John Hodgman's Complete World Knowledge Series
 

Seeing as how this Forum seems to be slowly entropy-ing into a mourning of the current state of fantasy/sci-fi/comic books, I thought I'd see if anybody else has had a chance to read what can only be described as pure hilarity condensed into a parody of almanacks, provided by the FAMOUS MINOR TELEVISION PERSONALITY John Hodgman (the guy from the Daily Show/the PC in the Mac ads). I got the two books currently in the 'series' ("The Areas of My Expertise" and "More Information Than You Require") on Christmas and just finished barreling through them. Probably the funniest author I've gotten my hands on in quite a while.

Who else would dare lay the facts straight about Jefferson's close (too close?) involvement with the mole-men? Or Hoover's stealing of Tesla's dreams (a thread I desperately hope Brian incorporates somehow into Robo)? Or how hard it is to defend against The Vengeful Ninjas Con?

I've listened to the audiobook version of The Areas of My Expertise, and it's hilarious. It's voiced by him, with help with Jonathon Coulton. I really enjoyed it and I'm eagerly waiting for him to record More Information... it's a great read (listen).

Red Skies at morning... Ragnarok.
Red Skies at night... Ragnarok.

I heard about this and I'm kind of torn. On the one hand, I really can't listen to books on tape due to my retardedness when it comes to listening to words from headphones. On the other hand, while I can imagine his voice somewhat, I do want to listen to "I can't masturbate to pictures of myself. Where are the Mary Lou Retton boxes?" as said by the author, and not just the author-voice my brain creates.

I do wonder how he's going to handle all of the Fact-A-Days in "More Information". The tragicomicness of Richmond and Milwaukee's phenonmarain is great spread over the book, but I don't know how you translate a small blurb a page into sound.

I've read The Areas of My Expertise... I will have to add More Information Than You Require to my "Acquire" list.