Brainiac: Adventures in the Curious, Competitive, Compulsive World of Trivia Buffs
by Ken Jennings

Answer: This computer programmer from Utah holds the record for the longest winning streak in Jeopardy!.
Question: Who is Ken Jennings?

Since its inception, contestants on the popular television game show, Jeopardy!, were limited to only five consecutive appearances, that is, a player, win or lose, was to leave the show and return home after playing five episodes. But in September 2003, this rule was scrapped, finally allowing contestants to continue playing and increasing their pot money until defeated. Shortly after the rule was implemented, a contestant named Tom Walsh went on to appear on the show three times more than the maximum number of allowed appearances prior to the rule change: Walsh won seven consecutive games and lost on his eighth. Then, five months later, on June 2, 2004, Ken Jennings, a devout Mormon and a humble software engineer from Salt Lake City, Utah, appeared on Jeopardy!. It was the first of his seventy-five consecutive appearances on the show.

Two years after his success on Jeopardy!, Jennings published a book called Brainiac: Adventures in the Curious, Competitive, Compulsive World of Trivia Buffs. I had the serendipity of coming across a copy of the book several weeks ago, and for a self-described trivia fiend, finding it was not unlike discovering a new, profoundly interesting trivia item. The moment warranted the utterance of at least one wow and a couple of whoas.

Given his legendary exploits on the Merv Griffin-created quiz show, buzzing in with his answers, er, questions episode after episode as millions of viewers tuned in to witness history in the making, Jennings is now considered a cultural icon, an “Opie-looking” leader of the nerd herd, a geek god highly regarded in the pantheon of modern trivia. Jennings’s Brainiac chronicles his journey from anonymity to celebrity; it tells of his improbable rise from being a computer programmer for a small company to being an icon, a leader, and a god. Told with a mixture of self-deprecating humor and nerdy charm, it’s an irresistible story about an unlikely hero who, armed with thirty years’ worth of encyclopedic knowledge and a copy of How to Get on Jeopardy!… and Win!, auditions for Jeopardy!, gets called back eight months later, and plays for a record-breaking six months to earn more than two million dollars as well as host Alex Trebek’s utmost admiration and a spot as one of Barbara Walters’s Ten Most Fascinating People of 2004 (“It must have been a slow year,” Jennings says of his inclusion in the broadcast journalist’s list).

As hinted on by the book’s polysyllabic subtitle, Brainiac, aside from telling Jennings’s rags-to-riches story, deals with another story that is slightly more interesting: that of trivia itself. As he shares his personal experiences before, during, and immediately after his stint as a quiz show contestant, Jennings discusses the past and present state of trivia as well as of the subculture that surrounds it. And while he’s at it, Jennings peppers the book with phrases, all within context, that read like trivia questions or Jeopardy! clues, each marked with a superscript number that corresponds to an answer at the end of the chapter where the phrase appears. This novel approach makes Brainiac even more entertaining as it seeks to counter what Jennings notes is the same problem that a book about trivia shares with rock criticism or a sex manual: it’s never as much fun as the real thing.

With a half-page dedicated to the etymology of trivia, numerous paragraphs specifying the origins of various “trivial” pursuits, and entire chapters recounting his visits and interviews with some of his fellow trivia aficionados, Jennings presents a verbal delineation of trivia that is mostly exciting and informative. To be sure, Brainiac’s coverage of its ancillary subject can be a drag at times, but it is so exhaustive that I wouldn’t be surprised if I stumble upon a factoid somewhere saying that the book, in a nod to one of Jennings’s probable heroes, was once alternatively titled, A Brief History of Trivia. I also wouldn’t be surprised if Gary Hustwit, director of Helvetica and Objectified, decides to adapt the book into a documentary film about the wonderful, El Ten Eleven music-worthy world of trivia.

Answer: Half-memoir, half-lengthy-encyclopedia-entry for the term trivia, this book by former Jeopardy! champ Ken Jennings is a winner.
Question: What is Brainiac?