It was fun to hear Ken Jennings describe his experience on Jeopardy from his own point of view. He is a witty and funny writer and he made a great case for the value of general knowledge in this book.

I came away from reading convinced that learning facts for the sake of knowing them is valuable and fun. I feel inspired to try harder to remember names, places, dates, and other tidbits of knowledge. It is amazing how much some people store in their brains, and we all could probably store more if we tried.

The format of the book is fun in that it includes trivia in every chapter, woven into the narrative (with answers at the back of the chapter). It gives the book its own trivia quiz.

The book is not just a description of his time on Jeopardy however. I was impressed at how Jennings went out and spoke to big names in trivia and went to competitions around the country. He did this I think so he could give a first hand account, and it made the book really interesting. For example, he gave the history of the game Trivial Pursuit and described how he talked to the guy whose trivia questions were essentially stolen to make the game.

Most of all though, I thought he really made the case for the idea that knowing things, even if you don't have a reason at the time, is fun and useful.