The Jeopardy! Book of Answers: 35th Anniversary

by Harry Friedman

2019 UPDATED EDITION – FEATURING THE JEOPARDY! ALL-STAR GAMES “This is Jeopardy!” Celebrate the thirty-fifth anniversary of America’s Favorite Quiz Show® with The Jeopardy! Book of Answers.  In honor of this extraordinary milestone, the show’s producers have selected fifteen historic games from over seven thousand episodes that illustrate why the show is every bit as timely—and as lively—as it was the moment that Alex Trebek first took the stage in 1984.You’ll meet Ken Jennings in his first win, and you’ll be there for the stunning end of his record-breaking run. Experience again the epic battle of Man vs. Machine with IBM’s Watson computer. Follow the Celebrity Invitational Finals with $1,000,000 on the line for charity. Get the play-by-play for championship showdowns, memorable tournaments, and so much more. Each game includes the complete text of the Jeopardy!, Double Jeopardy!, and Final Jeopardy! rounds along with exclusive behind-the-scenes details and photos. Get to know the contestants, and, for the first time in print, you’ll get untold stories from the staff behind some of our most popular players, games, and competitions.  Who knows? It may even inspire you to become the next Jeopardy! champion! From the very first Jeopardy! episode to the exciting come-from-behind finish of last season’s Tournament of Champions, The Jeopardy! Book of Answers is a must-have for any fan.

Genres: Nonfiction, Trivia

290 pages, Kindle Edition

Published November 13, 2018

Reviews

[Jennifer · Rating 5 out of 5]

By no means a complete history of the show’s episodes, it is a delightful look back at 35 seasons with fun antidotes about a variety of players, tournaments, and episodes. It was especially entertaining to have the actual Jeopardy! rounds following each commentary so that readers could play along.

I brought this book home from the library on October 22 and Alex Trebek passed away on November 8, 2020. Having already read Alex’s memoir The Answer Is…, it was comforting to hear the devastating news and be able to immediately reach for this book and immerse myself in the familiar rhythms of the show. The Jeopardy! Book of Answers definitely is about the show and not its host. I think it links nicely with Trebek’s memoir, giving readers a charming combo of Trebek’s stories in his memoir with the production team’s show stories in this book.

Contents include Introduction; First Show; Ken Jennings; Celebrity Jeopardy! IBM Challenge; Battle of the Decades; College Championship; Teachers Tournament; Tournament of Champions; Conclusion plus a seven-page photo gallery including one shot of Pat Sajak who hosted Jeopardy! as an April Fool’s Joke in 1997.

[Shannon · Rating 4 out of 5]

A delightful little book. Much of the book is photos or the clues and answers from certain games, but I really enjoyed the little prose snippets where they went into the background of the episode. As a decades-long Jeopardy fan, this was a treat.

[Robert · Rating 5 out of 5]

Nicely formatted collection of memorable games, with introductory essays to each.

[Shari · Rating 3 out of 5]

Read prepping for my appearance on the show (eek). I was a little disappointed by the book's recency bias as quite a few of the games were taken from 2017. I also wanted to see more regular games that were exciting, as opposed to tournament games (easier or harder questions than normal, depending on the type of tournament).

There were a few weird typos in the clues that I'm sure did not appear when the episodes were televised.

[Neera Kapahi · Rating 4 out of 5]

I have been a fan of Jeopardy since Alex Trebek started hosting it in 1984. I enjoyed reading about the shows early years and legendary players such as Ken Jennings. The book also tells us how the idea of Watson (IBM computer) was conceived by some of the IBM employees to play against two other contestants.

I liked the rhythm of the book - each chapter covered various topics such as the first game, the teachers tournament and celebrity jeopardy. There are anecdotes about some of the participants. Towards the end of each chapter are the actual games that we can play along and test our knowledge.
Enjoyable and fun for all fans of Jeopardy!

[Rory · Rating 3 out of 5]

If you've been a lifelong fan of Jeopardy! as I am, and you already know everything there is to know about this televised library, there isn't much this book does in any surprising information or further interesting facts. It's disappointing, for example, that the Battle of the Decades section focuses only on Ken Jennings, Brad Rutter, and Roger Craig rather than writing about how the tournament was formed, how producers reached out to former contestants, etc. There is obviously enough here for a casual fan to be satisfied, but it should have embraced the hardcore fans, too.

[Cathy Douglas · Rating 4 out of 5]

This was just fun. I got interested in Jeopardy when that one guy was having the big winning streak. ("That one guy" -- Ha! You can tell what kind of Jeopardy player I'd make.) I'd never watched the game much, so I knew very little about it. This gave the basics of its history and development through the years, along with the actual trivia question-answers that appeared in certain pivotal games.

It was fun to play along, though in some cases the captions the authors add describing picture, video and audio clues give away the answer. I had to cover the squares up with my bookmark.

[Paul · Rating 3 out of 5]

The chief value of this book was that included the game boards for some classic Jeopardy! games, so you can test your knowledge against some of the best. But I didn’t learn much about Jeopardy! that I didn’t already know. And this edition is already outdated. (I understand there my be an updated edition.) It predates James Holzhauer’s amazing run, the Greatest of All Time tournament, and Alex Trebek’s death. It doesn’t even mention Alex Trebek’s pancreatic cancer. If you have to choose between this book and Alex Trebek’s memoir, I’d recommend the memoir.

[Dolly · Rating 4 out of 5]

I won this on Goodreads.

“The Jeopardy! Book of Answers” by Harry Friedman and Barry Garron is a must for any Jeopardy fan. It tells of the background of many of the most compelling / captivating games played in Jeopardy’s history. For any fan this book is great educational fun. It might just inspire me to try the online test to be a contestant. The answers on one page and questions on the next is a little awkward by this lets the board be experienced the same as on the show. Great book.

[Rachel · Rating 4 out of 5]

Great fun for Jeopardy! fans of all ages. I particularly liked the prose/discussion sections sprinkled throughout. The complete games are fun, but not really as objectively interesting as the behind-the-scenes bits. The discussion of Ken Jennings' streak was especially interesting in light of James Holzhauer's recent success. Overall, a fun little coffee table book. 4 stars - if there had been a few more text sections, it would have been perfect.

[Linda Donohue · Rating 5 out of 5]

I loved this book. What I enjoyed most was being able to research the answers, okay questions. A mentally stimulating book that I can pick and always find something I didn’t know. I received this book as a Goodreads Giveaway and I thank the publisher for offering this book. As a long time Jeopardy fan I appreciate it.

[Bargle · Rating 4 out of 5]

I received this book via a Goodreads giveaway.

A fun book to read to read. Not only stories about the games and winners, but the games are reproduced in a way that allows you to play them yourself as you read. My one complaint concerns the answers that had a video clue. Instead of reproducing the video image, it's described in text which gives away the question. Still, very good overall.

[Debi Emerson · Rating 5 out of 5]

A fun look at my all time favorite game show with some behind the scenes info & quite a few of the more prominent games throughout the years (think Ken Jennings, Brad Rutter & Watson!). A good read for any & all Jeopardy! fans.

[Jake Mcconnell · Rating 4 out of 5]

Don't expect this one to get into to in depth about the show. A few interesting tidbits here and there, but it mostly focuses on the milestone episodes from the show since 1984 (when the new format started). There might be five shows total and the question boards for each.

[Maria · Rating 5 out of 5]

Enjoyable trivia and more. Easy to pick up and go through as desired - stories add some bonus insight for Jeopardy fans.

[Amber · Rating 3 out of 5]

It was a fun, quick look into past questions and answers.

[Mary Tharp · Rating 5 out of 5]

Hours of entertainment for the whole family. Will treasure this book and hope for a second one.

[Rahul Adusumilli · Rating 4 out of 5]

Stories behind some of the special episodes of the show. Short and sweet. Quite similar in structure to the book, The Oral History of the Daily Show.

[Lynda · Rating 5 out of 5]

Highly recommended for all infojunkies.

[Kristen · Rating 4 out of 5]

A fun book for Jeopardy! lovers.

[Judith W. Pomeroy · Rating 5 out of 5]

If you like Jeopardy! you'll love this book!

My title says it all. This is the inside story of the greatest game show ever. It won't disappoint you.

[Jason Freng · Rating 2 out of 5]

Nothing particularly new to any regular fans of the show, but the Jeopardy! clues are the highlight just like usual.

[Meghan · Rating 5 out of 5]

This book was received as an ARC from Rosetta Books in exchange for an honest review. Opinions and thoughts expressed in this review are completely my own.

Jeopardy is one of my all time favorite game shows and I have always wondered what happens behind the scenes of one of the greatest game shows ever created. I also was very interested in reading more of the Ken Jennings winning streak one of the greatest in the show's history and to see how much of a positive affect ratings was when he was on the show. I also loved the answers and questions as a little recap to capture the history of the show and it triggers many memories. But what struck me the most was the recap of Celebrity Jeopardy mostly because of the fact that was the only show I've missed entirely. Definitely a book to get for the Jeopardy Fan and the future quiz masters.

We will consider adding this title to our Non-Fiction collection at our library. That is why we give this book 5 stars.