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Hodgman is funny, clever, and has the face of a giant baby.
- Ricky Gervais

An exercise in a certain kind of genius that I truly do appreciate … A very enjoyable thing to read.
- Jon Stewart, The Daily Show

I love this book so much I nearly read it.
- Justin Long

Fun facts, bizarre trivia, and oddball photos (“Figure 51: Jane Addams, Pre-Antlers”) are crammed into ever corner of the page with extended riffs on How to Tell the Future Using a Pig’s Spleen, What to Expect While Serving as a Juror, Gambling (“Sure Thing Number Three: Star Wars Slots”), How to Deal With Some Common Infestations, and of course, How to Be Famous. And what he did for hobos in The Areas of My Expertise, celebrating their free spirit and conniving ways (and a list of 700 hobo names), Hodgman does for mole-men, the “race of humanoids who live in the complex warren of tunnels and vast caverns beneath the earth.”. . .His brand new ferret of a book is a wise (and wise-ass) little predator who will swindle away your reading time with endless hours of rabies-free laughs.
- Brad Thomas Parsons, Amazon.com

Areas of My Expertise

ASTONISHING. . .The fake reference work is. . .having a moment; Hodgman’s books is the leering, gap-toothed fife player in that bumptious parade.
- The New York Times Book Review

Hodgman’s first book, The Areas of My Expertise, is an almanac of falsehoods. . .[It's] Nabokov’s Pale Fire as directed by Wes Anderson. . .the most surreal debut in the “humor” category since Steve Martin’s sadly out of print Cruel Shoes.
- Time Out New York

John Hodgman’s new book, The Areas of My Expertise, exposes the Brooklyn-based writer as a man of terrifying intelligence who is so smart he understands the most important thing about knowledge: If you don’t know something, make it up.
- Chicago Tribune

Magnificent. . .An almanac of the absurd. . .[an] exercise in pointless humor (our favorite kind).
- Entertainment Weekly

John Hodgman is a very fun man. . .A Yale-educated former literary agent, Hodgman has the gift of being outrageously but quietly convincing. He begins at the absolute outer edge of credibility and, as if he is holding your hand, walks you over the edge into a very funny mix of reality and nonsense.
- NPR’s All Things Considered

There’s never a wrong time for a fictional almanac boasting blisteringly meticulous-and almost always deceitful-attention to detail. Hodgman has penned such a book, full of short, snappy blurbs about hats, hairdos, attack ads and interpretations of sightings of obese children eating corn on the cob. They’re either a ruse for a long con or an omen of merman attacks. . .delicious.
- New York Post

The flat-out funniest book of the year. It’s impossible to dislike. So comprehensive (and so blastedly funny) that you may never read another almanac again.
- The Virginian-Pilot

Equal parts Jon Stewart, Woody Allen, and Eugene Ionesco. . .spirited, absurdist fun. Hodgman is smart company, precisely the kind of writer welcome to share my snow fort or boxcar.
- The Gazette (Montreal)

Author John Hodgman writes with an expert’s detachment and an arid wit. . .[The Areas of My Expertise] is. . .hilarious. . .an ambitious and surprisingly complex debut.
- The Onion

Our best wishes to you for bringing more laughter into the world.
- Peter H. Gilmore, High Priest, Church of Satan

As usual, the Church of Satan is only half right. John Hodgman brings more than mere laughter to the world. He also brings a whole world: one of strange melancholy and unexpected beauty and the scope and meticulous consistency of the deranged.
- Dave Eggers

If you are a hobo and/or a con artist who aspires to hunt mythical creatures and/or raise utopian bunny rabbits, John Hodgman’s The Areas of My Expertise will profoundly change your life. If you are neither of those things (or if you possess neither of those goals), this will simply be the funniest book you have read in the past 24 to 36 months. Mr. Hodgman is an irascible force of nature, a riverboat gambler, and a comedic kick in the jowls; his thoughts intrigue me.
- Chuck Klosterman, author of Killing Yourself to Live: 85 Percent of a True Story

The Areas of My Expertise is an experiment in joyful madness — the product of a brilliant comedic writer who has been given full permission to wander in any direction he wants (and often in five directions simultaneously) in search of his own entertainment. I read this book with a strange combination of delight and awe — my laughter interrupted only by moments of bafflement at how the hell he does it. It would be nice to say that this book is “in the tradition” of other great works of American comic writing, but unfortunately, it isn’t. Hodgman has forged his own tradition here — one that I expect will be imitated widely in the future, though probably not with success. An imagination like this is not so easily duplicated. For now, then, let us just enjoy the real thing.
- Elizabeth Gilbert

John Hodgman, former literary agent, current literary virtuoso, has written a book so whip-smart and hilarious, so flat-out entertaining, that reading it will make you pee your pants and forget the names of your beloved family (at least, that’s the effect it seemed to have on my grandfather). Really, you won’t read a more charming book this or any year. I urge you to buy it — if you need to, send me an email and I’ll kick in a couple bucks.
- Darin Strauss

John Hodgman is funny in this way where sometimes I just stare at the paragraphs trying to figure out how he’s doing it. Like there’s some hidden trick in his brave, deadpan sentences that makes them funnier than they have a right to be.  And the sheer breadth of this book is kind of stunning. I mean, even if he’s making it all up, why’s he thinking about Apollonaire’s razor or what to tip a hotel lullaby service in the first place? If it’s true that a lie can go halfway around the world before the truth puts on its shoes, this book will do very well indeed.
- Ira Glass, Public Radio’s This American Life

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”-an eccentric compendium of useless trivia, fabricated facts, outlandish speculation, and sublime nonsense. John Hodgman is witty, urbane, and completely out to lunch.
- Tom Perrotta

This book will expand your horizons before disemboweling you with your own funny bone.
- David Rees, author Get Your War On and My New Fighting Technique is Unstoppable