Read on Geniuses

By Natalie Kaar

Earlier this year, Dan Jensen, manager at Chammps in Reston, was a three-time champ on Jeopardy! Should anyone else wish to follow in his trivia-filled footsteps, we asked the smarty pants to suggest a few books to add to our Nooks.

“The Great American Bathroom Book, Volume 1: Single-Sitting Summaries of All Time Great Books” Jensen says this book is full of useful facts.

“Shakespeare for Dummies” A lot of the show’s answers/questions involve Shakespeare; to Jensen’s surprise, not one was included during his four appearances.

“Complete Idiot’s Guide to American Presidents” Practically a must-read if prepping for the show.

“Atlas of World History” This book helped Jensen rule the French Revolution category during his first appearance.

“Prisoner of Trebekistan: A Decade in Jeopardy!” Jensen says this memoir of former contestant Bob Harris includes a lot of insight.

Books weren’t the only thing that helped Jensen win big on Jeopardy (over $70,000). He also turned to the popular board game Trivial Pursuit and the Jeopardy computer game. And, interestingly enough, Jensen says some of the questions he had studied while playing the Jeopardy computer game were actually included on the show.

Other fun facts discovered in talking with Dan: Host Alex Trebek is a huge hockey fan, talked a lot about hockey with Jensen, no doubt due to Jensen’s sports bar ties (Note to self: Question Trebek about the Caps). Jensen shot all four shows in two days, wanted to celebrate the first night after winning twice, but had to be up at 6 a.m. to begin taping again the next day. (And we thought being fast with the buzzer was stressful enough!)

(April 2011)