BobHarris.com - Media stuff

Books! Actual books!

"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

Books I'm Getting

Who Hates Whom:
Well-Armed Fanatics, Intractable Conflicts,
and Various Things Blowing Up —
A Woefully Incomplete Guide™

“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

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Tuesday, 23 January 2007

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.