BobHarris.com - Election day (for about 8% of you) is here! Get out and vote!

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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Monday, 23 January 2006

Colin reminds me that our neighbours to the north are holding national elections today. It says something about how self-obsessed the U.S. media is that any of us needs reminding.

Your major options include the Liberals, the New Democrats, the Conservatives, the Greens, et pour ceux de vous qui veulent cesser ce non-sens entier du Canada, le Bloc Quebecois.

Your less-likely options include the Libertarians, the Western Block party, the Communists, the Canadian Action Party, the Christian Heritage Party, the Marijuana Party, the Progressive Canadians, the Marxist-Leninists, the First Peoples National Party, and the Animal Alliance Environment Voters Party of Canada.

If you're not quite sure why the Animal Alliance Environment people might think the Greens don't quite get the point, the CBC has prepared a handy Cheat Sheet. Fun highlights:

The Bloc Quebecois wants to field their own sporting teams at international events.
The Conservative leader has been making a fresh big announcement every morning. So much for Rovian staying on message.
The Greens have everybody a little confused. So they're definitely Greens.
The Liberal slogan is "Choose Your Canada." I'll take that big one in the middle, please.
The New Democrats will probably only get about 20 percent of the vote. Which means they'll actually be the ones holding the balance of power in the House of Commons.

If you're not quite sure how this last bit is possible, check out this cool examination of different voting systems, including the Nobel prize-winning realization that even without Diebold, no voting system can ever actually work completely, which leads to this nifty example of how equally-valid voting systems might play out the same election among four candidates with four logical yet different results.

Fun, watching a relatively healthy democracy, so different and yet familiar. Me, I'm hoping the Marijuana Party and the Christian Heritage people wind up in 50-50 control, if only for the entertainment value.

Sometimes I think Vancouver wouldn't be a bad place to wind up...