Reddit mentions of That Is All

All three of John Hodgman's books (The Areas of My Expertise, More Information Than You Require, and That is All) are fantastic almanacs of made-up facts.

Hodgman has a really unique voice that shines through in his writing, and his signature move of CAPTALIZING SOME WORDS for emphasis will always be funny to me - for example:


>DECEMBER 16 1936, PARIS: Walter Benjamin writes his seminal essay "The Work of Art in the Age of Mechanical Reproduction," in which he argues that ancient works of art, such as sculpture and pottery, have an "aura" that cinema and books, which exist only as copies, do not. Benjamin went on to claim that only he could see this magical aura, and when the time was right, he would tap its energy to fuel the massive PSYCHIC RESONATOR he was developing to halt the rise of the Nazis. IT WOULD HAVE WORKED, TOO, had the Nazis not destroyed his enormous cache of urns.

I think "More" is probably the best of the three, but they all have a through-line where Hodgman charts his path from unknown Apple commercial personality to reclusive millionaire, so the whole series is worth checking out IMO.

You are in good company. John Hodgman explains in great detail in his apocalyptic book That Is All exactly what part the Big Dog robot will play in the end of the world.

Although technically, it is a fleet of the robots, called Dogstorm.