50 Book Challenge: Book 19

Last night, I finished the next book in my 50 Book Challenge!

Slanted and Enchanted: The Evolution of Indie Culture
By Kaya Oakes

I bought Slanted and Enchanted a year or two ago. I'm actually not quite sure when it was, but I was going on a big kick of assorted pop culture stuff. I was reading a lot of Chuck Klosterman and I was probably obsessing over DIY related stuff too. However, soon after buying the book, I lost interest in it because I somehow got the impression that it looked boring...which makes no sense, but whatever. SO, I finally started reading it a few days ago and I LOVED IT.

It wasn't boring in the least. I loved the writing and pretty much everything in it was new to me in some way or another. I know a bit about zines and DIY crafts and independent music labels, but this focused a lot on the start and peak of some of these things from the 60's up into the mid 2000's.

I was honestly a bit more interested in the earlier stuff about independent zine, poetry, and comic publishing and independent punk bands etc. I did like reading about the later stuff as well, but I think the earlier stuff was really refreshing and interesting. Even as the author points out, things just don't work like that anymore. It's not a lot of small tight-knit communities, instead the style from those small communities has been mass produced and replicated into the mainstream. It really just made me want to start a zine, a local band, create some quirky craft, and start and independent bookstore all at once...mostly the independent bookstore one....and I'd have art shows and poetry readings and local bands play on weekends.....sounds good to me!

Anyways, I really enjoyed this book and I'd recommend this to anyone interested in indie culture, DIY ethics, or the roots and inspiration to some of those hipster bands and styles the kids are into these days! It covers a lot of topics and is written really well. I could actually really see one of our favorite former Buzznet staffers Breesays writing something similar to this. Anyways, go find and read this book, then create something awesome of your own.

Have you read this book? What are you reading right now?