April Book Notes Plus Quiz

Book Notes Plus is a wonderful blog written by library patron Gerald Lively. Check it out! Here is the April quiz from his blog, which we encourage you to visit:

You remember Trivial Pursuit don’t you?  It was a board game created in 1979 by a Canadian named Chris Haney.  It contained six categories of questions, one of which was Arts and Literature.  The first 22 questions below are based on that category in the original game.  Questions 23 through 35 are based on the Trivial Pursuit Book Lover’s Edition (2004) which I also own.  The six categories in that edition are: Beloved Children’s Books, Popular Classics, Riveting Non-Fiction, Book Club Favs, Favorite Authors, and Book Bag Surprises.  You will probably find the questions from the Book Lover’s Edition much harder than those from the original Trivial Pursuit.  You can find the answers to all 35 questions on my Quiz Answers page.

1) What are the first three words in the Bible?

2) What is the last word in the Bible?

3) What does a librocubicularist do?

4)Who is Sherlock Holmes smarter (or at least older) brother?

5) What 1956 novel by Grace Metalious was on the best-seller list for two years, and (for extra credit) what was the name of its 1961 sequel?

6) What best-selling cookbook was penned by Irma Rombauer and illustrated by her daughter, Marion Rombauer Becker? 

7) What 1960s self-help book was aimed at people who wanted to feel OK?

8) What George Bernard Shaw play inspired the Broadway musical My Fair Lady?

9) What word was printed on the lower right-hand corner of the front cover of Life magazine’s final weekly issue (December 29, 1972)?  (You can see an image of the cover in my post of the answers to this month’s quiz.)

10) What book was the basis for the 1975 film Three Days of the Condor?

11) What was Lady Chatterley’s first name?

12) What epic poem by Homer chronicles events near the end of the Trojan War?

13) What’s the magic cave-opening phrase in Ali Baba and the Forty Thieves?

14) Which immortal Spanish and English writers died on April 23, 1616?

15) What was Captain Ahab’s peg leg made of?

16) Who wrote the 1957 best-seller Kids Say the Darndest Things?

17) What Henri Charriere best-seller describes his escape from Devil’s Island?

18) Who was the first novelist to present a typed manuscript to his publisher?

19) Who, beginning in 1908, wrote a total of 54 western novels?

20) Who is the most-translated English author after Shakespeare?

21) What playwright had four plays running simultaneously on Broadway in 1966?

22) What U.S. president’s mother wrote an autobiography titled Times to Remember?

23) Name the 1991 novel by James Michner about the publishing business that is told from the points of view of the writer, the editor, the critic, and the reader.

24) What 1965 Thomas Pynchon novel introduces a heroine named Oedipa Maas?

25) Who took time off from writing tales of the high seas to pen Picasso: A Biography and Joseph Banks: A Life?

26) What John Fowles novel brings a Hollywood writer back to Oxford to bury a college friend?

27) What novelist and philosopher was known as Alyssa Rosenbaum in her native St. Petersburg before changing her name when she moved to America?

28) What quadriplegic sleuth uses police officer Amelia Sachs as his “legs and eyes” in a number of Jeffrey Deaver thrillers?

29) What Barbara Robinson children’s book describes what happens when “the worst kids in the history of the world” misinterpret the Christmas story?

30) What incendiary how-to book did author William Powell later renounce as “a misguided and potentially dangerous publication”?

31) What Mark Medoff play features a teacher at a school for the deaf engaged in a sign-language battle of wits with a defiant kitchen maid?

32) What detective from Michael Connelly’s books was named after a 15^th century Flemish painter?

33) What novel did Sylvia Plath initially publish under the pen name “Victoria Lucas,” because she felt it wasn’t a serious work?

34) Which fictional spy was based on decorated Scottish World War II commando Patrick Dalzel-Job?

35) What type of dog is Tock, who wears a clock face on his side, in The Phantom Tollbooth?

Pride and Prejudice Bicentennial

by Louise Hilton

What better way to celebrate our recent designation of April as Reread a Book Month than to revisit that perennial favorite Pride and Prejudice by the veddy British Jane Austen? This January marked the 200th anniversary of its publication and it endures today as one of the most popular English-language novels of all time. For those unfamiliar with the story, it centers around the Bennet family, Mr. and Mrs. Bennet and their five daughters, in Regency England. Mrs. Bennet’s primary focus is making a good match for her girls, and despairs a bit at her second daughter Elizabeth’s independent spirit and sharp tongue. Elizabeth is, of course, the heroine of the novel, and it is such a treat to watch her relationship with the seemingly haughty (but secretly perfect for her) Mr. Darcy evolve.

The Library has loads of Austen fun to offer, including the movie and television adaptations of her beloved novels (who can forget Colin Firth as Mr. Darcy in the BBC miniseries version of P&P? Swoon….), as well as a number of modern novels based on her beloved characters (A Weekend with Mr. Darcy, anyone?). And don’t forget to check out our All about Austen guide for everything Austen!

For more, check out these great links about the bicentennial:

Happy Two-Hundredth Birthday, Pride and Prejudice

Jane Austen’s Pride and Prejudice at 200: Looking Afresh at a Classic

Pride and Prejudice: A Jane Austen Interactive

Pride and Prejudice at 200: The Best Jane Austen Small-Screen Adaptations

Pride and Prejudice at 200: Is It Time for a Videogame?

Pride and Prejudice Quiz: Know Your Bingleys from your Bennets?

March Book Notes Plus Quiz

Book Notes Plus is a wonderful blog written by library patron Gerald Lively. Check it out! Here is the March quiz from his blog, which we encourage you to visit.

Each entry below represents a make-believe newspaper headline that describes the plot or an incident in a famous novel, non-fiction book, short story or play. Can you name each work and its author? The answers are posted on the Quiz Answers page.

1. Accused murderer accidentally hangs himself while trying to escape London mob

2. Architect found innocent after admitting he destroyed Government housing project

3. Man planning to marry found to have crazed wife locked in attic

4. Boy raised by wild animals in Indian jungle

5. Man lobotomized after numerous altercations with nurse in mental hospital

6. Slave beaten to death by New Orleans area plantation owner

7. “Gutter Snipe” reportedly transformed into “Lady” by noted phonetics professor

8. Woman forced to choose which of her two children must die

9. Adulteress throws self under moving train

10. Maids write tell-all about employment in southern white society

11. Teacher falsely accused of lesbian relationship commits suicide

12. King kills his father, and marries woman old enough to be his mother

13. Vicious attacks by birds reported in small Cornish town

14. Fireman hunted for not burning books

15. Man makes trip through Hell, Purgatory and Heaven, and lives to tell about it

16. Mysterious millionaire found murdered in swimming pool

17. Prominent white southern attorney defends black man charged with rape of white woman

18. Well-known London detective falls to death during clash with criminal mastermind

19. Chauffeur kills boss’ daughter, and burns body in furnace

20. White boy and escaped slave raft down Mississippi River

21. Doctor with multiple personalities kills selves

22. Woman’s cells live on after her death

23. Book exposes unsanitary practices in meat packing industry

24. Frenchman visits America, and writes tell-all about what he saw

25. Boys marooned on island savage each other

Book Notes Plus Oscar Quiz

Book Notes Plus is a wonderful blog written by library patron Gerald Lively. Check it out! Here is the February quiz from Book Notes Plus:

The 85th Academy Awards presentation will take place on Sunday, February 24th, so I decided to see if you can recall some lines from some famous movies that were based on books, and plays. Here’s your mission – should you choose to accept it: Name the film the quote is taken from, the work the film was based on, and the author of the work. Free of charge I’ll throw in the year the movie was made and the year the book or play was published. Find the answers at Quiz Answers.

1. “Frankly, my dear, I don’t give a damn.”
2. “I’m going to make him an offer he can’t refuse”
3. “I’ll get you, my pretty, and your little dog, too!”
4. “Love means never having to say you’re sorry.”
5. “The stuff that dreams are made of.”
6. “They call me Mister Tibbs.”
7. “A census taker once tried to test me. I ate his liver with some fava beans and a nice Chianti.”
8. “Bond. James Bond.”
9. “I’m walking here! I’m walking here!”
10. “You know how to whistle, don’t you, Steve? You just put your lips together and blow.”
11. “You’re gonna need a bigger boat.”
12. “You can’t handle the truth!”
13. “I have always depended on the kindness of strangers.”
14. “Mama always said life was like a box of chocolates. You never know what you’re gonna get.”
15. “Oh, Jerry, don’t let’s ask for the moon. We have the stars.”
16. “It’s alive! It’s alive!”
17. “If you build it, he will come.”
18. “Houston, we have a problem.”
19. “A boy’s best friend is his mother.”
20. “Gentlemen, you can’t fight in here! This is a War Room!”
21. “Here’s Johnny!”
22. “Mother of mercy, is this the end of Rico?”
23. “Listen to them. Children of the night. What music they make.”
24. “Sawyer, you’re going out there a youngster, but you’ve got to come back a star!”
25. “Mrs. Robinson, you’re trying to seduce me. Aren’t you?”
26. “Life is a banquet, and most poor suckers are starving to death!”
27. “I want to be alone.”
28. “What we’ve got here is failure to communicate.”
29. “One morning I shot an elephant in my pajamas. How he got in my pajamas, I don’t know.”
30. “Take your stinking paws off me, you damned dirty ape.”

Book Notes December Quiz

Book Notes Plus is a wonderful blog written by Gerald Lively. Check it out! Here is the December Christmas quiz from Book Notes Plus:

Below are 11 quotes concerning Christmas.  Can you guess the titles of the books they come from and the names of the books’ authors?  You can find the answers here.

1. “But I am sure I have always thought of Christmas time, when it has come round — apart from the veneration due to its sacred name and origin, if anything belonging to it can be apart from that — as a good time; a kind, forgiving, charitable, pleasant time: the only time I know of, in the long calendar of the year, when men and women seem by one consent to open their shut-up hearts freely, and to think of people below them as if they really were fellow-passengers to the grave, and not another race of creatures bound on other journeys. And therefore, uncle, though it has never put a scrap of gold or silver in my pocket, I believe that it has done me good, and will do me good; and I say, God bless it!’”
2. “The story had held us, round the fire, sufficiently breathless, but except the obvious remark that it was gruesome, as, on Christmas Eve in an old house, a strange tale should essentially be . . .”
3. “Thousands of lights were burning on the green branches, and gaily-colored pictures, such as she had seen in the shop-windows, looked down upon her. The little maiden stretched out her hands towards them when–the match went out. The lights of the Christmas tree rose higher and higher, she saw them now as stars in heaven . . .”
4. “Christmas was close at hand, in all his bluff and hearty honesty; it was the season of hospitality, merriment, and open-heartedness; the old year was preparing, like an ancient philosopher, to call his friends around him, and amidst the sound of feasting and revelry to pass gently and calmly away.”
5. “The grate had been removed from the wide overwhelming fireplace, to make way for a fire of wood, in the midst of which was an enormous log glowing and blazing, and sending forth a vast volume of light and heat; this I understood was the Yule-log, which the Squire was particular in having brought in and illumined on a Christmas eve, according to ancient custom.”
6. “I had called upon my friend Sherlock Holmes upon the second morning after Christmas, with the intention of wishing him the compliments of the season.”
7. “At last the anchor was up, the sails were set, and off we glided. It was a sharp, cold Christmas; and as the short northern day merged into night, we found ourselves almost broad upon the wintry ocean, whose freezing spray cased us in ice, as in polished armor.”
8. “There must be something ghostly in the air of Christmas–something about the close, muggy atmosphere that draws up the ghosts, like the dampness of the summer rains brings out the frogs and snails.”
9. “Maybe Christmas,” he thought, “doesn’t come from a store. Maybe Christmas… perhaps… means a little bit more.”
10. “Never worry about the size of your Christmas tree. In the eyes of children, they are all 30 feet tall.”
11. “But Ma asked if they were sure the stockings were empty.  Then they put their hands down inside them, to make sure.  And in the very toe of each stocking was a shining bright, new penny!  They had never even thought of such a thing as having a penny.  Think of having a whole penny for your very own.  Think of having a cup and a cake and a stick of candy and a penny.  There never had been such a Christmas.”

Want to see how you did? Head over to the answers on Book Notes Plus