The Areas of My Expertise by John Hodgman
My husband brought this book home from the library last week and I haven’t stopped giggling since. In his words, it is “basically, awesome.”
On the front of the book jacket, the full title of the book appears to actually read as follows: The areas of my expertise: an almanac of complete world knowledge compiled with instructive annotation and arranged in useful order by me, John Hodgeman, a professional writer in the areas of my expertise which include: matters historical, matters literary, matters cryptozoological, hobo matters, food drink & cheese (a kind of food), squirrels and lobsters and eels, haircuts, utopia, what will happen in the future, and most other subjects.
The best part about this book, from my perspective as a reference librarian, is that this entire almanac is full of fake facts completely made up from the author’s imagination. While this is definitely NOT a book to keep at the Reference Desk as a handy source of factual information, it is certainly a book to keep by your bedside for hilarious late-night reading.
The audiobook version also features co-narration and some musical genius from Jonathan Coulton, the contributing troubadour for Popular Science magazine.

I have stumbled across what I can only hope is an emerging genre of non-fiction, one which I am calling “funny books full of lies.” I can’t wait to read more of these!

Other funny books full of lies:
Mountain Man Dance Moves: The McSweeney’s Book of Lists by the Editors of McScweeneys 818.6 MOU

The Lost Blogs from Jesus to Jim Morrison: The Historically Inaccurate and Totally Fictitious Cyber Diaries of Everyone Worth Knowing By Paul Davidson 818.6 DAV

Saving Face * how to lie, fake and maneuver your way out of life’s most awkward situations by Andy Robin and Gregg Kavet