BobHarris.com - This just amuses me for no good reason

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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Antiwar.com

This just amuses me for no good reason

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Friday, 18 November 2005

I just learned that Aldous Huxley used to live in an apartment right across from the one I lived in for nine years.

I have no idea why this makes me smile, but it does. It does not validate my existence. It is completely meaningless. He died 38 days after I was born. So it's not like I'm gonna run into him when he comes back because he forgot a box of underpants when he moved out or anything.

The building I lived in for nine years is HUGE, by the way, and so is the one Aldous Huxley lived in facing me, so this is hardly a surprise. Warren Zevon lived in my building. I'd see him in the mail room. Kato Kaelin used to visit somebody on the floor above me. I'd see him in the elevator sometimes. David Carradine almost walked right into me once. No idea what he was doing there. The publisher of Screw magazine had a place in the back. You'd see girls coming and going sometimes, and just know where they were headed.

I could go on with a dozen other names (and will someday; I'm sure it's quite a list if I ever sit down and write it), but you get the idea.

Y'know those TV ads (or California gubernatorial races) where they slam 34 different B-list celebrities into the same commercial, just to get your attention? This was that. I used to live in one of those, 24/7.

Almost everyone on Earth has lived or will live in my old building at one time. Probably including you. So I should be used to this sort of thing. Aldous Huxley should be one more name on the stack.

But for some reason this strikes me as actually cool. Aldous Huxley. Neat.