The Hipster Handbook

Robert Lanham

Anchor Books, 2003

… The Hipster Handbook

Robert Lanham

Anchor Books, 2003

Given that average Pitt students – OK, all Pitt students – do not go to a liberal arts school whose football team hasn’t won a game since the Reagan administration, it makes it a little more difficult to classify them as hipsters.

But don’t worry. In his book “The Hipster Handbook,” Robert Lanham pinpoints other clues to determining your hipster status. If your hair looks best unwashed, if you frequently use the term “postmodern,” carry a messenger bag and/or listen to records released by Matador, Thrill Jockey, Smells Like Records and Drag City – you could quite possibly be a hipster. In other words, if you go to Pitt, but you work for WPTS, you could still be redeeming your hipster status.

In a throwback to the popular 1980 release, “The Official Preppy Handbook” by Lisa Birnbach, “The Hipster Handbook” provides guidelines for being a hipster as well as spotting them. Lanham alternates categorization of certain types of hipsters with key hipster vocabulary (say “deck” instead of “cool”), lists of music and movies hipsters listen to and watch (Johnny Cash and “Buffalo ’66”) and tips for growing old gracefully as a hipster (quit smoking, quit the band).

Written in what may or may not be an ironic tone, Lanham quite accurately picks up on the details of hipster life; it’s like he could almost be one himself. The book is extremely up-to-date, too, but to be honest, if it’s already in this book, it’s probably already fin (done and over with) – hipsters don’t like engaging in trends everyone else knows about.

Those who enjoy listening to Dave Matthews while driving in their SUVs and watch college football might not appreciate this book as much as those who don’t engage in these activities, but it’s kind of hard not to at least chuckle while looking through this book. And, even if you’re a Pitt student, if you look hard enough, you just might find yourself while you’re doing so.