Reading notes: 'Prisoner of Trebekistan'

Here is Prisoner of Trebekistan by Jeopardy! champion Bob Harris. It was a pleasant surprise to read a description of a Tournament of Champions game and realize that I was about to read about a moment I remembered from 1998. I was most interested in the Jeopardy! history--not so much what tournaments happened and who won, but the "metagame" of the canon, wagering strategy, expected difficulty, and so on. (This book was written in 2006, and it's hard to say whether bet sizing has advanced more since then in poker or Jeopardy!.) Stylistically, this book will remind you that 2006 was much closer to 1995 than it is to 2026. ...and it reminds me of a point Tyler Cowen likes to make, which is that comedy is more culturally specific than (e.g.) tragedy, and it therefore tends not to hold up well. (Even if the humorist is smart and likable.) I enjoyed the book, but Ken Jennings' Brainiac remains my favorite Jeopardy! memoir by far.