Not Quite So New!
But still a great gift! Get some holiday shopping done early! Order yours now!
"A rollicking ride of intellectual discovery and emotional growth... unlike his buzzer skills, his comic timing never fails"
-- The Wall Street Journal
"Pulls you in like a good sports story"
-- The New York Times Book Review
"Endearingly frank... jubilant... lighthearted and fast-paced"
-- New York Newsday
"A surprisingly touching memoir"
-- Entertainment Weekly
"Hugely funny"
-- Mental Floss
"Like Jeopardy! itself, it covers a lot of ground and in snappy and informative fashion"
-- Associated Press
"Down to earth and entertaining, even for non- Jeopardy! fans"
-- The New York Daily News
"A very funny writer... the book works like gangbusters."
-- Ken Jennings, 74-time Jeopardy! winner, holder of numerous other Jeopardy! records
"Effortlessly funny and informative... tender, human, and very wise... A must for anyone who loves Jeopardy!, or has ever seen it, or is breathing."
-- Joss Whedon, creator, Buffy the Vampire Slayer
"I haven't seen Jeopardy! since I was a kid, and yet I was charmed and amused by Bob Harris's fascinating and surprisingly suspenseful book. Through sheer force of personality, he takes this brainy TV show and makes it funny and easy to relate to."
-- Ira Glass, creator and host, This American Life
"Eccentric, energetic, and engaging"
-- Publishers Weekly
"The perfect gift for any Jeopardy! fan... I was thoroughly entertained"
-- USA Today, "Pop Candy"
"Surprisingly compelling... a funny and in-depth look at what it takes to win"
-- Long Island Press
"Wise, honest, and very funny... I wish I'd written it. Then again, I wish I'd won $127,000 and his-and-hers Camaros on Jeopardy!, too."
-- Jeff Greenstein, writer/producer, Desperate Housewives, Will & Grace, Friends
"Cleverly executed... solid entertainment"
-- Kirkus Reviews
"Answer: A hilarious, engaging and highly entertaining book. Question: What is Prisoner of Trebekistan? (All right... that was sort of a lame Jeopardy! joke. But what can I say? It's a great book.)"
-- Paul Feig, creator of Freaks and Geeks, author of Superstud and Kick Me
"A surprisingly intimate, entertaining book."
-- Orson Scott Card, author of Ender's Game
" Prisoner of Trebekistan is funny, enlightening -- and just might help you win a million bucks on Jeopardy!"
-- A. J. Jacobs, author of The Know-It-All
"If you don't buy this book -- this funny, learned, charming, and surprisingly moving book -- I will make it burst into flames in your hands."
-- Arthur Phillips, author of Prague and The Egyptologist
"A keeper for anyone who's even remotely a fan of Jeopardy!"
-- TVSquad.com
"If you enjoy... self-aware, geeky good humor, this could actually be your favorite book of the year."
-- The Stranger
"Highly entertaining... laugh-out-loud, absurdist funny... hilarious"
-- Akron Beacon-Journal
"Hilarious... a true treat for all Jeopardy! fans."
-- Strand Bookstore
"Everything you'd hope for... surprisingly compelling... deftly woven together... this sweet, fascinating book is a great read."
-- Book-blog.com
"If super-intelligent space aliens invaded our planet and demanded to interview one member of our species to ascertain whether or not we human beings were logical, bright, kind, and entertaining enough to be allowed to continue, I would nominate, with all my powers of persuasion, Bob Harris."
-- Emo Philips, comedian
"A masterful job of describing the feel of Jeopardy! in the heat of battle... I knew that Bob was a great guy and a fantastic Jeopardy! player. Now I've found that he's also a wonderful writer. I think I'm starting to hate him."
-- Brad Rutter, top money-winner in Jeopardy! history
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“Revelatory... wryly funny about some very serious subjects... Harris's sly wit and infectious curiosity make understanding world chaos fascinating... witty, horrific, and necessary.”
— Boston Globe
“Only Bob could make a user’s guide to our increasingly hostile world this absorbing, this breezy, and—ultimately—this hopeful.”
— Ken Jennings, author of Brainiac: Adventures in the Curious, Competitive, Compulsive World of Trivia Buffs
"Brave... irreverent... charges into the thick of the globe's myriad simmering wars... hilariously relaxed."
— New York Observer
“Fascinating, enlightening, and surprisingly: NOT TOTALLY DEPRESSING. A gimlet-eyed look at the world we endure that’s also suitable for enjoying with a gimlet.”
— John Hodgman, author of The Areas of My Expertise
and correspondent for The Daily Show with Jon Stewart
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Main  Book Blog
So I've just arrived on St. Vincent, an island I've never been to before and which I would still have a little trouble finding on a map. I'm working and settling in and puttering around figuring out which power adapter goes into what, and finally I flip on the TV before bed.
And the very first face I see, on the channel the previous occupant of this room must have been watching, is somebody I just met for lunch, a friend of a friend. She's not famous, she's not on TV all the time, if ever. You'd have no idea who she is. That's what makes this so odd.
Eeny little planet this is.
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I've been asked to speak to a cognitive psychology class at UCLA on Monday morning, talking about memory skills and learning and whatnot.
At least, I think the class is in cognitive psychology. They told me, but -- this is the beauty part -- I forgot.
Maybe I'm not supposed to be there as an example... but as a specimen.
UPDATE: That was a blast. My thanks to professor Steve, and to a great group of about 250 students, who made me feel welcome despite my complete lack of formal education in stuff they know lots about.
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"Right now" being Sunday evening, about 5:30 Los Angeles time.
Just got a call from a friend watching TV. GSN, the former Game Show Network, is airing a special called "The Insider's Guide to Winning Game Show Millions." Which is something I've never done. But I chatted with some producers for about 20 minutes last summer. After a few bits aired in December, I figured that was it. Guess not.
Flipped it on... and hey, I'm getting my butt kicked again on national TV. Excellent. They just replayed my last final flame-out on Jeopardy!. Again. Man, that was not my best moment.
Please excuse me now while I shave my head and go into rehab.
PS -- according to GSN's schedule, the show will be repeated tonight, Sunday, at 11 pm EST, and Tuesday at 9 pm EST. So there, if you're curious.
PS -- A correction: the graphic under my name is incorrect. They asked for my total quiz winnings, and now they're using that as my Jeopardy! total. I doubt anyone cares, but my Jeopardy! haul is only about a third of the total. Maybe using the bigger number made it look like I had any business on a special with that title.
PPS -- another correction: I said something like "one third of the clues I answered came from Chuck Forrest's book." As I wrote in Trebekistan, about a third of all the clues I answered correctly came from studying, and the main thing I studied early on was Chuck's book. But that's not the same thing. I compressed the two in the interview, which was verbally sloppy. |
Bay Area readers: I've just been asked to do a signing of Prisoner of Trebekistan at this year's WonderCon up at the Moscone Center in San Francisco. As I am slowly becoming a comics geek in midlife, this is a thrill.
My workload is still pretty thick right now, so it'll be a very brief visit once we get the details worked out. More info shortly.
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I've been a fan of Ira Glass and This American Life for many years, so it was a kick when Ira was kind enough to blurb Prisoner of Trebekistan.
A few weeks ago, Ira invited me to be a guest on a program themed around quiz shows, so we chatted for about an hour. Our interview will probably be edited down to about a minute or two of the final result, but still, for the curious, the show airs this weekend. You can find your local date, time, and station info here.
Incidentally, there's also a Showtime TV version of TAL debuting on March 22nd. From what I've heard, they've done a pretty cool job of re-thinking the program as imaginative TV, not just sticking a camera in the studio a la Howard Stern. So that should be worth seeing. |
Two media things to mention, each fun in its own way:
• Just recorded an interview with Ira Glass for an upcoming This American Life. After editing, our chat will probably only be a few minutes long, but still, what a blast. I've been a huge fan for years.
The TAL Fiasco!
story about Peter Pan may be my favorite single radio segment, ever.
(If you haven't heard it and can spare 20 minutes, give it a listen. I
was in the car and had to pull over.) Will mention again a few days in
advance of the airdate.
• Oddly, Skai TV in Greece has linked
to my grumpy little screed about Hillary, quoting me as if
I'm something other than a tiny, unknown, not particularly original or
even hard-working blogger.
In the media food chain, I'm plankton, tops. Maybe just carbon
dioxide. But weirdly, the piece just quotes me with no explanation, as
if my name ("Mpomp Xáris") actually means something. In Greece. But I'm not
even the most well-known person with my own name. Not even close. So a bunch of Athenians may now think a BBC radio DJ, a novelist, a builder, two different guitar players, and/or Bill Murray's fictional character in Lost In Translation suddenly have opinions about the US election.
This was briefly disorienting, in a fun way. (Am I famous in Greece? you fleetingly wonder. What, did Arianna make some calls? Did I land on something valuable when I fell on my ass at the Parthenon? Do they want it back? Is my ass that big? Maybe I need to get to the gym.)
It took perhaps two full seconds to realize the writer was probably in
a hurry, found a piece on Google that made the point he wanted to make,
and figured my being American was enough to use the quote. (If you're
curious, which you can't possibly be, scroll down to the second blue
pull-quote, which is roughly "'Whoever is not with us it is against us'
was said not only by the leader of the world. It was also Hillary."
That chunk around there.)
Also weird: the Skai photo of Bill Richardson taken was while he was being interviewed by KNX, my old radio haunt here in L.A.
It's almost like we all live on the same planet or something.
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Only Google knows why, but if you do a Google Map search for Trebekistan, you get the offices of defeated Sen. Mike DeWine (R-OH) and Sen. John Warner (R-VA) as the first two listings.
(Yes, I see the link Google has chosen as its rationale. But why that one?)
Apparently we may have to begin smuggling buzzers and reference books to the rebel forces.
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Well, damn.
I just realized that the swearing-in of a new Secretary-General, Ban Ki-moon, means that Prisoner of Trebekistan's goofy example of how to remember all of the Secretaries-General, in order (see pp. 96-98), is now obsolete.
Allow me to insert this addendum to the fifth full paragraph on page 97:
In celebration, the victorious dwarf then drops his pants and allows his girlfriend to play bongos on his naked butt. Thus, Bongo Moon.
You may have to read the book to understand how that fits.
And no disrespect meant whatsoever to the former South Korean Minister of Foreign Affairs and Trade who speaks three languages and holds a Masters Degree from Harvard.
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Mandatory weekend reading. So excellent I’m surprised it’s only hidden behind a free registration
wall, not the big fat subscription wall:
It
was the kind of day that lives mostly in Cleveland surfers’ fantasies.
Pushed by the storm’s winds, water the color of chocolate milk rose 10
feet in the air before slamming onto a beach of boulders and logs. The
temperature was 40 degrees and falling. One surfer, Vince Labbe,
climbed onto his board only to get blown backward by 40-mile-an-hour
winds…
Surfers learn to avoid ice chunks the size of bowling
balls. Some wear goggles to surf through freezing rain, which can sting
their eyes like needles. That is a bad idea, Mr. Labbe said, because
the goggles freeze to their faces…
To reach the lake, surfers
drag their boards across snowdrifts and beaches littered with used
condoms and syringes, Mr. Ditzenberger said. The most popular surf spot
is Edgewater State Park. It is nicknamed Sewer Pipe because, after
heavy rains, a nearby water treatment plant regularly discharges
untreated waste into Lake Erie.
A lot of people who read Prisoner of Trebekistan ask: if I still love Cleveland so much, why move to California?
I believe you may have your answer.
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I'll be unable to respond to (or probably even notice) most emails for the next
ten weeks while rushing frantically toward the deadline on the next
book.
If you enjoyed Prisoner of Trebekistan, feel like saying so, and really want to help out... don't tell me you liked it; instead, please just email this very page to your friends, family, co-workers, and any pets who enjoy a good story. With luck, they'll land here, check out both the book itself and Trebekistan.com, and they'll see why you sent them.
(And if you've just arrived this way, welcome! I hope you'll enjoy the goofy videos, the various extras to the book, the cheap and exotic air travel links, and whatever else you stumble across here. Thanks for coming. If you dig the stuff, pass it on!)
I'll still keep posting on the blog here as often as I can, even when it gets really nuts in a few weeks.
Thanks!
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Actually, I'm not sure if it only ran online or appeared in the print edition -- I haven't been out of the house yet to check -- but anyway, this USA Today writer put Prisoner of Trebekistan atop her list of recommended holiday gift books:
"... the perfect gift for any Jeopardy! fan... I was thoroughly entertained."
Neat!
I'll also repeat my recommendation of the "competing" title, Ken Jennings's Brainiac, as another great gift for fans of the show.
I'll have some other recommendations to list out when I get a sec. Unfortunately, my next book is due in ten weeks. Ten weeks! [Wilhelm scream!] In other words: I will have no life for a while.
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Another nice review:
"highly entertaining... laugh-out-loud, absurdist funny..."
A reminder, if you're looking: almost every physical bookstore I've visited has Trebekistan not under Humor, Autobiography, or TV, but under "Puzzles & Games."
Usually it's mixed in with the crosswords, Sudoku, and Texas Hold'em books.
As I've said, though, there's also something weirdly satisfying about seeing a book about your own life categorized under "Puzzles."
I mean, yes. Exactly.
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If it were up to me, after these kind words about Prisoner of Trebekistan, Ken Jennings would get his official iron-on patch for what he calls the Jeopardy! "club" in the mail next week. Plus a map to the tree fort, and the secret password we use to keep those Millionaire kids out.
The
timing of his praise is also a bit remarkable -- I spent a bit of Thanksgiving Day working on a list of books I'm giving (and will shortly recommend here) as gifts during
the looming holiday ritual shopping fiasco season, and Brainiac was already right up by the top.
I'm
a big advocate of books as gifts: you can
usually find cool choices for everyone on your list -- even people who rarely read (they get books about their favorite sports, TV
shows, or in extreme cases, smells) -- and at appropriate prices for any implied level of affection;
they're simple to wrap (or order gift-wrapped) and carry to somebody's house; and (best of all) they're easy to order -- you can probably knock off half your shopping without moving your kiester from that chair.
Plus, you're usually supporting
writers you actually respect, while encouraging people to read more. And any leftover books take about a century to go bad, even without
refrigeration.
Anyhow, my list isn't quite done in time for the start of the post-Thanksgiving shopping bloody nightmare
rush. (I'm already being crushed by the deadline on the next book.) But here's what I was already gonna say about Brainiac, even before Ken beat me on the buzzer just now:
it's surprisingly funny, it's surprisingly modest (coming from a guy
who has lots of reasons not to be), and it's the most entertaining book
about the world of trivia I've ever seen.
It's also a very different book from Trebekistan,
in at least a dozen ways you can find out for yourself if you're curious. A bookstore manager in Anaheim once described it as "the way Kirk was
different from Picard," if that's any help. Although she didn't say who was who, and I wish
now that I'd asked.
I think it depends on which one of us goes bald with dignity.
PS: Ken's book hasn't sent any women into labor yet that I know of. So, pregnant Ken Jennings fans... you now have a project.
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