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Christian Lander, the creator of the “Stuff White People Like” blog/book spoke Wednesday to a packed audience in Borders West.

Lander reciprocated the audience’s praise.

“I like this town. I think it belongs on the list. You guys sure do have a lot of coffee shops,” Lander said. Coffee, by the way, is No. 1 on his list.

During the hour-long speech, Lander provided listeners with insight to the blog’s success, laughs and a surprisingly, thought-provoking social critique.

This past January, Lander and a friend began compiling a list of things white people liked during an instant message conversation. Soon the list became a blog. Lander attributes its success to viral media such as StumbleUpon, a website browsing tool, and blogs rather than classic news outlets or newspaper coverage. Within two months of the instant message conversation, Lander was offered a book deal based on the initial blog posts he had written. He then had the task of writing the second half of the book in 30 days. The assignment proved far less daunting than it appeared.

“It was really easy,” Lander said. “I had a lot of fun. I had 30 years of self-hating pent up to write about.” (Self-deprecating humor is No. 103.)

By the third week of July, the book became a “New York Times” best-seller.

“I still feel like most of this thing is a dream,” Lander said. (Following your dreams is No. 131.)

Lander attributes much of the book’s surprising success to the strong connection it makes with people, regardless of their race. “You don’t have to be white to be white. The book is fundamentally about class more than anything else. ”

Much of the book was inspired by Lander himself, his peers and “pent up rage from grad school” (No. 81), where he encountered a mix of groupthink, hypocrisy and competition.

“[Other grad students] accepted everything without questioning anything. These were the same people who criticized conservatives and poor people for not being critical. They all thought exactly the same. It was unbelievable how uniform their thoughts and tastes were.”

Lander noted many people he knew resorted to competition as a way of distinguishing themselves from the pack. He argued because recent generations have grown up with a secure economy, they’ve been able to avoid the rat race. (Hating corporations is No. 82). Instead, they’ve had the luxury to refocus their work ethic and engage in different competitions such as who owns the most eco-friendly home (No. 134), listens to more independent bands (No. 41), has the most international travel experience (No. 19) and is most socially aware (No. 18).

“The competition is as fierce as ever. It is so amazing how ridiculous it is that these are the same people who hate the idea of a rat race,” Lander said. “It is a constant battle to be the white person with the best taste on earth.”

Amid the social critique, Lander maintained his sense of humor.

“Fortunately, I won [the competition],” he said.

“Stuff White People Like” is a success because of this mix of humor, self-deprecation and social critique. Lander manages to identify, dissect, mock and demystify millions of people while making them laugh.