Pop Culture Reads

Popular culture is the entirety of ideas, perspectives, attitudes, memes, images, and other phenomena that are within the mainstream of a given culture, especially Western culture of the early to mid 20th century and the emerging global mainstream of the late 20th and early 21st century.
~Wikipedia

We've got a bit of the culture vulture bent here at abcreads, and we like to stay abreast of the latest trends, to read the backstory of the most ubiquitous memes, and generally to find out what makes our culture tick. To this end we've assembled a list of books to entertain, enlighten, and, for good measure, show you one man's quest to be the ultimate hipster.


The End: 50 Apocalyptic Visions from Pop Culture that You Should Know About-- Before It's Too Late by Laura Barcella

In Praise of Messy Lives: Essays by Katie Roiphe

Distrust that Particular Flavor by William Gibson

Moby-Duck: The True Story of 28,800 Bath Toys Lost at Sea, and of the Beachcombers, Oceanographers, Environmentalists, and Fools-- Including the Author-- Who Went in Search of Them by Donovan Hohn

Comic-Con and the Business of Pop Culture: What the World's Wildest Trade Show Can Tell Us about the Future of Entertainment by Rob Salkowitz

Waiting for the Barbarians: Essays on the Classics and Pop Culture by Daniel Mendelsohn [eBook]

The Ruby Slippers, Madonna's Bra, and Einstein's Brain: The Locations of America's Pop Culture Artifacts by Chris Epting [eBook]

James Dean Died Here: The Locations of America's Pop Culture Landmarks by Chris Epting

Bowling, Beatniks, and Bell-Bottoms: Pop Culture of 20th-Century America by Sara Pendergast and Tom Pendergast, editors

Pop When the World Falls Apart: Music in the Shadow of Doubt edited by Eric Weisbard

Back to Our Future: How the 1980s Explain the World We Live in Now--Our Culture, Our Politics, Our Everything by David Sirota

HipsterMattic: One Man's Quest to Become the Ultimate Hipster by Matt Granfield [eBook]