Synopses & Reviews
In the great tradition of the American almanac, The Areas of My Expertise is a brilliant and hilarious compendium of handy reference tables, fascinating trivia, and sage wisdom on all topics large and small. Although bestsellers such as Poor Richard’s Almanack and The Book of Lists were certainly valuable, they also were largely true. Here is a different kind of handy desk reference, one in which all of the historical oddities and amazing true facts are sifted through the singular, illuminating imagination of John Hodgman—which is the nice way of saying: He made it all up.
John Hodgman brings his considerable expertise to bear in answering all of the questions book buyers have been asking:
-What are the mottoes of the 51 United States?
THE ANSWER IS PROVIDED
-Who were the U.S. presidents who had hooks for hands?
THE ANSWER IS PROVIDED
-What role does the Yale secret society “Skull and Bones” play in the secret world government?
THERE IS NO SECRET WORLD GOVERNMENT
-What was the menu at the first Thanksgiving, and did it include eels?
Technically, that is two questions, but do not apologize, for John Hodgman shall answer them both... LATER.
-Aside from a compendium of fake trivia, what is the best kind of book to write?
A SIMPLE TABLE OF THE 55 MOST DRAMATIC LITERARY SITUATIONS PROVIDES THE ANSWER, and John Hodgman is the author of that table.
Imagine if The Book of Lists had been rewritten by Peter Cook and Jorge Luis Borges under the pseudonym of “John Hodgman” and then renamed The Areas of My Expertise, and you will only begin to have a sense of the dizzying, uproarious, sublimely weird, and strangely wise journey that is contained within this book (along with all the pages and words).
Perfect for anyone who thirsts for knowledge, and especially for collectors of books of fake trivia, The Areas of My Expertise offers through absurdity a better understanding of the world we share—and recognizes that while the truth may be stranger than fiction, it is never as strange as lies...or as true.Watch a QuickTime trailer for this book.
Review
"Wonderfully absurd." -
New York Times "Hilarious...Nabokov's Pale Fire as directed by Wes Anderson." - Time Out New York
"If Borges and Ben Franklin got drunk and decided to write a book together, the result might have been something a lot like this freaky 'almanac'." - Tom Perrotta
"Even if you buy this book for the 700 hobo names alone, you will have gotten more than your money's worth." - Dave Eggers
"A book of absurd tall tales, tables and charts spun from the warped brain of John Hodgman...Impressively eclectic." - Los Angeles Times
Synopsis
Hot on the heels of the #1 bestsellers
The Onion's Our Dumb Century and Jon Stewart's
America comes
The Areas of My Expertise, the brilliant and uproarious #15 bestseller (i.e., a runaway phenomenon in its own right-no, seriously) - a lavish compendium of handy reference tables, fascinating trivia, and sage wisdom - all of it completely unresearched, completely undocumented and (presumably) completely untrue, fabricated by the illuminating, prodigious imagination of John Hodgman, certifiable genius.
Watch a QuickTime trailer for this book.
Synopsis
Picture a lush coffee-table book filled with high-quality color images of famous events in American History. But look closer and you start to notice something
Robots lurk behind the founding fathers. Zombies crawl through the landscape. UFOs hover over Chicago. Monsters devastate the industrial region of Pittsburgh. The explanatory text to each photograph contains strange references to Interstellar Trading Posts, Metallo the Mechanical Man, and President Rondo the Amazing. But it all looks so real. Did you miss something in American History class years ago?
No, this is the work of Alternate Histories.
Synopsis
This remarkable collection of maps, photographs, engravings and paintings from the early ages to modern day provides a stunning new look at the world as defined by our struggles and alliances with the monsters and supernatural creatures that have defined our existence. Learn how a mechanical man helped write Americas Declaration of Independence. Track the course of the Living Dead virus from Africa to Europe and on to the New World. View artifacts from our uneasy alliance with the Martian race, or simply delight in the vibrant colors and illustrations from a bygone age. More than 100 full-color images and insightful essays make this book an essential addition to the libraries of dedicated historians as well as casual fans of monsters and mayhem.
About the Author
Matthew Bucholz is a graduate of New York Universitys Tisch School of the Arts with a Bachelors Degree in Film and Television Production. He spent seven years managing the BAMcinématek, a repertory film program at the Brooklyn Academy of Music.In the course of this job he wrote and edited the Edizioni Olivares book
Dino De Laurentiis: The Italian Years and Beyond (2002), and worked closely with the Sundance Institute on the creation of a new program specifically for BAM.
He moved to Pittsburgh in 2008 and created Alternate Histories in the summer of 2010. Since then hes been selling pieces in Pittsburgh, on his Etsy store, at regional craft fairs (e.g. The Bust Craftacular), and in more than a dozen stores around the country (including Cog and Pearl in Brooklyn).