If you haven’t attended one of the Library’s Thinks and Drinks Trivia Night at Trax Tavern and Grill, you are missing out on a great time! We’ve been hosting trivia for over a year and it’s always one of our most popular events. We have five rounds of trivia with ten questions in each round covering history, literature, TV/movies, music, pop culture, current events, science/technology, food/drink, sports, and a final topic that changes based on our theme, such as animals or Chicago history. While we strive to make trivia fun for everyone, we inevitably hear some people say that the questions are too hard.
So today I am going to share a few secrets for bringing your ‘A’ game to trivia night.
In the weeks leading up to trivia night, we begin compiling our questions. We have a few websites and books of trivia that we use, but mostly we compile the questions ourselves from a number of sources. We like to ask questions that are inspired by what is going on in the news, whether it’s the latest in technology news, sports or celebrity news. The Week magazine is a great resource for distilling the weekly news in quick, readable blurbs. You can even subscribe to their daily e-mail for “10 Things You Need to Know Today.” Other general news websites such as CNN, NPR, Daily Mail and Huffington Post are also sources we use. The Discovery News website, which is aligned with the Discovery Channel, is a great place for the latest news in science an technology. Take a look at People magazine for the latest in celebrity gossip or Entertainment Weekly for the latest in music, television, and movies. The History Channel’s website often has bits of historical trivia. We also like Chicago Magazine and Chicagoist for local news. Also, think about what’s hot on TV at that time. Is it the final season of Mad Men or a new season of Downton Abbey or Game of Thrones? You can probably bet there are going to be questions about that. Was the Pulitzer Prize just announced? Or, is there a really hot book that everyone is reading, like Gone Girl? Those might be questions that pop up. So in the week or two before trivia night, spend a few minutes perusing these sites and skimming the headlines. You never know what will come up!
