Tonight, kwc and I made the trek up to the city to see John Hodgman, the author of The Areas of My Expertise, whose complete title 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, and Cheese (a Kind of Food), Squirrels & Lobsters & Eels, Haircuts, Utopia, What Will Happen in the Future, and Most Other Subjects".
John Hodgman knows how to do a book reading, and brought along his own troubadour and theme music to go along with it. The QA session utilized a set of walkie talkies, which is much more efficient than the "raise your hand and the microphone will find it's way to you" method that is common in large gatherings of people. The mid-session brandy break was also an excellent way for Hodgman to plug his audio CD version of his book.
During the QA session, one of the audience members asks him if he ever played Dungeons and Dragons, to which he answers "it sounded fantastic; being able to escape into a fantasy world, but then there were the hex boards, and all this math... so I gave up. What about you? Did you play D and D in high school? Yeah? What character did you play? What class? What alignment? You don't remember? You think you were a thief? I think that's bullshit. Everyone who had a non-cool character says that they were a thief, because they think 'I don't want to reveal my character. My character is lame. Thiefs are cool. Yeah, I was a thief.' Next question."
Flickr Photoset: John Hodgman at Cody's Books, SF
Leave a comment