"A rollicking ride of intellectual discovery and emotional growth... 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
"Snappy and informative"
-- Associated Press
"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
"A surprisingly intimate, entertaining book."
-- Orson Scott Card, 4-time Hugo Award winner, author of Ender's Game
"Funny, enlightening -- and just might help you win a million bucks on Jeopardy!"
-- A. J. Jacobs, author of The Know-It-All
"A masterful job of describing the feel of Jeopardy! in the heat of battle... I knew 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
“Revelatory... Harris's sly wit and infectious curiosity make understanding world chaos fascinating... witty, horrific, and necessary.”
—Boston Globe
"Brave... irreverent... charges into the thick of the globe's myriad simmering wars... hilariously relaxed."
— New York Observer
"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
“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
"All three [presidential] candidates should read all three of these [recommended] books, but McCain gets first crack at Bob Harris's "Who Hates Whom“... a lighthearted overview of the insurrections and civil wars in the world today."
—Steven Pinker, author of The Stuff of Thought, in the New York Times Book Review
And up front, yep, lots of these folks are friends of mine. But if you enjoy this site or Trebekistan,
then you or a loved one will probably groove on at least something listed below.
If you think anything looks interesting, just hover your cursor over the link for more.
FUN
If you dig Jeopardy!: Brainiac by Ken Jennings, who once killed a man down south. With his mind.
Anyone who has not yet had their brain seized by the Great Hodg-man (the guy playing the PC in the Apple ads, who is also so funny in print that it's almost sinister): The Areas Of My Expertise. About which: the less said, the more accurate.
Or for anyone who just enjoys a monthly dose of Dave Barry, Molly Ivins, Matt Groening, etc.: a subscription to The Funny Times.
And if you're not an Emo fan yet, you and everyone you know should be. Try the E=MO2/Hasty Pudding CD. Most comics I know consider him of the greatest joke-writers who ever lived.
TRAVEL
If you share my wanderlust (lately too unindulged-in, although that should change shortly), 1,000 Places To See Before You Die. There are hundreds of things any of us would add or subtract from
the list, but quibbling is half the fun.
Cable News Confidentialby
Jeff Cohen. Jeff probably has more experience presenting an
authentically left side to debate on Fox, CNN, and MSNBC than anyone
else alive. His behind-the-scenes stories are enough to make you swear
off -- and swear at -- cable "news" discussions for good.
Silk Road To Ruin, Ted Rall's stunning, funny, terrifying memoir of travels through the -stan countries of Central Asia. With cartoons!
Who Killed The Electric Car?, now on DVD. If your green friends aren't already pissed off enough, this should put them right over.
Gus Russo's Supermob. Light
reading; only 623 pages. Thumbnail: original research into Los
Angeles real estate records shows more power in fewer hands during the
growth of Hollywood than previously noticed, much of it centered around Sidney Korshak, who apparently used to hold court walking distance from where I'm sitting. And it turns out that the best-paying gig I've ever had here involved working for the daughter of Korshak's business partner. Small, small world.
The Corporation and The Yes Men. These DVDs should be viewed together, in this order, as a double feature. Trust me; the gold lamé employee-monitor suit will be even funnier when you get to it.
NOVEL IDEAS
If you haven't read my favoritist novelist (and, in a suspicious coincidence, fellow Jeopardy! frustrate-ee) Arthur Phillips's last novel, The Egyptologist, it's a joyride.
Arthur got me started on Nabokov, btw. Who is way funnier than I thought literature was supposed to be. So I'll also mention Pale Fire, which I loved.
Mel Brooks's son Max has chronicled the grim aftermath of the Zombie War. World War Z will surely be viewed by historians as the most important record of the conflict.
If college ever seems to be about almost everything but learning -- status, competition, sex, etc. -- Mike Gerber's Freshman nails almost everything on the list.
Sarah Grace McCandless's books are often mischaracterized as young adult titles, but The Girl I Wanted To Be and Grosse Pointe Girl are both underappreciated gems -- maybe the simplicity of the execution hides just how wryly
observant and emotionally subtle her writing really is.
For kids and every adult who used to be one: Janell Cannon's Stellaluna. Gorgeous book by a wonderful woman.
REFERENCE An Incomplete Education. The
bit about how to tell Keats from Shelley ("Keats was the one you'd play
racquetball with") stuck with me ever after. This was worth hundreds of bucks on Jeopardy! alone.
Lies My Teacher Told Me: Everything Your American History Textbook Got Wrong
by Jim Loewen. One thing: I interviewed the author on my old radio show, and his
lefty slant didn't seem appreciably different from mine; I didn't think it
colored his work in any way, but those were my eyes I was using, so this might
belong under "politics" instead of "reference."
1001 Books You Must Read Before You Die by Peter Ackroyd. Will someone please stop the most annoying trend in titles ever? But I do wish I'd had this for the Jeopardy! tournaments.
AND A FEW MORE DVDs I JUST PERSONALLY LOVE
Penn & Teller's Bullsh*t! is must-see-TV if you enjoy having your icons reduced to clast.
Little Miss Sunshine. Haven't we all been the world's second-leading authority on Proust at one time or another? (Hard to believe it's the same Steve Carell from The Office.)
Dr. Strangelove. Not too far off from a documentary, unfortunately.
And finally, The Prisoner.
Not only the coolest TV series ever -- I had to visit Wales afterward,
just to see the bizarre resort where it was filmed (and there's a gift shop in building number 6, naturally) -- but also our possible collective destiny, the
way things are going.
Blogs and news 
