Garth Sundem - Geek Humor, Young Adult Book, Educational Aids
Diane Sawyer, host of
Good Morning America, once described Garth Sundem as a 'genius'. Sundem, who grew up on Bainbridge Island but now resides in California, sees himself as "a pop-sci, Math, humor and general geek culture writer." He has written many educational books for children and young adults - one of them with the intriguing title
Doggy Dung Disaster (2006). But Sundem is best known for his two adult non-fiction books on 'geek logic'.
Geek Logic: 50 Foolproof Equations for Everyday Life (2006) provides readers with equations that take the guesswork out of everyday decisions. Questions like
Should I call in sick? can be answered by plugging in the equation's variables, including D for doctor’s note (enter 1 for “no,” 10 for “yes,” and 5 for “yes, but it’s a forgery”), or R for importance of job (1-10, with 10 being “personally responsible for Earth’s orbit around Sun”). The book comes with a pocket calculator so that geeks can immediately solve the equation on the back cover:
Should I buy this book? Sundem's second book on the subject,
The Geek's Guide to World Domination: Be Afraid, Beautiful People (2009), is another guide no self-respecting geek can live without, especially as it is "jam-packed with 314.1516 short entries both useful and fun". For a list of Garth Sundem's publications go to
http://www.eagleharborbooks.com/search/apachesolr_search/garth+sundem. For a good dose of Sundem's humor check his blogs at
http://geeklogik.blogspot.com/ and
http://www.scientificblogging.com/garth_sundem.
