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kitsune42's review
4.0
Listened to this on a long drive recently. It's very fun, although the 50 states bit goes on a tad too long for me. He has Jonathan Coulton as his troubadour and Paul Rudd makes a cameo. Definitely worth a listen.
loujoseph's review
4.0
works about the same as his daily show appearences. good stuff, especially the 700 hobo names.
ericfheiman's review
2.0
John Hodgman is funny. He is smart. He is clever. This book, unfortunately, is not a good mix of these traits. If you love McSweeney's this might be for you. If you are sick of wry, smarty-pants humor that's about showing off one cleverness then stay away.
bupdaddy's review
5.0
While the format of the book makes it hard to get into, when somebody ordered this from me I had only a few days to read it, and I got into it. It helped that the power has been out most of today.
It's really funny! There's lots of good absurdist humor with good improv-style justification, context and backstory that makes much of it seem almost believable. Yet stupidly funny.
Some of the best stuff is in the 55 dramatic situations (based on the 4 categories of stories many of us learned as students, but with 'a stranger comes to town' added on with 'a town springs up around a stranger,' and many of the 'man versus nature scenarios' laugh-out-loud funny - 'volcanoes come to town,' 'Saint Bernards arrive first as rescuers, but later reveal themselves to be evil captors.'
Another very strong part is the state trivia section (if Alaska were superimposed on the lower 48, it would stretch from Texas to Manhattan, and DESTROY ALL BENEATH IT).
Also, finally, I'm pretty sure the guy has read my mind. Or we have similar senses of humor.
It's really funny! There's lots of good absurdist humor with good improv-style justification, context and backstory that makes much of it seem almost believable. Yet stupidly funny.
Some of the best stuff is in the 55 dramatic situations (based on the 4 categories of stories many of us learned as students, but with 'a stranger comes to town' added on with 'a town springs up around a stranger,' and many of the 'man versus nature scenarios' laugh-out-loud funny - 'volcanoes come to town,' 'Saint Bernards arrive first as rescuers, but later reveal themselves to be evil captors.'
Another very strong part is the state trivia section (if Alaska were superimposed on the lower 48, it would stretch from Texas to Manhattan, and DESTROY ALL BENEATH IT).
Also, finally, I'm pretty sure the guy has read my mind. Or we have similar senses of humor.
scheu's review
4.0
There are very few books that make me laugh out loud. I blame much of this on my sense of humor - since I tend towards nonsense and bizarre humor, most books just leave me cold.
And then came John Hodgman.
Better known as the 'PC Guy' from Apple commercials, Hodgman gave an interview on NPR several months ago. He was freakin' hilarious. Part of his hilarity stemmed from his combination of entirely serious Pythonesque (well, Chapman and Cleese-esque) delivery, and part stemmed from the seemingly random topics of his research.
For instance, hobo studies.
This book is just chock full of goodness. It's like one of those Bathroom Reader books on drugs. Funny stuff for smart folks, or folks who want to seem smart when they bring up hobo studies at parties.
And then came John Hodgman.
Better known as the 'PC Guy' from Apple commercials, Hodgman gave an interview on NPR several months ago. He was freakin' hilarious. Part of his hilarity stemmed from his combination of entirely serious Pythonesque (well, Chapman and Cleese-esque) delivery, and part stemmed from the seemingly random topics of his research.
For instance, hobo studies.
This book is just chock full of goodness. It's like one of those Bathroom Reader books on drugs. Funny stuff for smart folks, or folks who want to seem smart when they bring up hobo studies at parties.
onesonicbite's review
5.0
I’ve been in love with John Hodgman’s podcast Judge John Hodgman. He apparently picked a passage from his own book for the obscure cultural reference, and I figured “hey, why not read it?” I expected to read something that is sprinkled with humor but contain tons of pretentious cultural references, and the book did not disappoint. Basically The Areas of My Expertise is written in the same style as a Farmer Almanac, many many random facts sprinkled throughout the book. But what John Hodgman does instead of writes a bunch of fake facts, and made up stories written in a dry tone.
But I don’t think this a book for everybody. If you like reading the New Yorker, including their humor section, then you will probably like this book. Otherwise I think Hodgman comes off as too dry for people tell when he is being humorous or serious. It also helps if you know of Hodgman’s humor before picking up the book. I won’t lie that I imagined Hodgman delivering some of the lines in the book. Again this helped me read very “silly” jokes as if it was very serious, adding to the humor.
Overall what I love about Hodgman is that he is usually pretty good about being funny but not offending certain groups. He is well educated and is sensitive to many issues, in fact he has actually given some great advice in his New York Times column. I think the only thing that is offensive is the book is his chapter on hobos. One might think this is insensitive to the homeless, but I think he was more so poking fun at the romanticization of “hobos” during the Great Depression. In fact the hobo wikipedia page doesn’t seem too far off from what Hodgman wrote.
But I don’t think this a book for everybody. If you like reading the New Yorker, including their humor section, then you will probably like this book. Otherwise I think Hodgman comes off as too dry for people tell when he is being humorous or serious. It also helps if you know of Hodgman’s humor before picking up the book. I won’t lie that I imagined Hodgman delivering some of the lines in the book. Again this helped me read very “silly” jokes as if it was very serious, adding to the humor.
Overall what I love about Hodgman is that he is usually pretty good about being funny but not offending certain groups. He is well educated and is sensitive to many issues, in fact he has actually given some great advice in his New York Times column. I think the only thing that is offensive is the book is his chapter on hobos. One might think this is insensitive to the homeless, but I think he was more so poking fun at the romanticization of “hobos” during the Great Depression. In fact the hobo wikipedia page doesn’t seem too far off from what Hodgman wrote.
susanbrooks's review
2.0
I really like John Hodgman's sense of humor and his totally deadpan ability to bullshit, but it didn't sustain me for a whole book. I listened to this one, and really liked the musical performer who sang all the state songs (I can't imagine this was part of the printed version though.)