But What If We're Wrong?: Thinking About the Present as If It Were the Past -- Chuck Klosterman ------------------- 4 Stars

I don't think I've ever read a Chuck Klosterman book before, though I am very familiar with him and his writings. An asitute and creative cultural critic, I've read a number of his articles in various magazines and heard his musings on a few podcasts. Then, one of his books, But What If We're Wrong?: Thinking About the Present as If It Were the Past popped up as an easy borrow on Libby so I thought I'd give it a try. What a fun, thought provoking and entertaining book!

While the book is 7 years old, it feels recent and the premise, timeless. As the title states, Klosterman does his best to think about much our modern world and what will actually be remembered hundreds of years in the future. Spoiler alert - he believes it's many things that we are currently not considering. Covering art, literature, media, movies, sports, tv, and science, the book also offers commentary from many notable scientists, theorists and futurists. 

What makes this book so interesting are two things. First, is the premise on it's own - we're really bad at actually determining what matters and predicting the future so maybe we should question some of our beliefs. Many of these posits are really "hot takes" and curious. One for example, is that democracy is overrated and not that great. While he makes some strong arguments, hard to believe the alternatives might be any better (this was part of a chapter predicting how/why America may eventually fail). The second reason this book is interesting is classic Klosterman - he's super funny and has irreverent viewpoints. In a sentence explaining theoretical physics, he might offer a joke about a modern pop star. Relatedly, there were nearly 100 footnotes and many of them served as another place that he shares jokes and thoughts.

The biggest downside of the book is that parts are complicated and hard to follow. Besides making the reader really have to think through highly difficult topics, a lot of tightrope walking of thoughts (if that is a thing) is necessary. There are multiple times where it's really hard to imagine what is being considered - though this is an actual theme of the book. However, that may be also what I most enjoyed; working to understand his arguments and thinking about them later. It's one of those few books that really make you consider his writings when not reading it.  Also, I suppose if you don't appreciate his jokes and incessant footnoting, you might also not like.  

This book may be a bit of a specialized taste and recommend reading some other Klosterman before diving in. Between the complicated subject matter and unique author's style, it may be off putting to some. However, if you are open to giving it a try, or want to read a uniquely funny and highly entertaining and thought provoking book, this would be a good one to try!