Metropolitan Life by Fran Lebowitz

This chick is great.

The fact that this was published in '78 is incredible. It's still appropriate, and given the atmosphere of nothing meaning anything and all trends being subjective and personal, it's refreshingly harshly and unapologetically opinionated. Plus it is hilarious. What more do you want?

Taste exists and it means something. Who would've thought?

Some of the chapters read back like shallow, played stereotypes, but you also get the opinion that Fran might've minted said perspectives, not to mention she lays 'em out with style as opposed to leaning on the Buzzfeed-esq glittery crutches of click-baiting titles, fast editing, and faux-hipster mass appeal. You also get the idea that these stereotypes actually applied during the time she wrote, as opposed to later when said ideas were more likely used to either progress the NY brand people are so desperate for or write episodes of Friends.

Other chapters are so specific, cutting, and relevant you can't help but actually laugh out loud. It's inspiring. It's like: once you allow yourself to have a even simple opinions, you also allow yourself a foundation to build more sophisticated ideas. And once you have that, life has some fucking flavor to it. It's the antidote to boredom.

And then on top of it all, the prose is fun. It's sardonic and pretentious. Elegant, wordy, descriptions of relevant trivia. Who talks like this? No one. Except writers. Which is the joke. And it doesn't (really) get old.