change my perspective a bit to understand where this was coming from. I truely connected with all the stories some how. Not everyone will though. I do look forward to the next adventure with Chuck...
Rating:
Summary: Chuck does it again
Review: If you're new to reading Palahniuk's books, you probably want to start at the beginning and make sure you tackle some of the fiction works like Survivor and Choke. If you've read the other stuff, you'll appreciate this one all that much more.
Chuck's writing style is as potent and sardonic as ever, but what's great is picking up hints of where he gets some of his brilliant ideas for his fiction novels. The things he's done, people he's talked to, and places he's been will entertain you endlessly. From trying to get his doctor to give him anabolic steroids to the story of his own father's murder, I couldn't put it down until I finished it.
What can I say? Mr. Palahniuk is one amazing writer.
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