I'm white and he didn't know enough of what I like

books:


	• Stuff White People Like: A Definitive Guide to the Unique Taste of Millions Christian Lander Random House Trade Paperbacks, 2008 - 224 pages average customer review:based on 30 reviews view larger image
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A funny book to show your hipster friends

I was excited to see this book emerge from the popular web blog, although a more accurate title would probably be, "What white twenty-something hipsters like". Being as I am in this age group, many of these topics ring true for either myself, my friends, or both.

I think that the author is both critical and self-deprecating, although I notice a healthy level of condescension, which can wear a bit after a while.

This book is best kept out on the coffee table as a good laugh with friends, or to show them that topic that you think fits them to a tee.

It is a great to see that the blog is continuously being expanded, so we are likely to see much more of what what people continue to like for quite some time.

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A Superb and Insightful Read

Here's the good news about white people: they're just like us. They seek the approval of their peers but want to do as little work as possible to achieve that, and feel good about themselves by looking down on others. The bad news: they run the world.

That's why the rest of the human race wants to either be them, marry into them, screw them, screw them over, or all of the above. To prove my point consider this: the richest non-white families in America and around the world will spare no expense in sending their children to Yale and Harvard so that their kids can learn to be white and meet white people. That's a fact that Christian Lander glibly ignores in his book, and instead creates a fantasy that white people are just spoiled kids who need to be tolerated. That's one of the two flaws with this book.

The other: the author happens to be white. Mr. Lander repeats how white people like to have it both ways: they like diversity and ethnicity as long as it comes with a warranty and you can order out. So this book suffers from being too white in that it's alternative without being edgy and it's satirical without being dark -- it performs the ultimate white trick of making fun of white people without actually offending them.

Nevertheless, this is a superb and insightful book. By reading this book you'll discover that white people are all unique individuals who live in Portland Oregon, who have studied abroad in Europe, love sushi and marijuana and yoga, like having black and gay friends who are basically white, like to renovate old homes, and are the only reason why things like documentaries and liberal arts universities exist.

After reading this book I now have a fuller, deeper understanding of the world. I'm Chinese but I do have many white friends, and they perplex me. Why is he listening to public radio on a Saturday morning? Why does he want to invite me to a film festival -- who wants to watch that crap? Why did he suddenly decide to get married at age 39? Why does he subscribe to the New Yorker, and not actually read it? Why does she have all the ugly modern furniture in her room? Now I finally know: It's because they're white.

The book is subtitled "The Definitive Guide to the Unique Taste of Millions" but it's more of a work in progress than an encyclopedia. There are many instances where I found myself arguing with the author. For example, Christian Lander writes that white people like the New Yorker -- but in my experience I've discovered that they like the New York Review of Books more because they've never read it, and they're pretty sure no one's ever read it either.

And yes Wes Anderson is a very white director but I think the quintessentially white director is Noah Baumbach. His debut film "Kicking and Screaming" was a movie that every white has thought of making, and it's about college kids who speak and think in a manner that white people imagined they once did.

But I'm merely nitpicking here. This will indubitably become one of the most important books of our time, and I strongly encourage this text to be taught in high schools around the world.

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I'd like to see a Stuff the BLACKS Like version...

We should definitely include something in that one about NOOSES and BASKETBALLS. We blacks would find that hilarious!
RACIST | STEREOTYPES = Laugh-Out-Loud Funny

Mocking the racial majority is no more entertaining than finding humor in minority stereotypes.

Yes, this book is humorous in a way (satirical at best), although I don't find it funny. It is inarguably racist in tone.
I wonder how well a "Stuff Black People Like" version would go over?

This book is more aptly described as a 'racist social commentary seen through the eyes of a college educated elitist twenty-something white male which at the same time manages to thinly disguise and promote racist views of other ethnic groups'.

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I'm white and he didn't know enough of what I like

Occasionally this book is very funny, but about 70% is mediocre. Not good enough for this honky.

Stuff Limousine Liberals Like

The one sub-group of white people that this book makes fun of is mostly upper class, urbanite/hipster liberals, therefore it is hilarious. Having many friends who fit this subgroup, I would recite the some of the chapters from the web site to them and they couldn't believe how stereotypically they were. Sunday NY Times, NPR, Barack Obama, Recycling...it's all in good fun, smart and hilarious. And yes, I fall victim to some of the chapters here too.

reviews: page 1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6

They love nothing better than sipping free-trade gourmet coffee, leafing through the Sunday New York Times, and listening to David Sedaris on NPR (ideally all at the same time). Apple products, indie music, food co-ops, and vintage T-shirts make them weak in the knees.

They believe they?re unique, yet somehow they?re all exactly the same, talking about how they ?get? Sarah Silverman?s ?subversive? comedy and Wes Anderson?s ?droll? films. They?re also down with diversity and up on all the best microbrews, breakfast spots, foreign cinema, and authentic sushi. They?re organic, ironic, and do not own TVs.

You know who they are: They?re white people. And they?re here, and you?re gonna have to deal. Fortunately, here?s a book that investigates, explains, and offers advice for finding social success with the Caucasian persuasion. So kick back on your IKEA couch and lose yourself in the ultimate guide to the unbearable whiteness of being.

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