Our droll twitter tweets: @hipstergifts
Cool books to read, or to just leave around so that people will see them and be impressed. Hint: leave a bookmark sticking out near the end of the book.
What we talk about when we talk about—Raymond Carver! details
By Los Brothers Hernandez. Much more interesting and entertaining than the Eric Clapton song with a similar name. details
Legendary jazz bassist Charles Mingus' autobiography. More about his sex life than music; chock full of useful tips for the guys! details
Aravind Adiga's tale of a taxi driver in India who will do anything to become successful won the 2008 Booker Prize. And the New Yorker called it "darkly comic!" details
Cool comics long before there were "cool" comics. details
We thought that there were too many "Zen and (whatever)" books out there, but this clearly fills a market need. Includes the 24 habits of highly effective zombies. details
You can't go wrong with a new David Sedaris book. You know it will be well written and very, very funny. details
Back in the sixties, a weekly Japanese magazine for boys licensed the Japanese rights to the groovy American Batman TV show and let early manga master Jiro Kuwata run with it. He created some strange, very Japanese stuff that was never collected in Japan or translated into English—until now. details
"Some are deadly, some practical, some wacky, but all are genuine and used today on the streets of Japan, at home, and in manga and anime." Much easier than learning spoken or written Japanese. details
The original text of Jane Austen's beloved novel with all-new scenes of bone-crunching zombie action. That's right, zombie scenes have been inserted into the classic text to turn this novel into a roaring, updated, blood-fest! Complete with 20 illustrations in the style of C. E. Brock, the original illustrator of Pride and Prejudice. details
According to the author, " It's chock full actual vintage and vintage-inspired craft projects that are clever, charming, sometimes hysterically campy." details
Edited by Art Spiegelman, featuring Maurice Sendak, Jules Feiffer, David Sedaris, and more. Get it for your favorite strange kid. details
"Ware's graphically inventive, wonderfully realized novel-in-comics follows the sad fortunes of four generations of phlegmatic, defeated men while touching on themes of abandonment, social isolation and despair within the sweeping depiction of Chicago's urban transformation over the course of a century," but don't let that scare you off. details
A full-color tour of the King's bedazzling 1970s stage wardrobe. details
By Anaïs Nin. We like our porn nice and classy. And that umlaut over the "i" in her name—ooh la la! details
by Susan Sontag. Reached "Penguin Modern Classic" status a few years ago, and with good reason. details
When Hollywood was Hollywood, a man was a man, and Bob Evans was that man, baby! details
As in
As its cover describes it, "The legendary underground classic of Hollywood's darkest and best kept secrets." A classic of hardcore dirt. details
Learn how to combine some basic electronics skills with a bit of simple sewing to create light-up buttons for your jackets, headphone/hats, and more. details
Crust Toothpaste! Minute Lice! Weakies: Breakfast of Chumps! These mid-1970s parodies of popular product packaging came with Topps bubblegum and were long overdue for coffee table book treatment. And with an introduction by Art Spiegelman, you know that they're now Serious Pop Culture—and still damn funny. details
400 facts about the World's Greatest Human. For example: When an episode of “Walker, Texas Ranger” aired in France, the French surrendered to Chuck Norris just to be on the safe side. And: Every piece of furniture in Chuck Norris’s house is a Total Gym. details
Was Massachusetts Bay Colony governor John Winthrop a communitarian, a Christlike Christian, or conformity’s tyrannical enforcer? Answer: Yes! Was Rhode Island’s architect, Roger Williams, America’s founding freak or the father of the First Amendment? Same difference. What does it take to get that jezebel Anne Hutchinson to shut up? A hatchet. details
This daring combination of science, history, and DIY projects will show you how to live more dangerously. All of the projects have short learning curves, are hands-on and affordable, and demonstrate true but reasonable risk. details
Jane and Michael Stern's classic work on cool local food wherever you happen to be. (Hint: no fancy restaurants or national fast food chains are included.). USA Today called it "a bible for motorists seeking mouth-watering barbecue or homemade pie," and People magazine called it "a cross-country culinary guide that should be stashed in every food lover’s glove compartment." details
In which Tica the fairy teaches Princess Ruruna about designing databases, entity-relationship models, SQL, and more. Seriously. An English translation of Japanese manga comic. details
Vendor sez "Do stage hypnosis & make money. Written by certified hypno-therapist." You will buy this book... you will buy this book... details
The pulpiest of Jim Thompson's fiction. According to Stanley Kubrick, "Probably the most chilling and believable first-person story of a criminally warped mind I have ever encountered." details
1961 was truly the year of the Boodleheimer. Well, it should have been. "Now you have to sing it again or else you will turn into a bathtub." details
There's no emoticon for how you'll feel when you read this handy reference work. details
It's not a good idea to break the the Lego Company's safety rules, but if you did, you could build many strange and dangerous things, as this book explains. Check out some the
Clement Greenberg helped convince the world the Jackson Pollack and Willem de Kooning were important artists and that New York had really become the center of the post-war art world. details