All about preparation and deprecation

A while back I took an online Jeopardy! test. Things lined up for me, and I actually did well enough on the test to get contacted about a follow-up audition, which involves an interview, a mock game, and, God help me, another test. I've decided I need to prep for this (and if you are an expert in a particular field, feel free to pass helpful information my way!), and, naturally, have decided that the best way to prepare is to read Ken Jennings's book Brainiac: Adventures in the Curious, Competitive, Compulsive World of Trivia Buffs. Hey! It has some questions in it.

But, really, it's a history of trivia woven with the story of Ken Jennings's Jeopardy! run. When writing about his time on Jeopardy!, Jennings needs to walk a fine line. If you're reading the book, you obviously know why Ken Jennings is famous. And when he writes about appearing on the show--particularly when he writes about the early games, when his goal was to win one game, and the games that were close--it would be really easy to come across as falsely modest. But he doesn't.

He comes across as really, really likeable.

He totally owns up to his nerdiness, explaining how he got that way, admitting that he was ashamed of it at certain points in his life. He's amusingly self-deprecating (not obnoxiously self-deprecating), and he outlines his thought processes enough that you're always on the same page as him. (Insert rimshot here.) He writes about how he felt bad about the people he beat--and again, it comes across as very genuine. Obviously he couldn't be all, "Ha ha, SUCKERS!" in the book, but that he acknowledges his advantages (comfort with the buzzer, etc.) and that luck is involved is good to read.

If I didn't already like him, I would've been won over when I got to page 179. He write about his relationship with Alex Trebek. Because of the rules regarding contestants interacting with anyone who has access to the questions, Jennings and Trebek weren't allowed to interact other than what you saw on screen. Jennings himself wondered whether Alex was annoyed with him (his musings about the producers freaking out about his streak are pretty funny). Which leads to this:

Despite all the quality time Alex and I have been spending together lately, he still seems a little chilly, as if he's rooting against me. Is this just part of his constant saltine-dry impartiality? Does he think I'm bad for the show? Does he dislike sharing the spotlight with a sidekick? Or is he just plain sick of me? I feel like passing a junior-high mash note up to his podium. "Dear Alex. Do you like me? Check one. Yes/No."

Awesome. I highly recommend this book. Also, I kind of want to be friends with Ken Jennings now.