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4.16 AVERAGE
4.16 AVERAGE
funny
hopeful
reflective
medium-paced
3.5 stars. Some of the essays in here were great, some were less compelling, but overall I just really love listening to John Hodgman. Definitely recommend the audio version for this one, I think it adds a lot.
I really like John Hodgman and his weird sense of humor. While not as cohesive as Vacationland, Medallion Status was just as delightful. I highly recommend for Judge John Hodgman fans (it's especially better if you can read it in his voice in your head or listen to the audio).
What a lovely audiobook. It's like listening to a good friend tell you stories that you want to hear.
funny
hopeful
inspiring
medium-paced
This was so much fun! I don't know what to write about it, though. If you know and enjoy John Hodgman, you will enjoy this book as well. The essays contain a good mix of humor and life lessons, which I also found in his previous book. A good read!
I have never been so glad to have read a book mostly intended to be funny that I didn’t find funny at all. Let me explain.
I have read two John Hodgman books. The first one, The Areas of My Expertise, I read in hardcopy (because that was back when I still read books in hardcopy), mostly in doctors’ waiting rooms (because I was spending a lot of time in those at that point in my life). And my reaction was mostly: I can see he’s doing a thing, but I have a very limited appetite for this thing and wish he would stop now. And also: Oh my god, can he please stop trying SO VERY HARD to be clever? But I could also see that he had the potential to be a lot more interesting to me in the future, so I put him in my mental Try Again in a Decade file, and then — did not do that. It took more like a decade and a half. Still. I did get back to him eventually.
And he is definitely a noticeably better writer now. I could see that he’d settled perfectly into his narrative voice, into his subject matter, into his structure. But I still wasn’t laughing. I wasn’t even amused. And then, in a twist I did not see coming, he told me why. He talked about acting in a TV show, and how the director kept telling him to be smaller, more natural, not punch the jokes so hard, and I realized that’s what he does. That’s who he is. He comes in with his ukulele and weird moustache and honking clown nose (probably not) and basically screams I AM BEING FUNNY. HI. THIS IS THE FUNNY PART. He can’t not. And I am pretty limited in the kinds of humor that appeal to me, and mostly they are smaller. More natural. Not punched at all.
(An example of this: he retells Gaiman’s imposter syndrome story in this book, which is fine, because Gaiman himself has told it one million times. But Gaiman, when he tells it, stops at the actual key line. Hodgman was physically unable NOT to go on for half a page of point belaboring with many exclamation points, to help us get the joke. And for me, that made it not a joke anymore. It was just a man yelling at me.)
But. Hodgman is not only being funny in this book. He also talks about the death of his cat, about the pain and misery of the election of Donald Trump, and the even greater pain and misery of watching his children live through that election. And when he talks about those things, when he’s not trying to be funny, he’s suddenly genuine and warm and compelling. It’s amazing. And those essays, even though they were on topics I would honestly rather never read about again — those essays I loved.
So reading this book was remarkably rewarding for me. I learned something about myself! I read some really good essays! I understood a minor mystery that had been plaguing me for 15 years! I got a lot from this. I just didn’t get what I hoped to get. (A laugh.)
I have read two John Hodgman books. The first one, The Areas of My Expertise, I read in hardcopy (because that was back when I still read books in hardcopy), mostly in doctors’ waiting rooms (because I was spending a lot of time in those at that point in my life). And my reaction was mostly: I can see he’s doing a thing, but I have a very limited appetite for this thing and wish he would stop now. And also: Oh my god, can he please stop trying SO VERY HARD to be clever? But I could also see that he had the potential to be a lot more interesting to me in the future, so I put him in my mental Try Again in a Decade file, and then — did not do that. It took more like a decade and a half. Still. I did get back to him eventually.
And he is definitely a noticeably better writer now. I could see that he’d settled perfectly into his narrative voice, into his subject matter, into his structure. But I still wasn’t laughing. I wasn’t even amused. And then, in a twist I did not see coming, he told me why. He talked about acting in a TV show, and how the director kept telling him to be smaller, more natural, not punch the jokes so hard, and I realized that’s what he does. That’s who he is. He comes in with his ukulele and weird moustache and honking clown nose (probably not) and basically screams I AM BEING FUNNY. HI. THIS IS THE FUNNY PART. He can’t not. And I am pretty limited in the kinds of humor that appeal to me, and mostly they are smaller. More natural. Not punched at all.
(An example of this: he retells Gaiman’s imposter syndrome story in this book, which is fine, because Gaiman himself has told it one million times. But Gaiman, when he tells it, stops at the actual key line. Hodgman was physically unable NOT to go on for half a page of point belaboring with many exclamation points, to help us get the joke. And for me, that made it not a joke anymore. It was just a man yelling at me.)
But. Hodgman is not only being funny in this book. He also talks about the death of his cat, about the pain and misery of the election of Donald Trump, and the even greater pain and misery of watching his children live through that election. And when he talks about those things, when he’s not trying to be funny, he’s suddenly genuine and warm and compelling. It’s amazing. And those essays, even though they were on topics I would honestly rather never read about again — those essays I loved.
So reading this book was remarkably rewarding for me. I learned something about myself! I read some really good essays! I understood a minor mystery that had been plaguing me for 15 years! I got a lot from this. I just didn’t get what I hoped to get. (A laugh.)
I wish he would pull out the chapter on jobs, written for his 13 year old fans, and sell it as it's own little book. It would be a PERFECT high school (or college!) graduation gift.
A Hodgman book is always a treat. The only thing that would be better, of course, would be to listen to the audio book as narrated by Hodgman himself.