A solid history of trivia competitions and a funny biography of the man made famous by his Jeopardy winning streak. ( )

Jenning’s treatise on trivia and his own experiences on Jeopardy! are brilliant without being magnanimous. Everyone involved in the history of trivia and trivia-writing is included in this touching (yet slim) book. This book, paired with Jacob’s Mr. Know-It-All, offer just about all the useless information a person may well need in their lifetime, but will keep them begging for more. Ken’s incorporation of brilliant bits of minutiae into the text makes for wonderful reading. ( )

http://blogcritics.org/archives/2006/... ( )

On my British Airways flight across the Pond, halfway between the free wine and free cappuccino, I started to read Ken Jennings' book. If you haven't heard of Ken Jennings, here's a quick primer: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ken_Jenn... In a nutshell, he's the guy who won Jeopardy! seventy-four consecutive times and raked in over two and a half million dollars. His book integrates three "spheres" of trivia culture: his own Jeopardy! experiences, various depictions of the American trivia scene (mostly focusing on college quiz bowl teams), and actual trivia questions to be answered by the reader.

It's a wonderfully entertaining book, and I'm not surprised. Looking at Jennings' demeanor while he was on Jeopardy, he's easygoing, conversational, and clever. In fact, Jennings reminds me of myself... granted, a somewhat more knowledgeable and much more successful me. He writes a lot like I do, too, with the critical distinction that he actually has something worthwhile to talk about.

One of the main themes of the book is the relationship between intelligence and success on Jeopardy. A cursory look at the situation would probably suggest that of course a smart person is going to succeed at Jeopardy because he knows lots of things. Jennings disputes this, saying that there is indeed a link between intelligence and Jeopardy success, but that it has comparatively little to do with knowing stuff. He himself knows a lot of stuff, and he's a smart man. But knowing stuff doesn't exactly translate into being intelligent, or vice versa. Jennings admits to being a "pretty mediocre computer programmer," acknowledging that his success in trivia and his mastery of information doesn't necessarily make him good at anything except knowing things.

Knowing things, of course, is a valuable skill to have on Jeopardy. But it's not the only skill. Another skill, the one that does have a direct connection to intelligence, is knowing how to play the game. It's things like knowing what time to press the button, how to wager well, and what the questions are going to be about. This last one was particularly important to Jennings: the most-asked topics on Jeopardy include US presidents; opera, ballet, and 19th-century poetry; and alcohol. The first was an old standby from college quiz bowl days, so that was an easy one. The next three didn't naturally appeal to Jennings as a computer programmer--who knows what the differences between Wordsworth, Keats, and Longfellow are? The last presented a problem as a Mormon--after making mixed-drink flash cards to study from, Jennings says that he could make a hell of a bartender even though he hasn't actually tasted any of those drinks.

Anyone who's ever planning to go on Jeopardy should probably read this book to follow Jennings' advice (look at the number of records on that Wikipedia page). But even if you're not a Jeopardy aspirant, this book is entertaining, insightful, and absorbing. Test yourself as you go through the book (there's even a question about Georgia Tech!) and allow yourself to be amazed by the utter trivia obsession of some of Jennings' contemporaries. ( )

Ken Jennings is quite the affable, amusing guy. This came out during his Jeopardy! run and it comes out again in his writing style. I thought the format of this book was ingenious, with trivia questions mixed into the text of each chapter and the answers handily provided on a separate page at the end of each chapter. The chapter titles, formulated in Jeopardy!-like question format are also a neat little quirk. A really fun read! ( )

Summary: Ken Jennings is a record-holding nerd celebrity, winning on the quiz show Jeopardy! for an unprecedented seventy four games in a row. This book is partly a memoir of that time, but is mostly a book about trivia itself - its history, its format, its current incarnations, its relationship to intelligence, and the various ways in which it is enjoyed by people, and the various people who are serious about their trivia obsession in ways that the casual Trivial Pursuit player or Jeopardy! watcher can scarcely imagine.

Review: In the summer of 2004, when Ken Jennings's winning streak started, the local NBC affiliate aired Jeopardy! right at dinnertime, and since our dining room table was usually covered with mail, newspapers, journal articles and other miscellany, my roommates and I would watch every night, plates balanced on our laps as we shouted answers at the screen and tried to guess the "Final Jeopardy" answer from the category alone. (I've only ever gotten this right once, with "Louisa May Alcott"; one of my roommates pulled down two correct answers that summer alone.) In any case, I was watching during Ken Jennings's first game, I nearly asphyxiated from laughter during the infamous (among nerds, anyways) "hoes" incident (and if you know who Ken Jennings is but don't know what I'm talking about, I highly suggest you go watch the clip), and I was watching when he finally lost.

So, I was a little disappointed when this book turned out to be not really much of a memoir. He hits all of the salient points - audition, contestant call, first game, media attention, finally losing - but details from his time "in the trenches" is are pretty slim pickings, and all of the autobiographical sections from his time on the show are interspersed with longer bits about the history of trivia and some current forms that trivia-buff-ish-ness takes around the country. Ken in writing comes across very much the same as Ken on TV - a generally mild-mannered, affable, humble guy, so maybe he thought that no one would want to read a book about him, but I wound up wanting less details about the organization of national college bowl leagues and more dirt about what it's really like behind the scenes at Jeopardy!.

This book seems like it's going out of its way not to duplicate any of the information from its contemporaneous Jeopardy! book, Prisoner of Trebekistan by Bob Harris, but I think that was a mistake - it's a story that I'd happily read twice from the two different perspectives. Brainiac is a book about trivia with a memoir thrown in, while Trebekistan is a memoir with some stuff about trivia thrown in, and the later comes off stronger and more engaging (and funnier, although I think that's due to writing style, not subject matter). Brainiac is an interesting, easy, light read, but I don't think that it's the Ken Jennings book that Jeopardy! fans were hoping to read. 3.5 out of 5 stars.

Recommendation: Interesting enough light non-fiction, and Jeopardy! fans will probably enjoy it for what it is, despite it not quite having the charm or insights of Prisoner of Trebekistan. ( )

A quick breezy read about trivia throughout life and of Jennings' streak. It is amazing to see how many trivia outlets there are in our society - jeopardy, pub quizzes, once a year festivals, etc. ( )

Adventures in the world of trivia buffs by the Jeopardy champion in a fascinating memoir. ( )

http://talesofarampaginglibrarian.blo... ( )

Jeopardy! fans rejoiced this past September when two books on the popular TV show were published at the same time. Well, this Jeopardy! fan rejoiced, at least. Brainiac, the first title, was written by the powerhouse 74-time champ, Ken Jennings, and Prisoner of Trebekistan was penned by five-time champ and multiple tournament participant Bob Harris. Indeed, the books complement each other. Jennings's book is a mix of his experiences on the show and anecdotes on the wild world of trivia buffs. His journey from anonymous computer programmer to famous know-it-all is fascinating, and it's interspersed with facts about college quiz bowls, radio trivia contests, and pub trivia (you know, those Playmaker things you get at Damon's on rib night). Harris's book is more of a biography, but it has special meaning to Clevelanders, as Harris is from Mentor, Ohio. He equates his losses on the show to those of the Browns and Indians, and in typical Cleveland fashion, he kept coming back for more. Overall, I found both of these titles highly enjoyable, and as a potential Jeopardy! contestant, I'll keep them in my reference library.