Like “The Little Blue Book” instructional pamphlets of the 20th century that inspired them, the Lectures are amusing, brief, accessible, enlightening, disposable to some, collectible to others, and always theme-specific. As examples:

Lecture No. 8: How to Throw a Curveball;

Lecture No. 21: How to Measure Misunderstood Genius;

No. 25: The Animals: Are They Our Enemies?;

Etc.

There have been twenty-eight lectures so far, all of them hosted by JOHN HODGMAN, with the generous aid of others too kind and numerous to mention.

In addition to one sing-along, two Spelling Bees, one man in a seagull costume, and one member of the secret society Skull and Bones, the Lectures have welcomed contributions from many talents, including:

M I K E . D A I S E Y
scriptless off-Broadway monologuist and author of
21 Dog Years: Doing Time at Amazon.com, Free Press;

D A L E . D E G R O F F
the world’s most famous bartender and his amazing
cocktailian invention “The Colleen Werthmann”;

E L I Z A B E T H . G I L B E R T
world traveling adventuress, Hank Williams impersonator
and author of The Last American Man, Viking;

R O B I N .G O L D W A S S E R . a n d . J U L I A .G R E E N B E R G
chanteuses both, and together making up the cast
of the cult musical People Are Wrong!;

S T A R L E E . K I N E
radio personality who has introduced us to her therapist, and
her friend Jonathan Goldstein, another radio personality;

C H U C K . K L O S T E R M A N
American essayist, known Billy Joel apologist and author of
Fargo Rock City and Sex, Drugs, and Cocoa Puffs, Scribner;

M R . . J O H N . L A N G F O R D
Welshman, renowned Mekon, and member of 1000 rock bands;

T O M . P E R O T T A
bestselling chronicler of the tyranny of young children,
author of Little Children, St. Martin’s Press;

D A V I D . R E E S
the Unstoppable and author of Get Your War On, and
My New Fighting Technique is Unstoppable, Riverhead;

D A R I N . S T R A U S S
novelist, raconteur, historical Siamese twin specialist and
author of Chang & Eng and The Real McCoy, Dutton;

H A N N A H . T I N T I
zoological fabulist, short storyist and author of
Animal Crackers, Dial Press;

S A R A H . V O W E L L
author of The Partly Cloudy Patriot, Simon & Schuster,
who at one point spoke about assassinations, and at another
played the recorder;

In a feat of great musical invention, an original song is provided on each evening’s subject by Musical Director JONATHAN COULTON—including a recent heartbreaker about giant squids.

The lectures have been discussed in the world press, including The New York Times, The New York Observer, and Der Spiegel. The Los Angeles Times called them “increasingly conspicuous,” while Time Out New York described them as “surprisingly gentle.” Feel free to peruse some of these clippings in our press section.

To answer your remaining question: there have indeed been four physical Little Gray Books, beautiful pamphlets hand-made by careful people in Brooklyn (www.booklyn.org), but you will not be able to find them. We will see if they reappear in the future.

 

That is all.

 

To contact J Hodg-man e-mail him here: hodgman@littlegraybooks.com