For example earlier this week we asked our little group to name the American author who’s drinking led him to working as a garbage man towards the end of his life? If you want to know the answer you can head over to our Facebook page and check it out. Some days the staff come up with the question and some days it’s a question that was submitted by one of you. Come join us if you feel like playing along.
Today’s literary quiz question comes in the form of a video charade. Can you guess the three books our staff members are depicting?
Everyone loves to play charades, right? Well, this is literary charades with a little help from Youtube – you have the guess the books that Beth, Christi and myself are describing without the use of speech. Enjoy.
If you are a big fan of trivia questions then please visit our Facebook fan page. Monday to Friday we post a literary brainteaser on our wall. For instance, this morning’s question asks you to identify the book that features this little animal on its cover. Somebody got it in about three minutes…much to my chagrin.
I’m asking the quiz questions and frankly I’m becoming slightly obsessive about trying to ask questions that no-one can answer. I’ve only beaten our Facebook fans once and that was with a cryptic question about Jeffrey Archer that took me an hour to write. I keep posting questions that I think are pretty tough but people are getting them in seconds. Basically, it’s me against several thousand people, and I’m going to beat them if it’s the last thing I do (evil laugh).
The Guardian has a Harry Potter quiz. I got eight out of 10 and that’s not bad for someone who isn’t a complete Harry Potter nutter. I have, of course, read all the books…aloud…to my daughter, who now says she wants to read them all by herself.
The Guardian posted another of their dastardly, difficult literary quizzes today – this time a Mark Twain quiz. I scored a pathetic 4 out of 12.
Mark Twain sure was an interesting guy. We recently did a feature about him, featuring a lot of Mark Twain quotes from his books. The more I read and learn about him, the more I’m annoyed that he’s dead, so I can never spend an evening drinking and chatting with him. He seemed like a fascinating man, politically ahead of his times, and very no-bull in his attitude to life, while maintaining a sense of humour. Also, The Adventures of Tom Sawyer was one of my favourite books growing up. I wanted to be Becky Thatcher in the worst way – I must have read that book ten times.
Want to know even more? Check out our list of Mark Twain facts for some interesting and little known tidbits of Twain.
It would appear the world is coming to an end. There is a major earthquake every other day now and Europe is covered by what remains of Iceland. Faster than a speeding cloud of volcanic ash, The Guardian has a quiz on volcanoes in literature. I got three out of 10 but I really don’t read many books about volcanoes (with the recent exception of Krakatoa by Simon Winchester which I found hugely disappointing).
In the meantime, I’m sitting here in the sunny Pacific Northwest wondering whether Mount St Helens is still active and whether the fault line below our island can stand the strain.
The oceans, the seas, and lakes and rivers along with ships, boats, rafts and submarines have provided authors with inspiration since Jason’s Argo and Noah’s Ark. Non-fiction books feature stories of almost unbelievable hardships, bravery and endurance. The names of these famous ships alone need little introduction – the Bounty, the Titanic and the Mary Celeste have fascinated generations of readers.
In honour of the first flakes of snow that have been falling around here the last few days….the Guardian posted a quiz today on snow in literature. I got 11/14! Given how miserably I usually fare on the Guardian’s quizzes, I’m quite pleased. What about you?
Once again, a great tricky book quiz from our friends at The Guardian, this time on Gothic Fiction. I did better than usual (6/10 – hey, they’re usually quite difficult!), thanks in large part to a feature we’re currently putting together on a brief history of vampires in literature….stay tuned!
If you’d like to revlive the stress of exam-taking or if you’d just like to know how well you know literature, cruise on over to The Guardian site where they’ve posted a quiz on fictional exams.
The good news, or bad depending on how you look at it, is that you don’t have to wait for the results! Personally, the first couple of questions filled me with terror!
If you are a big fan of trivia questions then please visit our 
It would appear the world is coming to an end. There is a major earthquake every other day now and Europe is covered by what remains of Iceland. Faster than a speeding cloud of volcanic ash, The Guardian has a 
