Purchase
Brainiac: Adventures in the Curious, Competitive, Compulsive World of Trivia Buffs
Ken Jennings
One day back in 2003, Ken Jennings and his college buddy Earl did what hundreds of thousands of people had done before: they auditioned for Jeopardy!
Villard
September 2006
On Sale: September 12, 2006
288 pages
ISBN: 1400064457
EAN: 9781400064458
Hardcover
Add to Wish List
Non-Fiction Memoir
Two years, 75 games, 2,642 correct answers, and over $2.5
million in winnings later, Ken Jennings emerged as trivia’s
undisputed king. Brainiac traces his rise from anonymous
computer programmer to nerd folk icon. But along the way, it
also explores his newly conquered kingdom: the world of
trivia itself. Jennings had always been minutiae-mad, poring over almanacs
and TV Guide listings at an age when most kids are still
watching Elmo and putting beans up their nose. But trivia,
he has found, is centuries older than his childhood
obsession with it. Whisking us from the coffeehouses of
seventeenth-century London to the Internet age, Jennings
chronicles the ups and downs of the trivia fad: the quiz
book explosion of the Jazz Age; the rise, fall, and rise
again of TV quiz shows; the nostalgic campus trivia of the
1960s; and the 1980s, when Trivial Pursuit® again made it
fashionable to be a know-it-all.
Jennings also investigates the shadowy demimonde of today’s
trivia subculture, guiding us on a tour of trivia hotspots
across America. He goes head-to-head with the blowhards and
diehards of the college quiz-bowl circuit, the slightly
soused faithful of the Boston pub trivia scene, and the
raucous participants in the annual Q&A marathon in Stevens
Point, Wisconsin, “The World’s Largest Trivia Contest.” And,
of course, he takes us behind the scenes of his improbable
75-game run on Jeopardy! But above all, Brainiac is a love letter to the useless
fact. What marsupial has fingerprints that are
indistinguishable from human ones?* What planet has a crater
on it named after Laura Ingalls Wilder?** What comedian had
the misfortune to be born with the name “Albert
Einstein”?*** Jennings also ponders questions that are a
little more philosophical: What separates trivia from
meaningless facts? Is being good at trivia a mark of
intelligence? And is trivia just a waste of time, or does it
serve some not-so-trivial purpose after all? Uproarious, silly, engaging, and erudite, this book is an
irresistible celebration of nostalgia, curiosity, and nerdy
obsession–in a word, trivia.
Comments
No comments posted.
Registered users may leave comments.
Log in or register now!
| 
© 2003-2024 off-the-edge.net
all rights reserved Privacy Policy