More Information Than You Require
By John Hodgman
(Riverhead Trade, Paperback, 9781594483646, 400pp.)
Publication Date: November 3, 2009
Other Editions of This Title: eBook, Compact Disc - Abridged (October 26, 2009), Hardcover (November 2008), Compact Disc - Abridged (October 2008)
Categories: Form - Parodies
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The New York Times bestseller by Famous Minor Television Personality John Hodgman-The Daily Show's "Resident Expert" and the "PC" in the iconic Apple ads-picks up exactly where his first book left off. In fact, "the new volume is in every way a continuation of Areas of My Expertise, except in the ways it's clearly superior."(The Onion AV Club)
In 2005, John Hodgman published his first compendium of Complete World Knowledge, The Areas of My Expertise, a handy volume of fake trivia and made-up facts. Hodgmania was born. Virtually overnight, John Hodgman was whisked from tweedy obscurity to the high ether of minor celebrity. And from his strange new vantage point as a Famous Minor Television Personality, Hodgman realized that there is some world knowledge yet to be documented. And so he returned to exactly where he had left off-namely, page 256 of the paperback edition of The Areas of My Expertise. And he brought with him: MORE INFORMATION THAN YOU REQUIRE Which, naturally, begins on page 257. Like its predecessor, More Information than You Require consists of brief articles, overlong lists, frighteningly complex charts, and beguiling narratives on new and familiar themes such as:
THE PAST (because there is always more of it)
THE FUTURE (because they say there is still some left)
MOLE-MEN (including a list of 700 Mole-man names)
GAMBLING, THE SPORT OF THE
ATHSMATIC MAN (including hermit crab racing)
CRYPTOGEOGRAPHY (including Canada)
HOW TO BE A FAMOUS MINOR TELEVISION PERSONALITY (Hint: Go on television)
AND NOW, the relatively pocket-sized and inexpensive paperback edition includes even more
MORE INFORMATION THAN YOU REQUIRE, updated to include the very latest in implausibility.
PLUS!: This paperback edition includes a special self-expanding fold-out edition of THE TAXONOMY OF COMPLETE WORLD KNOWLEDGE, which you have probably never seen before because it has been carefully hidden. UNTIL NOW.
John Hodgman is a writer and former literary agent. He has written fiction, essays, and profiles for publications such as The New York Times Magazine and Men's Journal.
"There's just enough true in the book to be very alarming."
-RACHEL MADDOW
"Fascinating!"
-Jon Stewart
"Hodgman is funny, clever, and has the face of a giant baby."
-Ricky Gervais
"I love this book so much I nearly read it."
-Justin Long ("Mac" in the Apple ads)
"Hodgman has forged his own tradition here-one that I expect will be imitated widely in the future, though probably not with success. An imagination like this is not so easily duplicated. For now, then, let us just enjoy the real thing."
-Elizabeth Gilbert, #1 New York Times Bestselling author of Eat, Pray, Love
"John Hodgman is funny in this way where sometimes I just stare at the paragraphs trying to figure out how he's doing it. Like there's some hidden trick in his brave, deadpan sentences that makes them funnier than they have a right to be."
-Ira Glass
"More Information than You Require is exactly the tonic for these truth- challenged times: a transformation of pedestrian reality through the enlightened power of imagination and insatiable list-making."
-The Onion AV Club
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