BobHarris.com - Meme'd

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

Main

Antiwar.com

Meme'd

Tag it now -

Wednesday, 24 January 2007

Got tagged by Greg. So:

1. Name a book you want to share so much that you keep giving away copies:

I gave several copies of Hell In A Handbasket as holiday presents. But I actually put up a whole list of books I liked not long ago, so I refer you there.

2. Name a piece of music that changed the way you listen to music:

Believe it or not, the theme to I Dream of Jeannie. I was in music school for a while in my 20s, and our composition course was just getting to rhythmic variations on a simple theme, changing melody but maintaining the basic bounce. And we had all these hifalutin examples in Beethoven and whatnot. But later I was back in the dorm, and the lesson was still in my head as I flipped on my tiny TV, and on comes a rerun... and sure enough: doooo-dit, doo-dit-da-doo-dit, etc. Sure, it's a pedestrian example. But suddenly I was hearing rhythm in a new way.

3. Name a film you can watch again and again without fatigue:

Spinal Tap. And anything by Monty Python. And Galaxy Quest.

4. Name a performer for whom you suspend all disbelief:

The regulars on any of the CSI shows, especially the leads. Even when their characters may have little arc in a given scene, or are forced to spout dense science and make it sound almost casual, or sometimes are given nothing on the page beyond (off his look) and then "let's go." And they make it rich enough that even though I've stood right there, watching them do lines I wrote, knowing damn well what I contributed was not much and not all that great... and they made it good. I still believed it in the final show.

Most of the people over there are pretty brilliant, in every department of the show. But the actors... man, those people can bring it.

5. Name a work of art you'd like to live with:

The Yellow Submarine cover art. But in real life. Like a real submarine and all.

6. Name a work of fiction which has penetrated your real life:

1984, unfortunately.

7. Name a punch line that always makes you laugh:

Galaxy Quest: "That was a badly written episode!"

If you haven't seen it, see it. One of the great comedy scripts ever. Waaaaay underappreciated.