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The 18 Most Hipster Books Of All Time

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#HipsterBooks was trending on Twitter last week thanks to a flurry of riffs on classic book titles: Remembrance of Things Pabst, A Farewell to Non-Inked Arms, He's Just Not That Into Your Vinyl Collection.

All puns aside, we got to thinking about which books are commonly enjoyed by the younger, trendier counterculture. It's easy to make jokes about hipsters, which is exactly why we will. But it's also interesting to examine the commonalities these stories share, and why these books resonate so strongly with contemporary readers.

"Hipster" has a nebulous definition, maybe intentionally so. A quick skim through the index of the n+1 book, What Was the Hipster?, which highlights words and phrases such as Bike: fixed gear, Midwestern sensibilities, ironic, gentrification, twee, and cafe, can help to piece together a semi-lucid image.

The book also mentions Richard Florida's The Rise of the Creative Class, a 10-year-old sociological study that predicted a flocking of talented, creative types to more urban areas, leading to a culture that greatly values diversity and sustainability. Sound familiar?

So if a hipster is a talented, socially conscientious creative type who sometimes struggles with sincerity, what's a hipster book? Some common elements include:

ºPastiche. It's been argued that hipsterdom is the end of original culture, and that our current subculture borrows from various elements of preexisting ones. Whether or not this has any truth to it is debatable, but it's not uncommon for hip books to borrow titles and themes from celebrated classics.
ºInaccessibility. Lengthy novels with equally lengthy footnotes.
ºExperimentation. A counterculture is tasked with challenging the norm, so it makes sense that books popular among hipsters would be about bizarre or fantastical topics.
ºExistential crisis. The titles that tend toward the realistic rather than the postmodern are generally about a disgruntled protagonist in his or her late 20s, wandering aimlessly and thinking about said aimless wanderings.

Without further ado, we present to you our very definitive list of the 18 most hipster books of all time. These books are so hipster, you probably haven't even heard of them yet!! But actually, you probably have, and you've probably loved them, and they've probably even made you weep, and you've probably carried them with you on the train so as to seem on-trend.
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Click for list and summary of the books

edit:

A Heartbreaking Work of Staggering Genius by Dave Eggers
No One Belongs Here More Than You by Miranda July
Eeeee Eee Eeee: A Novel by Tao Lin
Infinite Jest by David Foster Wallace
How Should a Person Be? by Sheila Heti
Open City by Teju Cole
Tree of Codes by Jonathan Safran Foer
As She Climbed Across the Table by Jonathan Lethem
Super Sad True Love Story by Gary Shteyngart
The Kraus Project by Jonathan Franzen
High Fidelity by Nick Hornby
Important Artifacts and Personal Property From the Collection of Lenore Doolan and Harold Morris, Including Books, Street Fashion, and Jewelry by Leanne Shapton
1Q84 by Haruki Murakami
Can't and Won't by Lydia Davis
The Flame Alphabet by Ben Marcus
Sex, Drugs, and Cocoa Puffs: A Low Culture Manifesto by Chuck Klosterman
St. Lucy's Home for Girls Raised by Wolves by Karen Russell
Click to expand...
 
  • A Heartbreaking Work of Staggering Genius by Dave Eggers
  • No One Belongs Here More Than You by Miranda July
  • Eeeee Eee Eeee: A Novel by Tao Lin
  • Infinite Jest by David Foster Wallace
  • How Should a Person Be? by Sheila Heti
  • Open City by Teju Cole
  • Tree of Codes by Jonathan Safran Foer
  • As She Climbed Across the Table by Jonathan Lethem
  • Super Sad True Love Story by Gary Shteyngart
  • The Kraus Project by Jonathan Franzen
  • High Fidelity by Nick Hornby
  • Important Artifacts and Personal Property From the Collection of Lenore Doolan and Harold Morris, Including Books, Street Fashion, and Jewelry by Leanne Shapton
  • 1Q84 by Haruki Murakami
  • Can't and Won't by Lydia Davis
  • The Flame Alphabet by Ben Marcus
  • Sex, Drugs, and Cocoa Puffs: A Low Culture Manifesto by Chuck Klosterman
  • St. Lucy's Home for Girls Raised by Wolves by Karen Russell
Click to expand...

David Foster Wallace, I should have expected that
 
Haven't heard of any of these.

I'm not hip enough.
I actually just don't read books any more...good thing I developed my vocabulary and reading comprehension when I was younger.
 
I've only read four of those so I guess I'm alright
 
I have not read a single one of those books, so I am entirely in the clear.
 
BrokenEchelon said:
No Catcher in the Rye?
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i don't think anyone over the age of 16 enjoys Catcher in the Rye

well, besides maybe this guy

003.jpg
 
what a weird set of criteria. especially since it's such a pejorative term being applied to, for the most part, a bunch of critically acclaimed books. (AHWOSG is a hipster-y book but it's also really good, so fuck em) it's not like it's just hipsters who love books like Infinite Jest, the literary establishment does too.

and every hipster hates Franzen, so that's just a stupid pick.
 
I knew IJ was going to be on there. It is tight.

Haruki Murakami's writing style just doesn't do it for me.(the translated writing.)
 
trifelife said:
The typeface is all crazy I can't "read" this!!!!!! Come on, son.
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I also didn't enjoy House of Leaves, but the typeface wasn't the problem.
It was the fact that there was a compelling story masked by layers of, to me, completely uninteresting side stories.
Though I also disliked some of the random "lists of objects in text boxts" and such.
 
1Q84 is hipster because it's more experimental and thus "less accessible" than his other books?

Seriously?

If anything it's too damn similar to everything else he's wriiten in his lifetime.
 
trifelife said:
The typeface is all crazy I can't "read" this!!!!!! Come on, son.
Click to expand...

I totally agree with him, that novel is complete utter fucking trite trash.

It's not a horror novel, there's nothing scary in it, it's mostly about this annoying fucking woman and this dude who has an obsession with making documentaries and cameras and is clearly neglecting is family.

Then of course, the drug addled escapades of a sex addict who is obsessed with the writings of some crazy old guy.

Don't even get me started on the asinine structure of the book itself, the entire book is uninteresting drivel.

Stephen King writes better books than that hack.
 
Hipster is such a lame word. It's like everyone who utters that word in disgust must be too young or clueless to ever remember the scenesters, alterna kids, new wavers, punk rockers, metal heads, or hippies that came before.
 
That's a stupid fucking list if I've ever seen one. Didn't know Huff Post was sinking to buzzfeed level of clickbaiting.
 
Zaphod said:
Hipster is such a lame word. It's like everyone who utters that word in disgust must be too young or clueless to ever remember the scenesters, alterna kids, new wavers, punk rockers, metal heads, or hippies that came before.
Click to expand...

it's a pretty old word actually

goes back to the 50s at least

and i enjoy catcher in the rye :( .. not my fav salinger tho
 
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