The Areas of my Expertise

The Areas of My Expertise by John Hodgman, 2005

A good friend recommended this book. This friend has a great sense of humor and likes David Sedaris so I figured the book would be amusing to me as well. It was not. Hodgman is a comedian and frequently appears on "This American Life." The writer essentially creates a fake almanac of random facts, spending a lot of his wordcount on actuaries and hoboes. Some of the 700 hobo names he lists are amusing and some of the "facts" about the 50 states are pretty funny (that is, the states I know enough about to get the jokes), but ultimately I found the fake facts and his little narratives on black squirrels in Madison Square Park and other randomness annoying. If he'd had real facts, I would've been amused. But I simply didn't understand why this parody was so funny.