The Jeopardy! Book: The Answers, the Questions, the Facts, and the Stories of the Greatest Game Show in History

by Alex Trebek, Peter Barsocchini, Merv Griffin (Introduction)

Provides a close-up look at the popular game show and its history, accompanied by anecdotes, quizzes, and tips for prospective contestants

Genres: Nonfiction, Trivia, Tv, Reference

240 pages, Paperback

First published January 1, 1990

About the author

Alex Trebek was a Canadian-American television personality, game show host and actor. He was the host of the syndicated game show Jeopardy! after its revival in 1984, and also hosted a number of other game shows, including The Wizard of Odds, Double Dare, High Rollers, Battlestars, Classic Concentration, and To Tell the Truth.

Trebek also made appearances in numerous television series, in which he usually played himself. A native of Canada, he became a naturalized United States citizen in 1998.

For his work on Jeopardy!, Trebek received 31 nominations for the Daytime Emmy Award for Outstanding Game Show Host, winning 7 times.

From Wikipedia

Reviews

[Huguette Larochelle · Rating 4 out of 5]

wow so many things i did not know about this game.
very interesting book.
peoples that play this , are very smart, and a good memories.

[Will Byrnes · Rating 3 out of 5]

The Jeopardy Book not only offers a history of the show, but some practice quizzes as well. Jeopardy is the creme de la creme of intelligent question-and-answer game shows and has always been my personal favorite. As a fan, I quite enjoyed this book. for those who are not fans of the show, I doubt you would be converted here.

[David Ward · Rating 3 out of 5]

The Jeopardy! Book: The Answers, the Questions, the Facts, and the Stories of the Greatest Game Show in History by Alex Trebek and Peter Barsocchini (Harper Perennial 1990) (791.4572). This is an interesting little puff piece about America's favorite game show (sorry, Wheel of Fortune). There are a few short essays about qualifying, and there are interviews with the host and some of the dominant players in the pre-1990 era. The meat of the book is simply a collection of Jeopardy! game boards such as one would have to deal with on the television program. The hosts provide the answers, and the players must come up with the corresponding response in the form of a question. This book is quite dated, having been penned almost thirty years ago, but it is still an enjoyable read for fans of the show. My rating: 7/10, finished 6/9/18. My personal copy was purchased used from McKay's Books in 2017. PPPPPPPPPPPPPPPPPPPPPPPPPPPPPPPPPPPPPPPPPPPPPPPPPPPPPPPPPPP.

[VelSparko · Rating 3 out of 5]

Sadly, being this was published in the 80's, much of the info is out of date. The sample Jeopardy games are quite challenging; you can see how much the clue writing has changed from then to now. Thankfully, the interviews and backstage info about the game were still enjoyable to read, and there's an overall quaint type of charm to the book's layout. The back of the book even has an advertisement for playing a home telephone version of Jeopardy. Probably won't read again, at least not soon, but it's a neat companion piece to Alex Trebek's autobiography and the Jeopardy DVD from the mid-2000s.

[Rhonda · Rating 3 out of 5]

2.5. Maybe if I had read it before we read Alex's memoir I would have liked it more. It was written in the 90s so I felt a lot of the information was dated. It has some game boards included and sample contestant tests so it was fun to see how much I knew (or didn't know).

[Lindsay Kelly · Rating 3 out of 5]

Nowadays this would be a YouTube documentary about the history and development of Jeopardy! Including it’s presenters, processes and questions.

This read like a series of interviews interspersed with a variety of questions from the show.

[Al · Rating 4 out of 5]

Great for any jeopardy enthusiast. I enjoyed the background information about how the show was created, what like to be contestant and hearing from some great champions & hosts.

You can play with various tournaments and test out a few practice tests.

[Janice]

Interesting behind the scenes, especially if one is a big fan of the show. Dated, but that is part of the charm of the book.

[Stephen Chase · Rating 5 out of 5]

I miss you for this book, Alex!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

[Joan · Rating 2 out of 5]

I have watched Jeopardy and enjoyed it for years. Thankfully I bought this book used and did not expect a lot from it. There was nothing new in the informational parts of the book, and the question/answer parts were not formatted in a usable way.

[M · Rating 4 out of 5]

Fun book! It contains some interesting tidbits about the show and contains some practice tests. Passing it along to my brother-in-law, since he's taking the test in January. Hopefully, this will bring him a little luck!

[The Tick · Rating 3 out of 5]

Rather outdated at this point, but still interesting.

[Verona · Rating 5 out of 5]

Jeopardy has long been one of my favorite TV shows. My husband and I watch it every day faithfully. So of course, I had to have this book and enjoyed knowing the details of the show.

[Bunny · Rating 2 out of 5]

I'd like to read an updated version of this.

[Dee]

$3 at local bookstore

[Kel · Rating 5 out of 5]

Ma momma gave me this book too..love it..the anecdotes..the knowledge..I am a knowledge junkie..even have this video game!

[Jeffrey Bumiller · Rating 3 out of 5]

This is a fun book to read but it doesn't really stand the test of time. Jeopardy has changed so much since this book was published, it's time for an update!