Customer Reviews

More Information Than You Require

5 star:		(16)
4 star:		(9)
3 star:		(1)
2 star:		(2)
1 star:		(4)

 

 

Hodgman's book, like the man, is hysterical. I was fortunate to hear him speak in Brookline, MA (his hometown) and after he signed books. I then spent most of the night reading. And much to my family's annoyance, laughing. At 3:00 AM, laughter in a (mostly) sleeping house isn't good.

The section "How to become a famous minor television personality" is worth the price of the book by itself, It is everything you wanted to know about how Hodgman went from a literary agent and writer to a regular on The Daily Show with Jon Stewart and his gig as "I'm a PC...". As you can imagine, there are many twists to the story including details pertaining to Battlestar Galactica, Justin Timberlake, American Airlines Admirals Club and other seemingly random people and places.

A clever touch is that the book doubles as a page-a-day-calendar (there is a date on each page with a date-specific bit of wisdom). After reading much of the book in one sitting last night, I realize I messed up. I should have had the book in the bathroom and read a single page each day while on the throne. Somehow I think Hodgman would appreciate that.

Let me make a prediction. As a writer, John Hodgman will be to poetry what Stephen King is to modern historical thought. Is that farcical? You bet. Okay, John Hodgman isn't a poet, and Stephen King while an unsurpassed author of horror fiction, isn't an author of history. One fact that isn't a farce, however, John Hodgman is simply brilliant as a writer of faux facts. From a humor point of view, I can't remember a book that I've enjoyed more than More Information than You Require.

Coming on the heels of Hodgman's unique The Areas of My Expertise, More Information Than You Require is in everyway a continuation of the earlier book; even continuing the numbering of the pages. By the way, More Information will stand on its own as a read, but for the uninformed reader the paging may throw them off. Where as Area's of My Expertise dealt with hobos and hobo names, More Information deals with mole men and mole men names and claims that even the iconic Thomas Jefferson had dealings with them. Brilliant! Other notable points that stand out: Today in History sections. What's the funniest bit? Racing hermit crabs! I'd like to think of something to compare The Areas of My Expertise and More Information than You Require to, but there simply isn't anything; like the cheese, they stand alone.

The English language is very precise. Terms like "genius" and "stunning" have very specific meanings. One of our communication problems today is that we're skewing the language with new uses/meanings for specific terms. Hodgman's More Information Than You Require is stunningly funny. It will entertain you for months or years to come. Is the book written by a genius? Only time will tell. I guess if Hodgman discovers how we can travel faster than the speed of light we could call him a genius. He is an intellect and he is certainly funny.

During this Presidential election year and especially because of the economic bad news, we need More Information than You Require.

This review was written on a PC for PC. I hope that's not a conflict of interest.

Peace to all.

Simply put, this book (and its predecessor) is/are the epitome of COMPLETE WORLD KNOWLEDGE. I bought this book the day it came out, and the introduction alone was worth the full purchase price.

In addition to useful information on mole-men and gambling, this book also includes a helpful section on the presidents, past and future, as well as a brief exposition on how the glorious half-sultan of our nation is chosen.

The page-a-day calendar is also a handy feature, but I hope that the paperback edition has different facts, as buying the same calendar twice would be uneconomical. (You will have to buy the paperback edition, since the proper way to read a page-a-day calender is, of course, to rip out each page once you're done with it.)

All in all, this book is well worth any amount of money that you agree to pay for it, and should be on every shelf of the serious scholar.

If you only know John Hodgman as the perennially outclassed PC of Apple's "Mac vs. PC" ads, you are missing so much of who he is. If your knowledge extends to his recurring role as resident expert of Comedy Central's "The Daily Show," you're still only scratching the surface. And if you've gotten to his 2005 faux almanac "The Areas of My Expertise," you know he captures the title of the most oddly brilliant writer in literature today.

And if you haven't gotten to his new book "More Information Than You Require," shame on you. Once again, Hodgman has written a book filled with made-up facts on subjects ranging from gambling to presidential elections to how he plans to spend his enormous wealth. The book is a direct sequel to "The Areas of My Expertise" in every way: it begins exactly where that book left off (page 237), has the same format of lists/predictions/hoboes and is once again a book you can't read in public because everyone stares at you for laughing so hard.

The closest equivalents to Hodgman's fiction-masquerading-as-truth style are The Daily Show's "America: The Book" and Stephen Colbert's "I Am America (And So Can You!)," but his books avoid being limited to one area of study. His topics oscillate between counting how many United States presidents have had hooks for hands (eight), the best way to cook an owl (goat sacrifice is involved) and racing hermit crabs for money (the winning strategy is to use trained falcons against the competition).

In the hands of a lesser author these facts would fall apart into babble, but Hodgman - a Yale graduate and professional literary agent - has a rare gift for holding it all together. He admits at the beginning that every single fact in the book is one he made up himself, and then goes on to state each one in a matter-of-fact tone, even supplementing them with footnotes that call back to facts even more patently absurd.

The footnotes help hold his structure together, as does the addition of a "Today in History" feature where every page has an additional fact about what happened during that day. These facts are more random than the rest of the book, though it does contain an interesting narrative on raining teeth and dead frogs on two major American cities back in 1981.

The overlay of multiple facts in "More Information" also means that it has endless potential for re-reading, as - for example - you've likely been so caught up in learning that you cannot eat oysters in months that lack the letter "R" (their screaming months) you missed the note that Amelia Earhart and Quetzalcoatl sit on the blood thrones and will soon judge us all.

Special mention goes to Hodgman's section on the mysterious world of the mole-men, a follow-up to his previous anthropological study of hoboes (and the 700 accompanying hobo names that inspired the illustrations of [...]). It's the most cohesive of the sections, building a narrative that reveals how the mole-men not only collaborated with Thomas Jefferson to write the Declaration of Independence, but they also access the surface world through Paris catacombs, ride a variety of hideous steeds such as dirt pumas and really like doing it "molely-style."

And of course, the book contains 700 mole-man names sure to inspire another illustrative website. I eagerly await seeing artistic renditions of names such as Drew Danglemites, Tremont Crawsalong and Nick Nolte.

It's prudent to start with "Expertise" (particularly to follow footnotes referring back to the first book) but doing so isn't essential to enjoying "More Information." In fact, nothing is essential to enjoying the book beyond simply opening it. It's as Hodgman has been writing down all the random late-night conversations you've ever had thanks to drugs or boredom or sleep deprivation, and compiled them into one whole text - except he's been far cleverer with it than you could ever hope to be.

Hodgman's previous book, Areas of My Expertise, is one of the very few that makes me laugh out loud. More Information is another. It is just as funny as Areas, but more complex as one follows narrative threads through apparently self-contained sections, including the very sneaky Page-a-Day calendar inserts. This book is also more autobiographical than Areas and includes some very touching stories. Overall, as much as I loved Areas of My Expertise, it is now my second favorite Hodgman book. I found More Information than Your Require to be an even more satisfying read. My only quibble is that it does not contain more information than I require. I require the third part of this project as quickly as possible!

Another great, nonsensical book from Hodgman. Full of that strange milieu of self-effacing humor and outright lies stated convincingly as fact, the book picks up exactly where the first left off, and just continues the hilarity (although I'm pretty sure they got a "spine camera" into this book). If this is your first encounter with John Hodgman's brand of comedy I suggest that you go and get the first book and read it now. Buy them together if you wish! Or buy them separately and do not tell either book that you have read the other as it then may have a preconceived notion of what you will think of it and then will begin to have performance anxiety and then may render itself illegible. In the immortal words of the author, "That is all."

I didn't enjoy this book as much as I did "The Areas of My Expertise." Maybe it's because the first book filled me with so much fake trivia that my brain can no longer handle it. Or maybe it's just because the joke is playing itself out?

The real gems are the fake trivia for each date published on each page.

Molemen are not better than hobos. Not any day.

To the reviewer who recommended this book for Toilet reading, Please refer to page 346. You need time to savor this book. If you have to rush to get your bathroom knife you will not absorb the proper information from this remarkable book.

John Hodgman is hilarious in a wry kind of way. This is not a "book" as we normally think of books; it is as if a crazy comedian took over the editorial duties of a World Almanac before anyone could stop him. And Dick Van Patten owes him more than he can ever repay. We must now await Mr. Hodgman's daily calendar which surely will be on its way.
Excuse me but I believe that a hobo has just been abducted by a UFO piloted by William Taft and I need to get out of here...

I was fascinated by John Hodgman's "Areas of My Expertise". His dry brand of humor wove a beautiful narrative in my mind. A story of a land filled with hoboes, monsters, and hook-handed presidents. A world where everything is more fantastic than in our typical mundane lives. Its as if I traveled to some bizarre dream-land, like Alice, Coraline, or so many other childish dreamers, but I was allowed one souvenier to remember that strange and wonderous place.

Here, however, Hodgman desprately wants lightening to strike twice. Unfortunatly it doesn't. With the incredible imagination of the first, here we have a disapointing retread of the same jokes. Here we have a book that takes a humorous style and makes it seem explotive and unoriginal. The problem is that it is neither! Hodgman harnessed his dry dead-pan approach to humor and forged something truly unique, but then he brought the document up again and replaced Hoboes with Molemen and sold it to the eagerly awaiting populace. I truly didn't feel this was worth my money and was dissapointed with the final product. Which is what happens from time to time. I can't say what I was hoping for with this book, nor can I say what can be done to improve it, but still it is painful to be let down in this way.

Be wary, shopper please, be wary.