That Is All

( 6 )

Overview

John Hodgman-bestselling author, The Daily Show's "Resident Expert", minor television celebrity, and deranged millionaire-brings us the third and final installment in his trilogy of Complete World Knowledge.

In 2005, Dutton published The Areas of My Expertise, a handy little book of Complete World Knowledge, marked by the distinction that all of the fascinating trivia and amazing true facts were completely made up by its author, John Hodgman. At the time, Hodgman was merely a ...

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More About This Book

Overview

John Hodgman-bestselling author, The Daily Show's "Resident Expert", minor television celebrity, and deranged millionaire-brings us the third and final installment in his trilogy of Complete World Knowledge.

In 2005, Dutton published The Areas of My Expertise, a handy little book of Complete World Knowledge, marked by the distinction that all of the fascinating trivia and amazing true facts were completely made up by its author, John Hodgman. At the time, Hodgman was merely a former literary agent and occasional scribbler of fake trivia. In short: a nobody.

But during an interview on The Daily Show with Jon Stewart, an incredible transformation occurred. He became a famous minor television personality. You may ask: During his whirlwind tornado ride through the high ether of minor fame and outrageous fortune, did John Hodgman forget how to write books of fake trivia? The answer is: Yes. Briefly. But soon, he remembered!

And so he returned, crashing his Kansas farmhouse down upon the wicked witch of ignorance with More Information Than You Require, a New York Times bestseller containing even more mesmerizing and essential fake trivia, including seven hundred mole-man names (and their occupations).

And now, John Hodgman completes his vision with That Is All, the last book in a trilogy of Complete World Knowledge. Like its predecessors, That Is All compiles incredibly handy made-up facts into brief articles, overlong lists, and beguiling narratives on new and familiar themes. It picks up exactly where More Information left off-specifically, at page 596-and finally completes COMPLETE WORLD KNOWLEDGE, just in time for the return of Quetzalcoatl and the end of human history in 2012.

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Editorial Reviews

From Barnes & Noble

The imperturbable John Hodgman is a man with a single face and a hundred identities. He is the Resident Expert on The Daily Show, "PC" on Apple's iconic commercials, a certified Famous Minor Television Personality, movie star (Baby Mama), and bestselling author (The Areas of My Expertise and More Information Than You Require). And now in the capstone book of his Complete World Knowledge trivia trilogy, he picks up where the last volume left off (on page 596, to be exact). One reviewer called Hodgman's humor as "equal parts Jon Stewart, Woody Allen, and Eugene Ionesco... spirited, absurdist fun." Dizzying information guaranteed to win you passing fame at parties.

Kirkus Reviews
John Hodgman is a busy man. And, on the strength of the published evidence, including this new book, a very strange man indeed. Perhaps best known as the milquetoasty but oddly self-satisfied PC in the Apple commercials, Hodgman is a writer of considerable charm and much merit. As with More Information Than You Require (2008) and Areas of My Expertise (2005), this odd little volume delights in being…well, if not wrong, then bizarrely inventive, and rock-solid in the assuredness of the justice of his cause. Take this specimen, riffing on the old saw "You don't have to be crazy, but it helps" (which Hodgman willfully misquotes to serve his murky purposes): "Well, guess what? The guy who made up that slogan probably made a million dollars, because it was very popular, and he printed it on food during the Great Depression." Let us count the ways in which that is wrong--and also very funny. Which is entirely the point: Hodgman, a sometime colleague, aims to outdo Jon Stewart's America and Earth book empire with sheer outré exuberance, and he succeeds at every step. Exhibit A: Everyone wants to be rich in America, right? Well, counsels Hodgman, that won't happen, because "the billionaires who actually control the world would not allow it." But what's to stop you from believing you're filthy rich, and who's to say you're not? That's the glory of modern life--and because we live in a land of opportunity, strange and unpredictable things happen, which is just the reason, Hodgman asserts, that Wilt Chamberlain had to hire a "special sex butler." Bad math, bad facts--it all adds up to what Jean-Paul Sartre would have called bad faith. But Sartre's dead, and it's Hodgman's world--and besides, Sartre never wrote half as convincingly about the impending apocalypse that will be Ragnarok. Just the sort of book to keep by your bed--a bundle of knowing laughs, though at whom is ever the question at hand.
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Product Details

  • ISBN-13: 9780525952442
  • Publisher: Penguin Group (USA) Incorporated
  • Publication date: 11/1/2011
  • Pages: 368
  • Sales rank: 799,025
  • Product dimensions: 5.78 (w) x 8.56 (h) x 1.20 (d)

Meet the Author

John Hodgman

John Hodgman lives in New York City, where he curates and hosts “The Little Gray Book Lectures,” a monthly colloquium of readings, songs, and dubious scholarship. He is a contributing writer at The New York Times Magazine and a frequent voice on public radio’s This American Life. Further fiction, nonfiction, and genres in between have appeared in The Paris Review, McSweeney’s, One-Story, and The Believer. He has performed at the U.S. Comedy Arts Festival in Aspen, as well as on the great stages of Chicago, Philadelphia, and London’s Barbican.

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Customer Reviews

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( 6 )
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Sort by: Showing 1 – 5 of 6 Customer Reviews

  • Posted December 17, 2012

    NOT FOR NOOK HD (no PagePerfect, i.e. graphically enhanced, book

    NOT FOR NOOK HD (no PagePerfect, i.e. graphically enhanced, books are).  
    They don't tell you this when you purchase a NOOK HD - which is the updated version of the Nook Color.

    The newest reader gets fewer compatible books, and none with enhanced graphics!  Nice.

    1 out of 2 people found this review helpful.

    Was this review helpful? Yes  NoThank you for your feedback.   Report this reviewThank you, this review has been flagged.

  • Posted May 6, 2012

    more from this reviewer

    I Also Recommend:

    More Information Than You Require
    The Areas of My Expertise

    This book is the third in the now complete compendium of world k

    This book is the third in the now complete compendium of world knowledge masterfully compiled by John Hodgman, rendering the internet OBSOLETE. Since I presume you've read the first two (The Areas of My Expertise, More Information Than You Require) you should already be in love with this book.

    The only part I had to struggle through was the 700 names of ancient and unlistable ones, but even that had some real gems in it (i.e. Jeeper Creeper, Devourer of Justin Long). My favorite thing might be the countdown to doomsday calendar at the top of every page which began to reveal its own story arc.

    I love these books. They're so crazy they defy classification. WERE YOU EVEN AWARE OF THEM?

    1 out of 1 people found this review helpful.

    Was this review helpful? Yes  NoThank you for your feedback.   Report this reviewThank you, this review has been flagged.

  • Posted April 7, 2013

    Regardless of the inferior technology of some "E-Readers&qu

    Regardless of the inferior technology of some "E-Readers" this book remains a hysterical departure from the realm of sanity.

    Was this review helpful? Yes  NoThank you for your feedback.   Report this reviewThank you, this review has been flagged.

  • Anonymous

    Posted December 17, 2012

    Don't order...they do not warn

    Cannot view on my original Nook, nor my Macbook, nor my Galaxy...thanks for the explanation, warning or definition of page perfect...thinking of getting a Kindle

    0 out of 1 people found this review helpful.

    Was this review helpful? Yes  NoThank you for your feedback.   Report this reviewThank you, this review has been flagged.

  • Anonymous

    Posted November 11, 2011

    No text was provided for this review.

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