16: Gridlock: Crossword Puzzles and the Mad Geniuses Who Create Them, Matt Gaffney

It wanders about the theme a lot, which is actually rather nice. Is it great? Nah. Must you read this? Nah. It's not Brainiac or some such, but it's O.K. and kept me out of trouble for a few hours while Audrey was sleeping and rehearsing.

15: Brain Men: The Insider's Guide to Quizzing, Marcus Berkmann

Good fun, in the same vein as Ken Jennings' Brainiac. Lots of amusing typically British writing. An example, discussing the Trivial Pursuit mania of the 80's:

So, by a strange process of social osmosis, it gradually became accepted that the game was crap but the questions were the thing. People would say, "Let's junk the game and just ask each other the questions." Cheeses ceased to matter, as did the argument whether they should be called cheeses or cakes. (If the little things were cakes, what was the big round thing you put them in? The big cake?) Quiz culture, barely extant, was already beginning to evolve.

14: Word Freak, Stefan Fatsis

Recommended by Ken in his blog or book somewhere, and Jai has challenged me to an online Scrabble game (on facebook, of all places), so this seemed like a good pick. And luckily it indeed is good enough to read cover-to-cover in one labo(u)r day weekend. (With Audrey in Orange County I have nothing better to do than read and clean the apartment—guess which one doesn't get done?)

Does the author's obsession with his ranking become annoying? Yes. Does his slip-up about "creating more neurons" make me scoff? Naturally. By the end of the book, am I reminded of James McManus's attitude in Positively Fifth Street? Yes (and, no, that's not good at all, people). Did it make me want to play Scrabble? Indeed it did, and that's enough for me.

13: Brainiac, Ken Jennings

More goodness: funny, articulate (or, I suppose, well-articulated), and interesting. Ken's blog is also excellent. Made me go out and buy some other Jeopardy! books. But of course.


The whole thing is filled with imaginative prose and witty references to pop culture. Example, after mentioning the problems of confidentiality contracts and repeated tape-dates:

Despite what I was always taught by Sunday school teachers and TV after-school specials, our tangled web of lies seems to hold up okay. We find a friend of Mindy's who didn't know in advance about my Jeopardy! tape dates, and she agrees to babysit Dylan. My boss tells everyone at work that I have the flu. In the age of the cell phone, it's easy to pretend we're still in Salt Lake City even when my parents call while we're stuck in traffic on the San Diego Freeway. But the whole charade is exhausting. This must be what it feels like to be a secret agent, or Spider-Man.

12: Assassination Vacation, Sarah Vowell

Kick ass! Awesomeness abounds. Funny, interesting, cool. Must re-read this.

11: Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows, J.K. Rowling

Yeah, whatever. Re-read the previous volume (...and the Half-Blood Prince) after finishing. Not much there, really. Book 1: yeah. Book 4: yeah. The rest? Ugh.

10: Frankie Manning: Ambassador of Lindy Hop, Frankie Manning and Cynthia R. Millman

Bought it in Herrang and had everybody mentioned in it, starting with Frankie, sign it.

Excellent read—if you're interested in swing dancing, that is.

9: Uncle Tungsten: Memories of a Chemical Boyhood, Oliver Sacks

Great autobiographical set of sketches. Wonderful writing conveys childlike sense of curiosity and, er, wonder. Prompted me to dig up The Man Who Mistook His Wife for a Hat and Seeing Voices again.

8: The Naked Olympics, Tony Perrottet

Pop-history of the ancient olympic games. Hey, pretty good. Read several months ago, so don't remember why i thought it was good, unfortunately.