Trivia Night at Trident Booksellers
by Shubhankar Arun
Photography courtesy of Noor Nasser
“Before modern pregnancy tests, what animal did doctors put a woman’s urine in to test if she’s pregnant or not?”
If you think you know the answer to odd questions such as this one, then you should consider spending your Friday nights at Trident Booksellers Trivia Night.
Trident Booksellers on Newbury Street has become more than just a bookstore to Back Bay residents—it’s a way of life. Its wide array of books and in-house café (that serves a devastating cappuccino) ensure the place is a regular haunt for the bookworms and foodies alike. Most weekends the café is filled with students perched on a table by the windows finishing schoolwork, and the lower floors filled with aspiring writers and kindred minds.
“Trident is the one place that combines my love for food and books,” said Riya Haria (COM ’20). “Its tiny quirks, books and chocolate chip pancakes make me feel so at home.”
In recent times, a big pull for local residents have been the Trivia Night hosted by the store every Friday night. They have hosted Trivia for close to 10 years now.
Trivia Nights are held in the café on the 2nd floor of the store. One can either take part individually or form a team of up to six members. There are five categories, with five questions in each category. The questions are all multiple-choice and the answer needs to be written on the slip provided. The slips are collected at the end of each round. Before moving on to the next category, the host reads out the correct answers from the previous round.
“It [has] become something of a community here at the Trivia Night,” said Rishabh Jain (CAS ’20), a trivia night regular.
Places such as Sunset Cantina and Common Ground are also good trivia venues, but what sets Trident’s Trivia Night apart from the rest of them are the questions. Trident prides itself on its questions for Trivia Night, keeping them creative and original. The categories include a wide breadth of topics: Women in Robot Movies, Weird Science and The Beatles on the Ed Sullivan Show.
“Things do get pretty intense during Trivia,” said host Clarrisa Hodge. “I remember one night we had eight teams tied on points. That was pretty crazy.”
The first-place prize is a $35 gift card from Trident, the second-place prize is a hardcover book and third place winners get a paperback book.
“This was my first time at Trident’s Trivia Night and I had an absolute ball. I usually don’t enjoy trivia, but I’m so glad my friend dragged me to this,” said Avisha Goyal (CAS ’20).
The warmth and coziness of Trident, coupled with mind-scratching quizzes and enthusiastic teams, makes for a fun Friday at the bookstore on Newbury Street.
Oh, and the answer to the pregnancy question mentioned before: Frogs.