I'm looking for books about Columbine

Any recommendations? I've only read 'No easy answers' by Brooks Brown, so far. Planning to read up on 'a mothers reckoning' by Sue Klebold before reading up on 'Comprehending Columbine' and other
books

I like Jeff Kass' Columbine- A True Crime Story; while I don't agree with everything he comes up with it is far more fact-based than Cullen's version.

I also liked Tom Mauser's book Walking in Daniel's Shoes. It's pretty heavy into the gun control debate so it you're vehemently opposed to that it might annoy you but there is a lot of other good stuff in there. It also details how their family worked towards healing themselves after Daniel's loss.

I've read Rachel's Tears, Chain Reaction, and the Journals of Rachel Scott but I find them very repetitive (Journals is, in some places, word for word Rachel's Tears) and so obviously crafted to fit a certain agenda that I don't feel they really represent the Rachel her friends talked about. I feel like they whitewashed so much of her life and I don't feel like I really learned anything about who Rachel truly was, only who they want us to believe she was (if that makes sense).
So, I wouldn't necessarily recommend these but if you're curious and I had to choose one of the "Rachel series", it would be Rachel's Tears.

There is a new book coming out in January called Columbine: 20 years later and beyond that is supposed to cover what has happened in the US since the attack. How gun laws and legislation have been affected, how school security has changed, etc. I've pre-ordered it and will post a review once I've read it.

Finally, there's another book, that doesn't look like it has a release date yet, called Evidence Ignored: What You May Not Know About Columbine. From the description it sounds like it's going to refute a lot of what Cullen wrote and present some stuff that may not be common knowledge to the general public.

And- once you've researched as much as you can and have learned a great deal, then you can and should read Cullen's book, Columbine. But make sure you have a really good handle on things before you do. That way, when you finally read it your eyes will be wide open to all of the inaccuracies and falsehoods. There are good parts (mostly the background about victims and how their families coped afterward) and he does have a nice writing style.

EDITED TO ADD- I'd also recommend reading the 11k. Maybe not all of it, depending upon your level of interest in the case, but certainly the first 3000 pages or so as this contains main witnesses from the library and cafeteria. And then reading statements by those that knew E & D, like Nate Dykeman, Zach Heckler, Robyn Anderson, Chris Morris, etc.

I second the Kass Recommendation his book is very interesting and has a lot of insight since he was a reporter.

Comprehending Columbine is Ok... a bit dry I would save that one for last.
I have almost all the Columbine books so if you want any let me know and I will send them your way

thelmar wrote:

There is a new book coming out in January called Columbine: 20 years later and beyond that is supposed to cover what has happened in the US since the attack. How gun laws and legislation have been affected, how school security has changed, etc. I've pre-ordered it and will post a review once I've read it.

I wonder how much time they'll devote to talking about the copycats? Seems like they've been just about everywhere in the past 20 years since Columbine.

Kass's book was by far the most detailed and factual book I've read thus far.

QuestionMark wrote:

I wonder how much time they'll devote to talking about the copycats? Seems like they've been just about everywhere in the past 20 years since Columbine.

I believe it will touch on that, at least somewhat. This is posted on Amazon for the book:
"This book is a comprehensive analysis of the wide-ranging influence of the most notorious school shooting in America. The authors explore what has changed as a result of Columbine, as well as the areas where progress has not occurred. From the impact on survivors of mass shootings to the tactics of first responders, from media coverage of rampage attacks to legislative attempts to change firearm laws, from school safety procedures to the influence on subsequent shooters, Schildkraut and Muschert document the nation's response to a traumatic event that continues to shape our culture twenty years later." (Peter Langman, PhD, Author of School Shooters: Understanding High School, College, and Adult Perpetrators and Why Kids Kill: Inside the Minds of School Shooters

Doesnt 'Comprehending Columbine' elaborate on much of the myths around Columbine? That they were goths and so on. I thought it was heavily debunked that the two were goths or part of the TCM or listening to Marilyn Manson.

Most people are also very ignorant about what the goth subculture is all about.

Norwegian wrote:

Doesnt 'Comprehending Columbine' elaborate on much of the myths around Columbine? That they were goths and so on. I thought it was heavily debunked that the two were goths or part of the TCM or listening to Marilyn Manson.

Most people are also very ignorant about what the goth subculture is all about.

Eric did write about Marylin Manson and a bunch of other industrial rock artists in a school report and Dylan had a Marylin Manson poster in his room. He wasn't their favorite artist, sure, but they did listen to him. They weren't goths in the traditional sense, but had the label thrown on them since in their school culture it was all preppy and jock stuff, and their alternative style stuck out. They weren't part of the TCM, but were friends with a few of the members.

Norwegian wrote:

Doesnt 'Comprehending Columbine' elaborate on much of the myths around Columbine? That they were goths and so on. I thought it was heavily debunked that the two were goths or part of the TCM or listening to Marilyn Manson.

Most people are also very ignorant about what the goth subculture is all about.

"Comprehending Columbine," while not really a loathsome book, does go off on a bit of a stretchy tangent trying to tie Eric and Dylan and their actions to the "angry white guy" movement of the 1990s, epitomized by Timothy McVeigh, Randy Weaver, Colonel Bo Gritz (the inspiration for Rambo) and other right-wing figures of that ilk. Of course, the book was published in 2007 and now we're absolutely DROWNING in angry white right-wing dudebros.

Eric, maybe, but not sweet little loverboy Dyldo. :-)

Yeah, but werent they inspired by McVeigh, though? He mentions Oklahoma in one part of hes diary. I thought it was somewhat true that they were racists. Just not goths and part of the TCM, and Mansonites. Even Brooks Brown and Manson himselves dismissed this as false.

Norwegian wrote:

Yeah, but werent they inspired by McVeigh, though? He mentions Oklahoma in one part of hes diary. I thought it was somewhat true that they were racists. Just not goths and part of the TCM, and Mansonites. Even Brooks Brown and Manson himselves dismissed this as false.

I thought they just wanted to top McVeigh's body count really. McVeigh was a disturbed young man who went to serve in the First Gulf War and felt that his service amounted to government bullying--a remarkably quasi-liberal, pacifistic-sounding attitude for somebody who ended up blowing up a building and killing 168 people, 19 of whom were children.

As bad as constant gun massacres are, there'd be an even HIGHER body count if Timmy had ended up being as influential as Errogant and Dyldo.