Search - The Areas of My Expertise

If you have a sense of humor and a thing for sarcasm, you should enjoy this book. However, this is not the sort of book you cozy up to and read in one sitting.

Hodgman is very witty and his book is good, but not one word of it is to be taken seriously. While there is nothing wrong with that, it gets tiresome to read page after page of meaningless hobo banter. I would have enjoyed this book much more if I would have read it in pieces, a little bit at a time, over several days or even several weeks. This particular kind of humor sits best in small doses. That is my take on it, at least.

Otherwise this is a very funny book full of completely useless information and something to the tune of 500+ hobo names. It makes for quite an interesting read. But don't take my word for it. The hobos told me what to say and I know enough about them to listen.

I got this book as a gift. If you are a John Hodgman fan (The Daily Show, those Mac vs. p.c. commercials), I think you'll like it.

Not all that funny, sadly. Mildly amusing. YMMV, but I found it to be something I could set down any time, anywhere, without regret.

AREAS is entertaining but dangerous in the wrong hands. One has to know some choice bits of trivia to "get" the jokes, play on words, or satire. While Hodgman proclaims repeatedly that you should not take anything he writes seriously, some will no doubt confuse his fiction with reality.

A freaky book of oddities real and imaginary. Since I like my fiction to be distinguishable from my non-fiction, this book was not for me. But, I can see that it would have amusement potential for others who aren't as rigid as I am.