Brainiac: Adventures in the Curious, Competitive, Compulsive World of Trivia Buffs

I am a big Jeopardy fan and I love to play the game. I am the best in my family and that includes my son Nicholas who at 18 reads a lot and absorbs a lot. If you read a lot and watch lots of television and the gossip magazines it helps with Jeopardy questions. We enjoyed watching the Ken Jennings show as Jeopardy was jokingly called during his amazing run. Ken is very bright articulate and has a great dry sense of humor and it comes out nicely in this book. The book is about trivia which is one of Ken's passions. He definitely likes trivia and is a lot better at it than his real job (which he now can afford to quit) as a computer programmer.

I watched just about every episode of Jeopardy that Ken Jennings was on including the challenge series that he lost. He is a very bright and personable guy and it comes through in the book. This book relates how he got on Jeopardy and gives some of the behind the scenes stuff with the other contestants including how a friend of his had to have his appearance on the show delayed because they do not want past acquaintances or friends to compete against each other. Ken was the first to go well beyond 5 appearances once the rule limiting contestants to five had been dropped. The story of his rise to success on Jeopardy! would have been interesting enough but there is much more. He takes us back to his childhood and gives us some insight into how he got interested in trivia in the first case. He also makes a case for how learning trivia and using it in competition may be a sign of intelligence. After Jeopardy! Jennings became a celebrity and appeared on other quiz shows including 1 versus 100 and Are you smarter than a fifth grader where I understand he won another $500,000. Jennings is not conceded and admitted that he didn't give himself much of a chance of getting on Jeopardy! much less even winning the first time out. But as his streak grew he always thought the next game would be the end. He recognized that luck as well as knowledge and skill with the buzzer determined his success. Jennings travelled to visit famous trivia experts and interview them and he also went to the town in Wisconsin that holds the biggest trivia contest. This is a very entertaining book and is one that Jeopardy fans will love.

In this wonderful, very cleverly put-together book, Ken Jennings talks about his Jeopardy! experience, his nationwide travels to meet some big names in the trivia world (including the long-elusive Fred Worth, author of the 1970s cult classic Trivia Encyclopedia). But, most importantly for his writer, he articulates why trivia is "not so trivial" (and deserves a much more "significant" name) better than anything I have ever read on the subject--and I've read plenty in the past 30 years. Ken does just as lucid a job in describing the different kinds of trivia, what makes good trivia, and other stuff like that, that will make you appreciate the well-written question all the more. There's never been a book on trivia like this. If, like me, you've got bookshelves groaning with trivia books, this is a MUST HAVE.

Loved this book way past expectations. Ken Jennings is slyly hilarious, as he takes us on the bizarre roller coaster that was his experience on Jeopardy!. Okay, trivial question: should I have put that period after that Jeopardy!-specific exclamation point? Because it looks funny to me. Ken Jennings would probably know. In this terrific, breezy book, he pulls together tons of intense, detailed trivia about trivia itself - and makes it cool. He's obviously writing about stuff he loves, and makes us see his world and imagine living in it - even for those of us lacking clue one about college quiz bowls, game show history or the difficult art of board game question writing. This is a smart, smart guy who comes across as nearly egoless as possible for someone this interesting, funny and insightful. It was entertaining to get Ken's (usually irreverent) take on his fellow brainiacs, Jeopardy!, Trebek, pop culture and, heck, life as we know it. I laughed aloud too many times to count. Don't be a dork, my nerdy friend - buy the book, settle in and prepare to snort milk out your nose. Enjoy.

After watching Ken for 70+ episodes on Jeopardy I felt like I knew him. His writing style works with this "television friend" persona. Reading this book is like having a conversation with him. The snark and the wit come through loud and clear.