I learned several important things from [book:The Areas of My Expertise]:* it is possible to sell a book of total nonsense* one can put a funny spin on The Great Depression* I should be more suspicious of the large black squirrel population in my home town.I was mildly disappointed that there wasn't more about pirates in this thing encyclopedia of total world knowledge. Apart from that, I would say that this is not a book to be missed. ( )

I learned several important things from [book:The Areas of My Expertise]:* it is possible to sell a book of total nonsense* one can put a funny spin on The Great Depression* I should be more suspicious of the large black squirrel population in my home town.I was mildly disappointed that there wasn't more about pirates in this thing encyclopedia of total world knowledge. Apart from that, I would say that this is not a book to be missed. ( )

I learned several important things from [book:The Areas of My Expertise]:* it is possible to sell a book of total nonsense* one can put a funny spin on The Great Depression* I should be more suspicious of the large black squirrel population in my home town.I was mildly disappointed that there wasn't more about pirates in this thing encyclopedia of total world knowledge. Apart from that, I would say that this is not a book to be missed. ( )

This book is worth reading for the list of 700 hobo names alone. ( )

Hodgman's sense of humour is about as dry as the centre of the Atacama Desert—and, I would imagine, one of the few to give rise to a list of 700 pseudonyms employed by hobos. (who, as we all know, long waged a war against the USA)—which means this book gels nicely with what I tend to find funny. Most of The Areas of My Expertise is brief and episodic, which I think makes it more a book to dip into rather than read straight through; there are parts of it which are more amusing than others. It's only towards the end of it, as Hodgman allows himself to engage in something closer to a narrative, that the humour goes beyond the simply wry to the truly sharp—I'd love to see what he could do if he gave himself the scope of a novel(la). ( )