Why read when I can listen?

I forgot to mention this yesterday, but the abridged audio version of John Hodgman’s book, The Areas of My Expertise is available for free download at the iTunes store:

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 best sellers 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.

The full title of the book is, An Almanac of Complete World Knowledge Compiled with Instructive Annotation and Arranged in Useful Order by Me, John Hodgman, a Professional Writer, in the Areas of My Expertise, which Include: Matters Historical; Matters Literary; Matters Cryptozoological; Hobo Matters; Food, Drink, & Cheese (a Kind of Food); Squirrels & Lobsters & Eels; Haircuts; Utopia; What Will Happen in the Future; and Most Other Subjects; Illustrated with a Reasonable Number of Tables and Figures, and Featuring the Best of “Were You Aware of It?”, John Hodgman’s Long-Running Newspaper Novelty Column of Strange Facts and Oddities of the Bizarre — Download it from the iTunes store.

If you don’t know who John Hodgman is, shame on you as he is recently most famous for uttering the line, “..and I’m a PC.” But that barely scratches the surface. I’ve listened to some of it already, but I can see myself saving it for the airport lines and slow moments while visiting the parents for the holidays.

I’m still giftless for pretty much everyone, but now I’ve sentenced myself to doing “local x-mas” with the bf this Saturday, so for him I kinda have to get some gifts, yet with the week’s schedule, there really won’t be a lot of time… fun!