Trivia in the Kindle store
I love trivia!
I’ve had books about it for years.
When I managed a brick-and-mortar bookstore, I had a publisher’s rep who had been a five-time Jeopardy champion (that was the limit back then)…and in casual things, I could win. :) So much of Jeopardy is about the buzzer, though, so there’s no way to tell how well you would do on the show.
I was the only person to have twice judged the Millard Fillmore Trivia Hunt. That was a great event! It was put together as a team competition for high school students. The teams would get a set of questions on a Friday, and then have the weekend to find the answers (no internet was available)…and then on Monday, there would be a judging.
That’s how I first got involved: I helped teams. :) While I often knew the answers offhand, the contest required that you document them. My being able to answer the questions helped them figure out where to look for proof.
I think one of my favorite parts was the teams’ lawyers (again, one of the students) would have to argue for their answers. You could prove yourself right…and perhaps equally importantly, you might disprove other people’s answers.
There were two arguments where I would still maintain that we were right and other people were wrong, but we didn’t win that (although we got credit, too).
One was in the category of Musical Cities, and the clue was, “A famous shoeshine boy** worked here.” I was sure right off that the song was Chattanooga Choo Choo…even though the shoeshine boy wasn’t famous, it was the only one that would be likely to fit.
So, the official answer was Chattanooga.
However, we argued that was incorrect…the right answer is New York City.
Why?
The shoeshine boy is in the beginning of the song:
“…is that the Chattanooga Choo Choo?”
“Yes, yes….Track Twenty-Nine.”
“Well, you can give me a shine.”
Later in the song, we learn this:
“You leave old Pennsylvania Station about a quarter to four…”
Penn Station, of course, is in New York City…so that’s where the “shoeshine boy” works.
Chattanooga should be an incorrect answer…but they accepted both.
The other one was a question about two people (at the time) who had been made honorary citizens of the United States.
I knew them: Winston Churchill and the Marquis de Lafayette.
We argued (on my advice) that the Marquis de Lafayette should not be ruled as a correct answer, since that’s really a title, not a name. You can’t just say the “President of the United States” when you are looking for which one did something. We said that the only right answer should be Marie-Joseph Paul Yves Roch Gilbert du Motier de Lafayette.
Again, both answers were accepted. :)
You can tell: I enjoy trivia.
I often light-heartedly give trivia points in the Amazon Kindle forums, too.
There is a section for
Trivia books in the USA Kindle Store (at AmazonSmile: benefit a non-profit of your choice by shopping*)
There are 1,522 books at time of writing, and 835 of them are part of
Kindle Unlimited (at AmazonSmile: benefit a non-profit of your choice by shopping*)
It’s interesting to me, because many of these titles are tied to a particular topic.
For example, there is a book with 5,100 questions about Star Wars!
5,100-Question Mega-Ultimate Star Wars Quiz Book
by Erin Neidigh
It’s only $40.69. ;)
That’s not the most expensive one, though…that would be
Now You Know Absolutely Everything: Absolutely every Now You Know book in a single ebook Doug Lennox (Author), Catriona Wight (Illustrator)
at $99.99.
The most reviewed book is
The Big Book of American Trivia by J. Stephen Lang.
I looked for the Fred L. Worth books, but they aren’t available in the Kindle store.
Hm…I have to say, I’m finding a lot of books I don’t really think of as trivia books….well, let’s say trivia quiz books. There are a lot of books (like the Imponderables series, which I really enjoyed) that have odd facts, but that’s not the same thing.
I would like ones with pop culture and wider trivia, and not just on one thing. :)
I’ll have to dig some more.
In the meantime, here are a few of my favorite trivia questions…I’ll provide the answers soon, but feel free to guess in the comments. One rule: you can’t look them up, you have to just know. :)
- What is the one foreign capital named after a U.S. President?
- What is the only city on two continents?
- What is the deepest lake in the world?
- What is Forsythe P. Jones’ nickname?
- What is Templeton Peck’s nickname?
One of these could be argued, but follow what I learned in F.O.M.F. (Friends Of Millard Fillmore): give the answer you think I want. ;)
Feel free to throw in trivia questions for me in the comments, if you like. I’ll see if I know them, but I’ll admit that I’m not as good as I was a couple of decades ago…
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* I am linking to the same thing at the regular Amazon site, and at AmazonSmile. When you shop at AmazonSmile, half a percent of your purchase price on eligible items goes to a non-profit you choose. It will feel just like shopping at Amazon: you’ll be using your same account. The one thing for you that is different is that you pick a non-profit the first time you go (which you can change whenever you want)…and the good feeling you’ll get. 
Shop ’til you help!
**Certainly, arguably, ‘Shoeshine Boy’ is not a term you will hear nowadays…it is in the song, and that brings us to what I have called before the The Chronological Cultural Context Conundrum
This post by Bufo Calvin originally appeared in the I Love My Kindle blog. To support this or other blogs/organizations, buy Amazon Gift Cards from a link on the site, then use those to buy your items. There will be no cost to you, and a benefit to them.
