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Ken Jennings is finding something to do to keep himself busy as he is on summer break from filming Jeopardy!. The host shared a new book project that he said he has to “figure out.”
“How do you record an audiobook of a 5,000-question puzzle book?” he asked on Instagram on Monday, June 2. “Does Will Shortz have to do crossword audiobooks?”
“I have to figure this out this week or @Simon.Audio is going to want their money back. If you have faith that this will work and want to pre-order the audiobook, there’s a link in the comments below,” he continued.
Ken Jennings then shared a photo of the cover of the new book called The Complete Kennections: 5,000 Questions in 1,000 Puzzles. The cover has a photo of the host on it with a finger to his temple, looking up as he gives a thinking expression.
The second photo featured Jennings sitting in a room in his house that has books from the floor to the ceiling. He smiled as he sat in front of a microphone, ready to record.
The Complete Kennections is the first trivia book by Ken Jennings in more than a decade. It is being published by Simon & Schuster and will be released via audio, paperback ($20.99), and e-book on July 29, just a few days after this season of Jeopardy! ends. The 480-page book can be purchased at Amazon, Barnes & Noble, Books-A-Million, and wherever audiobooks stream.
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The synopsis reads, “Five trivia questions. Five answers that share a secret theme. What’s the ‘Kennection?'”
It continues, “Since 2012, Jeopardy! champion and host Ken Jennings has created a weekly puzzle—first appearing in Parade, then Mental Floss—involving a series of trivia questions whose answers have something in common. The trivia questions run the gamut of topics—from pop culture (movies, TV, music) to academic knowledge (history, geography, the arts) to lifestyle (food and drink, sports, hobbies). But the trickiest part might be finding the ‘Kennection’ that links all five answers. Many are standard trivia categories (D-Day beaches! Presidential middle names! Santa’s reindeer! Batman villains!), but almost anything goes, so thinking outside the box is just as important as trivia knowledge. What do feet, McDonald’s, fingerprints, and St. Louis have in common? They all have arches. What about Mercury, Chihuahuas, electrons, and Rhode Island? They’re all the smallest of their kind. Columbia, Grease, and ‘I Ran’ (by A Flock of Seagulls)? They’re homophones for nations of the world.”
“For the first time, the Kennections canon is available in one convenient volume, with hundreds of new and updated quizzes. The Complete Kennections is the perfect gift for any Jeopardy! fan, trivia buff, or New York Times “Connections” puzzler,” it ends.
Although Jennings is no stranger to releasing books, this is the first time he is recording the audio for one of them.
He is also the author of The Junior Genius Guides series, Because I Said So!: The Truth Behind the Myths, Tales, & Warnings Every Generation Passes Down to Its Kids, Brainiac, Planet Funny, Ken Jennings’s Trivia Almanac: 8,888 Questions in 365 Days, Maphead: Charting the Wide, Weird World of Geography Wonks, and 100 Places to See Before You Die.
Jeopardy!, Weeknights, check local listings
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- 'Good Fortune' trailer: Keanu Reeves is an angel in Aziz Ansari created comedy
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