Quiz!
We haven’t done one of these in quite some time. Each clue is the first sentences of a story. Earn one point by giving the title and author (No partial credit). Do not use Google, or any other online or offline resources to look up answers. In case of any disputes, the decision of the judge (me) is final.
- To the red country and part of the gray country of Oklahoma, the last rains came gently, and they did not cut the scarred earth.
- Through the fence, between the curling flower spaces, I could see them hitting
- Once upon a time when the world was young there was a Martian named Smith.
- Robert Cohn was once middleweight boxing champion of Princeton.
- True! – nervous – very, very nervous I had been and am; but why will you say that I am mad?
- In my younger and more vulnerable years my father gave me some advice I’ve been turning over in my mind ever since.
- On a January evening of the early seventies, Christine Nilsson was singing in Faust at the Academy of Music in New York.
- Mr. Jones, of the Manor Farm, had locked the hen-houses for the night, but was too drunk to remember to shut the pop-holes.
- The towers of Zenith aspired above the morning mist; austere towers of steel and cement and limestone, sturdy as cliffs and delicate as silver rods.
- A squat grey building of only thirty-four stories
- Marley was dead, to begin with.
- I am doomed to remember a boy with a wrecked voice.
- It is a truth universally acknowledged, that a single man in possession of a good fortune must be in want of a wife.
- The story so far: In the beginning, the universe was created
- The Mole had been working very hard all the morning, spring-cleaning his little home
- The night before he went to London, Richard Mayhew was not enjoying himself.
- I did two things on my seventy-fifth birthday.
- The suburb of Saffron Park lay on the sunset side of London, as red and ragged as a cloud of sunset.
- I am a sick man… I am a spiteful man.
- There was a boy called Eustace Clarence Scrubb, and he almost deserved it.
Just saw this. I mean, I can almost grok #3. And 4 is Hemingway- I think The Sun Also Rises, though I *really* should know this.Report
You are correct.Report
11. Marley and Me, John Grogan.Report
Okay. I’ll tackle. But I’ll also use rot13 on behalf of the folks who are spending the morning at church.
Bar fgevxrf zr nf Urzzvatjnl’f Tencrf bs Jengu, ohg gung’f n thrff.
Gjb V qba’g xabj ohg vs gurl’er uvggvat, gura gurl zvtug or cynlvat onfronyy naq vs gurl’er cynlvat onfronyy, znlor gurer’f n thl pngpuvat onfronyyf bhg va gur elr. Fb V’z tbvat gb thrff gung guvf vf WQ Fnyvatre.
Guveq unf zr thrffvat ragveryl. Znegvna? Fzvgu? Uez. V’z tbvat gb tb jvgu Fgenatre va n Fgenatr Ynaq ol Urvayrva.
Sbhegu? Ab vqrn. Obkvat? Vf gung Hcqvxr? Fb zl thrff jbhyq or Eha Enoovg Eha ol Hcqvxr.
Svsgu. Znqarff… hz. Ybirpensg’f Pnyy bs Pguhyuh.
Fvkgu? Ab vqrn jungfbrire.
Frira. Qnat vg.
Rvtug. V srry yvxr V fubhyq xabj guvf bar ohg abguvat vf rira fubjvat hc gb uryc zr thrff.
Avar. Uez. Ngynf Fuehttrq?
Gra. Bu, gung’f n terng fgneg ohg V xabj gung 1984 bcraf jvgu gur pybpxf fgevxvat guvegrra.
Ryrira vf ubj Qvpxraf ortvaf N Puevfgznf Pneby. Gung vf na nofbyhgryl nznmvat fgneg. Bar bs gur orfg.
Gjryir. Uez. N Cenlre sbe Bjra Zrnal ol Wbua Veivat?
Guvegrra. Guvf bar vf Nhfgra ohg V qba’g xabj juvpu bar! Cevqr naq Cerwhqvpr?
Sbhegrra. N tbbq fgneg ohg V’ir tbg ab vqrn.
Svsgrra. Gjb jnlf gb tb sbe guvf. N puvyqera’f obbx nobhg punenpgref jvgu anzrf yvxr Znegva B’Znyyrl be… V’z tbvat gb thrff gung gur zbyr vf n grez bs neg. Vg’f bar bs Wbua yr Pneer’f. Gvaxre, Gnvybe, Fbyqvre, Fcl?
Fvkgrra. Gur Znxvat bs Gur Znxvat bs Fgne Jnef.
Friragrra. Fpnyfpv’f Byq Zna’f Jne. Uhu. Jr’ir ernpurq gur cbvag jurer guvf vf fubjvat hc va gurfr glcrf bs dhvmmrf. Tbbq sbe uvz.
Rvtugrra. Ab vqrn.
Avargrra. V xabj gung V fubhyq xabj guvf bar!
Gjragl. Guvf bar vf Pyvir Fgncyrf naq V guvax gung vg’f Iblntr bs gur Qnja Gernqre.Report
3, 11, 12, 17, 20.Report
I can’t believe I got 12! I last read that a year or two after it was released!
It sticks with you, though.Report
I had given up on him ,since so many of his books were so similar. But a friend of mine recommended that one really highly, and he was right.Report
“Bob Marley was baked, to begin with.”Report
Split this score in half. It’s a combined effort between my wife and me. No making fun of our guesses. Hid the answers/guesses with rot13 (https://rot13.com/) to avoid spoiling in case we got some of the obscure ones right.
1. Tencrf bs Jengu – Fgrvaorpx
2. Gur Fbhaq naq gur Shel – Snhyxare
3. Fgenatre va n Fgenatr Ynaq – Urvayrva
4. Obasver bs gur Inavgvrf – Jbysr
5. Gryygnyr Urneg – Cbr
6. N Evire Ehaf Guebhtu Vg – Gung thl jub jebgr N Evire Ehaf Guebhtu Vg
7. Pnonerg – Jr guvax gung zvtug unir orra n obbx svefg. – Gnyrfr?
8. Navzny Snez – Bejryy
9. Sbhaqngvba – Nfvzbi
10. Arhebznapre – Tvofba
11. N Puevfgznf Pneby – Qvpxraf, ohg gur svefg guvat gung pnzr gb zvaq jnf Zvgpu Noybz’f qbt rhybtl.
12.Gur Ynfg Pnfgengb – Naar Evpr – Jr unir ab vqrn, ohg Evpr qvq jevgr n obbx nobhg n Pnfgengb naq gung zvtug or gur gvgyr fur tnir vg.
13. Cevqr naq Cerwhqvpr – Nhfgra
14. Wbo – Urvayrva – V qbhog lbh qvq gur fnzr nhgube gjvpr, ohg vg’f jung jr tbg.
15. Guhzoryvan – Naqrefba – V’yy or znq vs vg’f Sebt naq Gbnq.
16. Arirejurer – Tnvzna
17. Byq Zna’f Jne – Fpnymv
18. Pybpxjbex Benatr – Ohetrff
19. Pevzr naq Chavfuzrag – Qbfgblrifxl
20. Iblntr bs gur Qnja Gernqre – YrjvfReport
Lots of right answers:
1, 2, 3, 5, 8, 11, 13, 17, 20
and many more which are close.Report
We want to contest the ruling on 16.
Fun quiz. Thanks for doing this.Report
What about “the decision of the judge (me) is final.” is unclear?
But, yes, 16 is also correct.Report
For 19, correct author but title is Abgrf Sebz HaqretebhaqReport
Indeed.Report
I only got 3, 11, and 15. But I am getting old, and the little voice in the back of my head that is in charge of searching the archives is not as good as he once was.Report
What did you get for 15?Report
Before MC answers, my uninformed guess is Xraargu Tenunzr – Jvaq va gur Jvyybjf.
And I know that I know 6 but I just can’t place it.Report
Correct.
I had thought 6 was famous enough to be easy, but apparently not.Report
Is it Tngfol?Report
It is.Report
Declaring this closed. The clear winners are the Searses, with 10 correct answers, followed by KenB, Rufus, and Jaybird with 2, 1, and 1 respectively.
The answers are:
1. The Grapes of Wrath – Steinbeck
2. The Sound and the Fury – Faulkner
3. Stranger in a Strange Land – Heinlein
4. The Sun Also Rises — Hemingway
5. The Tell-tale Heart – Poe
6. The Great Gatsby – Fitzgerald
7. The Age of Innocence – Wharton
8. Animal Farm – Orwell
9. Babbitt – Lewis
10. Brave New World – Huxley
11. A Christmas Carol – Dickens,
12. A Prayer for Owen Meany – Irving
13. Pride and Prejudice – Austen
14. The Restaurant at the End of the Universe – Adams
15. The Wind in the Willows – Grahame
16. Neverwhere – Gaiman
17. Old Man’s War – Scalzi
18. The Man Who Was Thursday – Chesterton
19. Notes From Underground – Dostoevsky
20. The Voyage of the Dawn Treader – LewisReport
AUGH! STEINBECK!
I ALWAYS DO THAT!!!Report