"Curiosity, memory, and a love for exhaustive and exhausting detail--that's the trivia trifecta right there."

This is Ken Jennings memoir of his months' long run in 2003 as Jeopardy champion during which he won more than $2 million. Interspersed is a history of trivia fads and games over the years, as well as interviews and stories about famous and not-so-famous trivia celebrities, such as the inventor of the Trivial Pursuit game, or people associated with the various College Bowl games.

The book is well-written and quite entertaining. As a bonus, in each chapter Jennings embeds 10 trivia questions. I was quite pleased with myself at usually being able to answer at least 5 of them--Alas not quite Jeopardy champ material.

3 stars ( )

Ken Jennings talks about his experiences being on Jeopardy! (over and over and over...) and what his life was like before, during and after his unprecedented run of wins. Interspersed with that, he talks about trivia: its history as a pastime, why it's interesting and whether it's worthwhile, and what kind of person turns that pastime into a full-blown obsession. (Jennings himself honestly seems to have been born to it. Some of the stories about what he was like even as a small child do kind of make me feel much better about the fact that I haven't won seventy-four games of Jeopardy! in a row. I like trivia, but I think I'm lacking some gene for it that this guy was born with.) He also talks a lot about particular trivia contests and events, including college bowl quizzes, rigged 1950s game shows, and a weird town in Wisconsin where the biggest event of the year is an insanely nitpicky fifty-four hour trivia event.

I found some of the trivia-obsessed people and places he visits a lot more interesting than others, but overall this was an entertaining read, and I love the way he peppers the book with trivia questions to challenge the reader in a way that makes them part of the narrative. And his descriptions of his Jeopardy! career are especially interesting, and much more exciting than I might have expected from the fact that I already knew perfectly well how the whole thing went. ( )

Way too detailed but interesting read ( )

I like Jennings's blog and Twitter, but the book suffers a bit from its neither fish nor fowl nature. ( )

I enjoyed this book. It chronicled the story of Ken Jennings in his Jeopardy! appearances back in 2004. Along the way, he talks about how he was raised into a trivia geek and about other meetings of trivia geeks around the United States. The author talks about how he met all these trivia legends, and on becoming a piece of trivia himself in a moment of introspection. It was all very interesting and entertaining. Interspersed throughout the book are trivia questions with answers at the end of the chapters. I guess even appearing on national television can get mundane after a while, but this guy takes it all in stride. ( )