Category: Quizzes

IT’s a Clownish Quiz – guessing closed

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Coming up with an IT quiz that lots of people could participate in was just too hard, so I came up with a quiz full of clowns, circuses and carnivals.  Really, the opposite of It, but too bad 🙂

You have until noon Sunday to submit your answers as a comment.  Comment will be hidden until I post the answers.  No Googling! The person with the most points this round will win a B&N gift card (total $ based on # of total participants, so please play) and a randomly selected participant will win a fun prize from me.

1. The main characters of this book about circus life were played by these two stars on the big screen  Like Water for Elephants by Sara Gruen

2. Ray Bradbury wrote a classic about carnivals.  What’s the title of this good vs. evil tale? Something Wicked This Way Comes

3. The Circus Fire: A True Story of an American Tragedy about the Barnum & Bailey tent fire of 1944 was written by what author, a book blogger fave these days?  Stewart O’Nan

4. The World’s Thinnest Man is working in PT Barnum’s American Museum in this 2010 novel.  The Transformation of Bartholomew Fortuno by Ellen Bryson

5. The Binewskis are one odd family of carnies in this 1989 novel, a National Book Award Nominee.  Geek Love by Katherine Dunn

6. If you’re looking to visit the circus during the day this is not the story for you.  The Night Circus by Ellen Bryson

7. First published in 1984 this Dean Koontz book has a girl who joined a traveling carnival and ended up killing her own child.  Twenty-five years later the carnival is coming back.  The Funhouse

8. The subtitle of this book is, The True Story of the Greatest Elephant That Ever Lived.  Madoc by Ralph Helfer

9. “All ready to put up the tents for my circus

I think I will call it the Circus McGurkus

The Circus McGurkus!The World’s Greatest Show

On the face of the earth, or wherever you go!”

Name that book or author.  If I Ran the Circus by Dr. Seuss

10. And this one sounds the closest to IT.  “You have two days to pass your audition. You better pass it, feller. You’re joining the circus. Ain’t that the best news you ever got?” Delivered by a trio of psychotic clowns, this ultimatum plunges Jamie into the horrific alternate universe that is the centuries-old.”  The Pilo Family Circus by Will Elliott

Answers to last week’s Mystery Writers Quiz here.  Leaderboard here.

And I want to thank Nise once again for her great Michigan Authors quiz.  She got 100 big ones and you can too if you want to try and stump your fellow bookies.

24 Hour Read-A-Thon Hour 16 Time Flies Mini-Challenge – CLOSED

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Thanks to all of you who played! Keep reading 🙂  The first reader to get all 13 books correct is Megan (YA? Why Not?) and she will receive a $24 B&N giftcard.  The secondly winner (randomly chosen by drawing names out of a hat) is Dilatory Bibliophile and she will receive a $12 B&N giftcard.  Congratulations, readers, I’ll be in touch 🙂  I’ll be stopping by everyone who played along in the next few days to say hi.

Hi read-a-thonners!  I hope you’re all still awake and having fun.  There are two ways to play this mini-challenge…I made a fall Read-a-thon Clock (yes, it looked more like a clock in my mind ;)).  Just tell me the titles and you could win a prize, the reader with the most correct answers wins a prize. (in the event of a tie the first person to submit their answers will win)  If you get even one title correct I’ll throw your name in the drawing for a second prize.  Keep in mind that each number on the clock is correctly represented and don’t forget about the book in the center.

I’ll periodically hide the comments so don’t be worried if your answers disappear until I draw a winner at 1 AM.

(I apologize for the quality of the clock.  My camera died so I had to use my cell phone) You should be able to click on it to make it bigger.

There’s a second way to play…Make your own clock and post it on your blog.  Make sure each of the titles has something to do with time.  Make sure to leave a link in the comments.  You’ll be eligible for the second prize.

Wanna know what you’re playing for?  First prize (reader who guesses the most correct titles in my clock) will get a $24 Barnes & Noble giftcard.  The second randomly chosen winner will receive a $12 Barnes & Noble giftcard. (If you are not in the US I can do Book Depository)

If  you still want to extend your break with something bookish I do have another quiz going on with prizes.  The link is here.

Mystery Writers Choose Great Mysteries Quiz & birthday giveaway – guessing closed

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At Bouchercon we had the opportunity to be the first readers in the US to buy the book Books To Die For – The World’s Greatest Mystery Writers on the World’s Greatest Mystery Novels.  Of the 119 contributors almost 30 were in attendance and they did a mass signing for everyone.  Let’s see if you can guess which author chose which of these 16 great works.  The autograph is from the author choosing the work.  Good Luck!

You have until noon Sunday to submit your answers as a comment.  Comment will be hidden until I post the answers.  No Googling! The person with the most points this round will win a B&N gift card (total $ based on # of total participants, so please play) and a randomly selected participant will win a fun prize from me.

To enter my birthday giveaway (details here) leave a comment with some guesses and you’ll be entered.

This is really a test to see if you can figure out signature’s but I thought you’d like to see what books they recommended too 🙂

On Beulah Height – Val McDermid, Little Sister – Michael Connelly, The Hunter – F Paul Wilson, Always Outnumbered, Always Outgunned – Martyn Waites, Possession – Erin Hart, The Damned & the Destroyed – Lee Child, Rogue Male – Charlaine Harris, Bootlegger’s Daughter – Julia Spencer-Fleming, Maltese Falcon – Mark Billingham, The Postman Always Rings Twice – Joseph Finder, Ms. Smilla’s Feeling for Snow – Michael Robotham, Cover Her Face – Deborah Crombie, The Goodbye Look – Linwood Barclay, True Confessions – SJ Rozan, A is for Alibi – Meg Gardiner, A Crime on the Neighborhood – Thomas H Cook

 

 

Michigan Author Quiz – guessing closed

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I always welcome you all to come up with a guest quiz and Nise has taken me up on the offer.  When she sent it to me (without answers) I felt just like all you must you feel every week and this may lead to a kindler, gentler quizmaster 🙂  Good luck everyone and Thank you, NISE!

FIRST TIMERS ALWAYS WELCOME!

You have until noon Sunday to submit your answers as a comment.  Comment will be hidden until I post the answers.  No Googling! The person with the most points this round will win a B&N gift card (total $ based on # of total participants, so please play) and a randomly selected participant will win a fun prize from me.

In 1837, Michigan and Ohio signed a truce after a brief skirmish over the hotly contested property of the Toledo Strip. Ohio might have gotten the fair city of Toledo, but in exchange Michigan got the riches of the Upper Peninsula. Stacy has quizzed us on Ohio authors so I thought I would follow her example and quiz you on Michigan Authors. See if you can identify them with these clues. Each of them has a connection to Michigan, many still do!  (Use the photo for some help)
1.     This children’s writer has twice won the Caldecott Medal. Robin Williams starred in the movie made from one of his winning books.  He was born in Grand Rapids and attended the University of Michigan. Chris Van Allsburg
2.     This Newbery Medal and Coretta Scott King award-winning children’s author was born and raised in Flint, Michigan which has been used as a prominent setting in several stories including The Watsons Go to Birmingham – 1963  Christopher Paul Curtis
3.     This best-selling author born in  Port Huron Michigan has had her books made into movies. Her third novel met with critical success as few writers, let alone black women, were able to shift from their own sensitive feminine side to a construction working male lover like she did with Franklin and Zora.  Terry McMillan
4.     He was born in Flint and is a documentary filmmaker, nonfiction writer, Oscar-winning filmmaker, bestselling author, and vocal critic of the right.  Michael Moore
5.     This Kalamazoo author won a National Book Award for fiction for her novel that follows a handful of characters through a year of horse races in the West Virginia back country.  Jaimy Gordon
6.     In this 8th novel featuring Alex McKnight, , the 2006 Michigan Author Award winner, leads us on a suspenseful adventure in Michigan’s Upper Peninsula.  He was born and raised in Detroit.  Steve Hamilton
7.     This author had a successful career in the NHL as a player and then coached a Stanley Cup winning team.  He was born in Grand Rapids and raised in my hometown of Grand Haven, where he lives today.  Dan Bylsma
8.     Grand Haven plays a role in this tale of family, changes and love by this Grand Rapids author. Her latest book covers the subject of hoarding.  Kristina Riggle
9.     This author Retired from teaching and began her writing career in 2007.  She writes romance for the heart and fiction for the soul. I have a personal connection to her novel, Tender Vow.  She was born and raised in West Michigan.  Sharlene MacLaren
10.  This Chelsea resident wrote about a college student who gets into a car accident while driving with his girlfriend Nicole, who is tragically killed.  Her third novel about a woman’s survivor’s guilt from a Columbine-like event twenty years ago causes her present-day idyllic life to fall apart was made into a movie starring Uma Thurman and Evan Rachel Wood in 07.  Laura Kasischke
For a bonus of 10 pts name the author, TV show, movie and book
11.  He grew up in Birmingham, MI. He began his career as a stand-up comedian.  His first book topped the New York times bestseller list propelling him into an unprecedented ‘Trifecta’—he had the #1 rated television show, the #1 box office smash hit movie, and the #1 bestselling book all in the same week in 1994.  Tim Allen, Home Improvement – The Santa Clause-Don’t Stand TO Close To A Naked Man

I Love Fall Quiz – guessing closed

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Fall has always been my favorite time of year.  I love the colors, the smells, the football and the fact that my birthday, wedding anniversary and Gage’s birthday all happen during October doesn’t hurt.  I think you’ll be able to fill in these titles with words I associate with the season.

FIRST TIMERS ALWAYS WELCOME!

You have until noon Sunday to submit your answers as a comment.  Comment will be hidden until I post the answers.  No Googling! The person with the most points this round will win a B&N gift card (total $ based on # of total participants, so please play) and a randomly selected participant will win a fun prize from me.

1. The Cider House Rules by John Irving

2. Eats, Shoots & Leavesby Lynne Truss

3. Apple Turnover Murder by Joanne Fluke

4. The Angel and the Rake by Barbara Cartland

5. The House of Spirits by Isabel Allende

6. Son of a Witch by Gregory Maguire

7. Gone With the Wind by Margaret Mitchell

8. The Bonfire of the Vanities by Tom Wolfe

9. The Homecoming of Samuel Lake by Jenny Wingfield

10. Leaves of Grass by Walt Whitman

Last week’s Highest Paid Author Quiz here.  Leaderboard here.

The Annual Highest Paid Author Quiz – guessing closed

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Every year I do a quiz on the highest paid authors for the pat year (May 2011-June 2012 according to Forbes magazine).  I’m guessing that a lot of you saw the list and now we’ll see how much you remember.  Only one guy, the one at the top, is in the same spot.  In the past I’ve had you rank them in the correct order, but I’m always surprised at how hard that it, so I’m making it a little easier this time around.  I’m giving you the correct order and the initials (see how generous I can be?) and you just have to figure out who the author is.  Easy right?

FIRST TIMERS ALWAYS WELCOME!

You have until noon Sunday to submit your answers as a comment.  Comment will be hidden until I post the answers.  No Googling! The person with the most points this round will win a B&N gift card (total $ based on # of total participants, so please play) and a randomly selected participant will win a fun prize from me.

1. JP – James Patterson $94 m

2. SK – Stephen King $39m

3. JE – Janet Evanovich $33m

4. JG – John Grisham $26m

5. JK – Jeff Kinney $25m

6. BO – Bill O’Reilly $24m

7. NR – Nora Roberts $23m

7. DS – Danielle Steel $23m

8. SC – Suzanne Collins $20m

9. DK – Dean Koontz $19m

10. JKR – JK Rowling $17m

11. GRRM – George RR Martin $15m

12. SM – Stephenie Meyer $14

12. KF – Ken Follett $14m

13. RR – Rick Riordan $13m

Answers to last week’s Dyslexia quiz here.  Leaderboard & rules here.

Dyslexic Authors Quiz – guessing closed

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I was flipping through a book and found a list of famous people who suffered from dyslexia, a variable often familial learning disability involving difficulties in acquiring and processing language that is typically manifested by a lack of proficiency in reading, spelling, and writing (from Merriam-Webster).  It made me curious about authors who may suffer from this condition and after a little investigating I was surprised at the authors I found on this list.  Let’s see if you are too.

FIRST TIMERS ALWAYS WELCOME!

You have until noon Sunday to submit your answers as a comment.  Comment will be hidden until I post the answers.  No Googling! The person with the most points this round will win a B&N gift card (total $ based on # of total participants, so please play) and a randomly selected participant will win a fun prize from me.

1. “The diagnosis of dyslexia wasn’t available in the late fifties -bad spelling like mine was considered a psychological problem by the language therapist who evaluated my mysterious case. When the repeated courses of language therapy were judged to have had no discernible influence on me, I was turned over to the school psychiatrist.”  said the man who created Owen Meany  John Irving

2. The creator of Captain Underpants wasn’t held back by dyslexia and ADHD.  Dav Pilkey

3. “Being slow made me pore over sentences and to be receptive to those qualities in sentences that were not just the cognitive aspect of sentences but were in fact the “poetical” aspects of language…those qualities in language are as likely to carry weight and hold meaning and give pleasure as the purely cognitive, though of course we can’t fundamentally separate those things, although the information age does its best.”  said this Pulitzer Prize winner for Independence Day  Richard Ford

4. Maybe the most well-known African-American woman science fiction author who died in 2006 at the age of 58.  Octavia Butler

5.  “The first book I wrote, most of the letters where backwards and much of it is horribly misspelled, but it didn’t stop me.  Sometimes it pays to be too stubborn to listen to other people and in my case that was especially true.” said the author of the Dark-Hunter vampire series  Sherrilyn Kenyon

6. This science fiction author of the Sword of Truth series has dyslexia and is really into Ayn Rand’s Objectivism (which is popular this political season).  Terry Goodkind

7. “I wasn’t diagnosed until I was 12. In those days they thought that I was backward. I didn’t really feel at home with the written word until somebody gave me a typewriter. But, even today, I never send things out without having them checked by an assistant.” She has written a few books but more famously wrote the TV series Prime Suspect.  Linda La Plante

8.  (I) “was severely dyslexic and couldn’t spell, still can’t spell. So I was discouraged from writing and embarrassed”.  It’s a good thing for the popularity of fried green tomatoes that she overcame her insecurities.  Fannie Flagg

9. This one-name children/young-adult author won the 1991 Newbery Honor with his character Charlotte Doyle and in 1992 with Nothing but the Truth.  He was awarded the  Newbury Medal in 2003 for Crispin:The Cross of Lead.  Avi

10. This is prolific Emmy winning writer/producer and bestselling author (8 books in the Shane Scully series) sums it up with this, that his real fear for “dyslexic people is not that they have to struggle with jumbled input or that they can’t spell but that they will quit on themselves before they get out of school.” He was also one of Castle’s poker buddies (on ABC’s Castle) and his chair remained empty at the table for a year after his death.  Stephen Cannell

Answers to last week’s Thrilling Quiz here.  Leaderboard & rules here.

Thrilling Quiz – guessing closed

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In honor of Thrill Week, our first quiz this round is all about mysteries and thrillers.  I hope every one will give it a shot.  Last round we had a record number of participants (46!) and I’m hoping to continue that trend.  FIRST TIMERS ALWAYS WELCOME!

You have until noon Sunday to submit your answers as a comment.  Comment will be hidden until I post the answers.  No Googling!  The person with the most points this round will win a B&N gift card (total $ based on # of total participants, so please play) and a randomly selected participant will win a fun prize from me.

Directions-Take a look at the photo of mysteries/thrillers that are the first in a series.  Choose the correct title and then choose the correct main character.  You’ll have two answers for each book.  Good luck and have fun!!!  Guesses are encouraged.

1. H.The Case of the Missing Books by Ian Sansom    u.Israel Armstong  

2. C.The Informationist by Taylor Stevens   o.Vanessa Michael Munroe  

3. I. Knots and Crosses by Ian Rankin    t.Inpector Rebus  

4.  E.Still Life by Louise Penny     p.Chief Inspector Gamache  

5. D. Case Histories by Kate Atkinson   s.Jackson Brodie

6. K.Dead Cat Bounce bt Sarah Graves  l.Jacobia Tiptree

7. A.Silent in the Grave by Deanna Raybourn  m.Lady Julia  

8. B.Heartsick by Chelsea Cain    n.Archie Sheridan

9. G.Don of the Dead by Casey Daniels    r.Pepper Martin

10.  J. Sworn to Silence by Linda Castillo  q. Kate Burkholder 

11. F.Truly, Madly by Heather Weber   v.Lucy Valentine

Quizzes back next Tuesday

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Thanks for your feedback on the quizzes.

I’m going keep accepting answers as comments.  Nise will try to stump us (yea, I get to play!). Mentioning the quiz in a Monday meme would surely be appreciated.  And I’ll consider the combining of scores (bribes can be sent through Paypal).

I’ve got three quizzes ready to go, so the month off has been good for my creativity.

Tuesday Quiz Reboot

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When September rolls around the Tuesday quizzes will be back!  I am hoping that you’ll all put it on your to-do list.  I want it to be fun and I hope we continue to have more participants every week so I’m looking for your help.

Is there a better way to collect all of your answers or is leaving a comment okay?  Is there a quiz you loved and would like to see more of or one that hated and never want to see on the internet again, ever?  Would you like to try your hand at making a quiz for the masses?  You get 100 points for doing it.  Any other suggestions on how I can get more people involved or suggestions for better prizes?

Thanks for your feedback!