Officially Pre-ordered

Well, my paranoia got the best of me tonight. Fearing that the Take Ivy reprint might actually sell out if I didn't go ahead and order, I placed my pre-order, and while I was at it, I placed my pre-order for True Prep. I'll admit that I'm more excited about the latter, but having the former certainly won't be bad. August 31st and September 7th should be awesome days.

Now we will finally see what those creepy Japanese dudes were really writing about.

Can Lisa Birnbach do any wrong? I'm still tempted to ask her to be my Facebook friend...

The Results: OPH by a landslide

In case you hadn't already seen the results of last week's cage match between The Official Preppy Handbook and Take Ivy, the OPH was declared to be the superior book by the not-so-narrow margin of 61% to 31%.

In the interest of presenting the original cage match as unbiasly as I could, I didn't really give my thoughts on either book. I would agree that the two books are really quite different in both their intended use and the perspectives they are coming from. Additionally, I understand that only a handful of people have actually seen Take Ivy in person, and that it is doubtful that many of those people could read Japanese. As a result, perhaps it was not a completely fair contest.

However, even once Take Ivy is reprinted later this year, it is my prediction that the OPH will still be the better book. I suspect once people can actually read the book for themselves, in English, that the Japanese fetishism of Ivy League clothing will only seem that much weirder, though it may put a lot of the pictures in more of a context than they exist now. Anyways, thanks to all who voted.

Cage Match: "Official Preppy Handbook" vs. "Take Ivy"

Inspired by a discussion on Twitter last week, which was inspired by the supposed republishing of Take Ivy, I have set up a poll to the right where you can vote on which book is superior: Take Ivy or The Official Preppy Handbook. No need to further expound on either book, this is a cage match, and there is plenty of info on both books floating around the internets. Without further ado, submit your vote.