More Information Than You Require by John Hodgman

This is the "sequel" to Hodgman's unexpectedly successful -- that phrase also applies to nearly everything Hodgman has done for the last two years, and good for him -- book The Areas of My Expertise (which I read a little over two years ago). In best commercial-publishing fashion, More Information Than You Require is not just a sequel; it's immediately the middle book of a trilogy, with That Is All to follow sometime in the indefinite future.

Hodgman appreciates his status -- as an occasional commentator on the Daily Show and as "the PC" in those ubiquitous, oddly-not-annoying-yet Apple commercials -- and that status is well-reflected in this book. (Right on the cover, he calls himself "a famous minor television personality," showing that not only does he get the joke, he's the one making the joke.)

I found More Information to be funnier and more entertaining than Areas was; it's full of little bits and pieces which are all a lot of fun separately and, cumulatively, just kept dragging me forward through the book. (Areas, on the other hand, I found mostly funny but had no trouble putting down -- More was the kind of book where I kept wanting to read just one more bit.)

I had to send More back to the library some time ago -- a fact which will make Hodgman hate me, if he deigns to note my existence, since he explicitly disdains libraries in More in a wonderfully humorous attempt to guilt all of his readers into buying their own copies -- so I can't quote chapter and verse, or even list the funniest bit from it. But it is a lot of fun, and I expect I'll buy it once it's available in trade paperback.