Bostonist Books: John Hodgman at Coolidge Corner

Last night, famous minor television personality (the fact that this label is catching on amongst reviewers is a touch ... strange) John Hodgman regaled a crowd at the Coolidge with lethal wit and tender humanitarian gestures.* The occasion was to celebrate the release of Hodgman's latest book, More Information Than You Require**. It is, in a sense, a continuation of The Areas of My Expertise, with the first page of the new book picking up right where the old one left off, on page 237. It is also a further compendium of knowledge: Mr. Hodgman said it contains "the past, as there's always more of it, the future, as there's still some apparently left to discuss," and much more.***

Mr. Hodgman was joined by Jonathan Coulton, a fine troubadour. There was a theme song, where Mr. Coulton posed the rhetorical question as to whether Mr. Hodgman would "rest on his laurels" after all the success he'd garnered from selling computers, which--as Mr. Hodgman later alerted Mr. Coulton--isn't the only thing Mr. Hodgman does.

Mr. Coulton was introduced as a feral beast, whom Mr. Hodgman was kind enough to capture, clothe, educate and raise.

That's not true, John, Mr. Coulton said.
Oh?
You've been telling that joke for years. I was raised by humans. Two of them.
Where?
Connecticut.
Well, Mr. Hodgman said, let's not split hairs.

A good portion of the evening was dedicated to highlighting the difference between the audience and Mr. Hodgman, wherein we were reminded that we were poor and Mr. Hodgman was rich: rich enough to afford his own pants; rich enough to fly in first class (the kind of first class where there are only nine chairs); even rich enough to sit next to Peter Burg and receive an extra copy of Dune. While later reading an excerpt from an extended version of an essay (how's that for an almost double negative?) one can listen to here, he mentioned Buster Keaton, which prompted applause from the crowd and a rejoinder from Mr. Hodgman: "Oh, sure, applaud Buster Keaton, but you don't give it up for Peter Burg."

Mr. Coulton played several songs: "Tom Cruise Crazy," a Robert Johnson-y kind of romp, a song about an almost-girlfriend at 13 and a possible robot war, a song about all the Presidents so far, and a song deriding Brookline and its omnipresent trickery.

Mr. Hodgman also related a brief anecdote about startling, then yelling and chasing after Justin Timberlake down a Hollywood block.

Eventually the crowd and the performers retired to the Booksmith because a movie had to start. We had to take off, but rumors reached us that Hodgman was very gracious and generous at the book store, and he did something with two shrunken heads. Mysterious.

We'll have a photo gallery of the reading, perhaps with shrunken heads, later today.

*Check out our hard-hitting, soul-searching, emotionally-searing interview with Mr. Hodgman here.
**Hooray, then, for Extra-Credit.
***For instance, it is also a tear calendar. Make sure your copy corresponds to the correct year.