A-Z Of Café Culture: A Millennial's Reflection on Modern Café Culture

By Alexander Paul Burton

A poetic, philosophical, and sharply human meditation on the rituals, contradictions, and quiet performances of modern life - all filtered through the lens of the café.

In A-Z Of Café Culture, writer and musician Alexander Paul Burton brews together memory, identity, class, and caffeine in this lyrical reflection on the third spaces that shape us. From oat milk politics to greasy spoon nostalgia, each letter unlocks a new musing on how we gather, work, perform, and daydream in cafés across continents and classes.

With reflections spanning post-COVID burnout, queer invisibility, remote work, and the ethics of free soy milk, Burton captures the paradox of café culture: both sacred and staged, liberating yet exclusive, intimate but anonymous.

Blending history, philosophy, and autobiography, this book is a love letter to the public parlours where we write, scroll, sip, and survive. Entirely illustrated and written by the author, A-Z isn't just about cafés. It's about what they reveal - about us, about now, and about the art of being slightly caffeinated and slightly lost at the same time.

Wry. Observant. Profound.

This is a book for anyone who has ever eavesdropped on a breakup at the next table, wondered who's performing and who's present, and found clarity somewhere between a flat white and a philosophical crisis.