Vacationland: True Stories from Painful Beaches - Hardcover

John Hodgman

Hardcover

ISBN 10: 0735224803 ISBN 13: 9780735224803

Publisher: Viking, 2017

Synopsis

John Hodgman--New York Times bestselling author, semifamous personality, deranged millionaire, increasingly elderly husband, father, and human of Earth--has written a memoir about his cursed travels through two wildernesses: from the woods of his home in Massachusetts, birthplace of rage, to his exile on the coast of Maine, so-called Vacationland, home to the most painful beaches on Earth

Vacationland is also about Hodgman's wandering in the metaphoric wilderness of his forties, those years when dudes especially must painfully stop pretending to be the children of bright potential they were and settle into the failing bodies of the wiser, weirder dads that they are.

Other subjects covered include the horror of freshwater clams, the evolutionary purpose of the mustache, which animals to keep as pets and which to kill with traps and poison, and advice on how to react when the people of coastal Maine try to sacrifice you to their strange god.

After three bestselling books of fake facts, Hodgman is finally ready to tell the truth--in the same outlandish, audacious, and inimitable style that has won him fans in every medium he has worked: books, stage, social media, television, and movies.

About this title

Review:

Praise for John Hodgman and his work:

"Wonderfully absurd." --The New York Times

"Hilarious . . . Nabokov's Pale Fire as directed by Wes Anderson." --Time Out New York

"If Borges and Ben Franklin got drunk and decided to write a book together, the result might have been something a lot like this." --Tom Perrotta

"A book of absurd tall tales, tables and charts spun from the warped brain of John Hodgman . . . Impressively eclectic." --Los Angeles Times

About the Author:

John Hodgman is a writer, comedian, and actor. He is the author of three New York Times bestselling books--The Areas of My Expertise, More Information Than You Require, and That Is All. After an appearance to promote his books on The Daily Show, he was invited to return as a contributor, serving as the show's "Resident Expert" and "Deranged Millionaire." This led to an unexpected and, frankly, implausible career before the camera. He has performed comedy for the president of the United States, at a TED conference, and in a crypt in Green-Wood Cemetery in Brooklyn, New York. Finally, he is the host of the popular Judge John Hodgman podcast, in which he settles serious disputes between real people, such as "Is a hot dog a sandwich?" and "Should we tell our children the TRUTH about Santa Claus?" He also contributes a weekly column under the same name for The New York Times Magazine.

About this edition

• Publisher: Viking
• Publication date: 2017
• ISBN 10: 0735224803
• ISBN 13: 9780735224803
• Binding: Hardcover
• Edition number: 2
• Number of pages: 288