Stuff White People Like

Stuff White People Like: The Definitive Guide to the Unique Taste of Millions by Christian Lander, 211 pages

I first noticed this book while shelving, laughed at the title and flipped to a random page to see what white people supposedly like. Apparently, we all like the car that I happen to drive. So when I stumbled across this again at the circulation desk, I figured I should probably just bite the bullet and find out how white I am.

The book is a list of 150 things, people, places, ideas, etc. that have been culled from the website, Stuff White People Like. Among the things listed: NPR, coffee, not carrying cash, adopting foreign children, Portland, Oregon, Apple products, organic food and IKEA. According to the handy-dandy checklist at the end of the book, I am approximately 50 percent white, which seems shocking considering that I have, more than once, been called the whitest person ever (on at least one of these occasions, my use of the word "bling" was involved).

So taking this personal discrepancy into account, I think that a better title for this book would be "Stuff White Yuppies Like" or "Stuff White Hipsters Like." If you were going for a general whiteness, you'd think that things like hockey, NASCAR and Lynryd Skynyrd would be included. Instead there is a blatant tone that things like these would indicate that the white person is the "wrong kind" of white person.

Putting my sociological objections aside, the book is pretty funny and a lot of the items listed had me laughing or thinking, "Oh, that's so (enter name here)!" There's a sequel to this book that takes a look at "white people" in different regions of the country. Not sure if I'll be picking it up, given that I'm only half the white person I thought I was.