Review: Areas Of My Expertise

by James Seidler

“There is a mini golf course there, as well as an interactive exhibit on how Lucky Charms are made. Here it is shown how the leprechauns are first flayed and then pulped to be turned into the marshmallows. Off to the side are waist-high piles of abandoned little green hats that will be shipped back to Ireland under international treaty.”

-Secrets of the Mall of America

Known for his roles as resident expert on The Daily Show and a creaking PC in Apple’s latest line of commercials, John Hodgman is also responsible for writing a very funny book. “The Areas of My Expertise” is a celebration of the random debris floating through Hodgman’s mind, a collection of made-up facts conjured through extended flights of imagination.

Organized as a faux almanac, “Poor Richard’s” style, the book takes advantage of its loose, inclusive structure. Topics change with the author’s whims, ranging from the Lycanthropic Transformation Tables preceding every chapter to tip tables detailing percentages for feral turn-down service at hotels (for people raised by wolves) and hobo names ranging from Stewbuilder Dennis to Trainwhistle Ernie Roosevelt, the President’s Long-lost Brother.

Perhaps the book’s most enjoyable characteristic is that it’s is written for people who like to read and daydream. The loose change of history is lovingly teased out, as with “A Brief Time Line of the Lobster in America,” and weird scientific facts pepper the text. Writers will enjoy the utility of the “Fifty-five Dramatic Situations,” taken from the basic conflicts of man vs. man, man vs. nature, man vs. society, man vs. himself, and man vs. cyborgs.

The book’s strengths are boosted by its meticulous, in-character design, which seems to evoke the Victorian images and hand-drawn tables of a Farmer’s Almanac. The images are sparse but effective, allowing the brightness and quick humor of Hodgman’s words to carry the reader from one laugh to another, amazed at the effortlessness with which he slips each absurdity past.

© 2005 James Seidler, All Rights Reserved.