The Areas of My Expertise by John Hodgman

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An Overview

The Areas of My Expertise will give you an insight into a lot of facts and information that you never knew were out there and may never need, but is still a fun read.

Main Body

The Areas of My Expertise is written by a man whose face you may be more familiar with than his name. John Hodgeman is the personality that plays ‘PC’ in the Mac vs. PC commercials run by Apple Computers. In addition to now being the face behind the sad PC, he also is a comedian and self-described ‘expert’ on all sorts of things. This has landed him a spot as the ‘resident expert’ on the Daily Show with Jon Stewart.

So, what is he an expert about? This book will tell you. It just so happens his expertise happens to be in a number of odd areas. For example, he can list off 700 hobo names, tell you the secrets of successful negotiation and has unlimited knowledge about squirrels. It seems he is overflowing with information and knowledge about a lot of things you probably didn’t (and perhaps never wanted to) know.

So what did I think about this book. It was not what I thought it would be. It was an interesting book and a weird travel through a lot of bizarre (and periodically useful) trivia. If you are a brainy person who likes interesting facts and information, you will appreciate this book. If not, you may want to steer away from it. It had my brain going and I even found myself laughing out loud at some of the ‘expertise’ being imparted.

If you have ever seen Hodgman on The Daily Show and listened to his ‘resident expert’ pieces, you are starting to get an idea of what you should expect from this book. It will be similarly ‘out there’ in some cases.

Here’s a piece of advice. Once you buy this audio book, listen to just a chapter here and there. It really is a lot to take in and may be a bit too much on the brain in one sitting. So listen to a little, take a break and go back to it when you are ready for some more thinking!

The Narration

John Hodgman was the narrator of his own book. I doubly loved it for this reason. First, I always like when an author reads their own work, as they know just how they wanted it to sound. Secondly, I enjoy Hodgeman on The Daily Show so I knew it would be a joy to listen to him reading the book

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