Reviews

More Information Than You Require by John Hodgman

sbaunsgard's review against another edition

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4.0

Were you aware?

This is the second compendium of complete world knowledge (a.k.a. fake trivia) from Hodgman. You may know him as The Daily Show's resident expert or as the PC from Apple's "I'm a Mac, I'm a PC" ads. If you are someone who enjoys overeducated, referential jokes about subjects such as the AC/DC electricity battle between Westinghouse and Edison, you will enjoy this. If you enjoyed the last book, you will enjoy this. There are more modern references in "More" than in "Areas" (for example, references to the 2008 election, Ted Stevens, etc.) I enjoyed both books greatly.

The interplay between Hodgman and Coulton was fabulous at the book reading I went to for "More," and I look forward to "rereading" the audiobok, when it comes out. (The one for "Areas" is fabulous.)

I have to confess, though, that I did not read the entire list of 700 molemen.

sharonfalduto's review against another edition

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4.0

Hodgman's a brilliant, weird little man, who has written this almanac of nearly 100% fake trivia. Like information about which US presidents have had hooks for hands, and a comprehensive list of Mole Man names.

renatasnacks's review against another edition

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3.0

Like its predecessor, this book was intensely weird and funny. By the end of it I did get a little tired of the intense strangeness. But still, hilarious, and if you liked The Areas of My Expertise, you'll certainly like this.

ubalstecha's review against another edition

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5.0

To read a John Hodgman book is to laugh and chuckle at the silliness and absurdity of it all. But to listen to the audio book is like getting to listen to a comedy album version of the book.



Read by the author, Hodgman is not content to simply read his text to us. Instead, he is joined by a variety of special guests, most notably Jonathan Coulton, to skip though the novel. There are musical accompaniments, sarcastic banter and dramatically reenacted scenes.



If YouTube proves to be true, some of this work was part of the book tour, on which Coulton accompanied Hodgman, but the rest has been createdly specially for the audiobook. Hodgman's wonderfully sarcastic delivery, familiar to many readers from the Daily Show, helps the book move quickly. The only part that drags is the audio version of the "Page-a-Day, It Happened in the Past Calendar" where some of the continuing jokes wear a bit thin.



A must for any fan of Hodgman's eve growing body of work.

cl1ch3's review against another edition

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3.0

Listening to this audiobook was more like listening to a podcast. It was definitely entertaining, but at times the book did drag.

esskaysquared's review against another edition

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3.0

After reading the Areas of my Expertise, I didn't think that there was anything else for me to know. OH HOW WRONG I WAS.

jens3's review against another edition

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5.0

John Hodgman, you are the light of my life as always.

mw_bookgraph's review against another edition

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2.0

He is pretty funny. But may be a better vacation read. Really funny on the radio and/or TV. Maybe he is just better as a human than a writer. I don't know.

breccan's review against another edition

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1.0

So much nonsense that I couldn't hold out for the commentary of some of my favorite Daily Show guests...

shanbear16's review against another edition

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3.0

The last few disks of the audio version are "this day in the past" lists. It gets pretty tedious to listen to. The first few cds are the actual audio book. I'm not sure what to make of this book. I think John Hodgman's humor just doesn't entirely appeal to me and I found a lot of this book to fall flat. But that just might be my own personal taste.