Dyslexic Authors Quiz – guessing closed

September 11, 2012September 17, 201219 Comments

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.

Stephen King Mix-Up quiz – guessing closed

July 24, 2012July 31, 201218 Comments

I did this awhile back with Agatha Christie and think Stephen King will be easier. I’m combining King titles with my favorite game on m-w.com, Dictionary Devil. This one is worth 150 points.

Part 1- Each line is a title of a King novel and the word choices will each be used only once.

Part 2-Once you have all the titles list then in order of publication date, starting with the earliest.

You have until noon Sunday to submit your answers as a comment. Comment will be hidden until I post the answers. No Googling!

This round will last til August. The person with the most points 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.

Leaderboard and rules here.

Bag Doctor Girl Lisey Cell Bones Half Under Tom Sleep Loved Things Dome Talisman Kid Story Needful Colorado Dark Gordon

1984 The Talisman

1989 The Dark Half

1991 Needful Things

1999 Girl Who Loved Tom Gordon

1998 Bag of Bones

2005 The Colorado Kid

2006 Lisey‘s Story

2006 Cell

2009 Under the Dome

2013 Doctor Sleep (I apologize for my trick)

Picture This Debut Novel Quiz – guessing closed

July 3, 2012July 9, 201221 Comments

I haven’t done one of these in a while and I hope all of the images work (if not let please let me know). See if you can guess these classic debut novels. I’ll even help you out by listing the authors (with a few extra thrown in – this is a quiz after all!) but I only need the title for the answer.

You have until noon Sunday to submit your answers as a comment. Comment will be hidden until I post the answers. No Googling!

Have fun and Good Luck! Last week’s Cinderella Quiz here. Leaderboard and rules here.

Authors of these books (with an extra few thrown in for fun)-Eugenides, Smith, Sewell, Wells, Golding, Shelley, Tartt, Adams, Plath, Wiesel, Hosseini, Amis, Salinger, Roy, Palahniuk

1. Night by Elie Wiesel

2. The The Bell Jar by Sylvia Plath

3. Fight Club by Chuck Palahniuk

4. White Teeth by Zadie Smith

5. The The Kite Runner by Khaled Hosseini

6. Frankenstein by Mary Shelley

7. Black Beauty by Anna Sewell

8. The The Time Machine by HG Wells

9. The in the Catcher in the Rye by JD Salinger

10. The The Secret History by Donna Tartt

Drop Out Quiz

June 19, 2012June 25, 201219 Comments

This year we are celebrating seven high school graduations. Seven!! Four of my cousins produced 5 graduates, our next door neighbor another, and a neighbor/Gage’s sometimes babysitter rounds out the list. It’s an expensive year. Let’s see if you can guess these famous authors who never celebrated their high school graduations because they dropped out.

You have until noon Sunday to submit your answers as a comment. Comment will be hidden until I post the answers. No Googling!

Have fun and Good Luck! Last week’s Whis is Older Quiz here. Leaderboard and rules here.

1. This author’s mother was murdered and the case has never been solved. It led to severe depression and to his dropping out of school. His confusion and obsession over his mother’s murder led to his interest in Elizabeth Short, The Black Dahlia. James Ellroy

2. This New York City journalist and novelist (his last being Tabloid City, 2011 ) left school at 15 to work as an apprentice sheet metal worker. Friends with Bobby Kennedy he was one of four men to disarm Sirhan Sirhan after his assassination. Pete Hamill

3. This London born bestselling author is best known for her Lucky Santangelo series that has continued over the last 30 years. She was expelled from school when she was 15. Jackie Collins

4. This Nobel Laureate repeated his junior and senior years of high school, but even the Sound of his Fury couldn’t help him graduate. I wonder if he regretted it As he Lay Dying. William Faulkner

5. This Native Son had been valedictorian of his grade school but had to drop of out school at 15 to help earn money for the family. Black Boy is his autobiography. Richard Wright

6. Tom Sawyer and Huck Finn couldn’t have cared less about his lack of education. Mark Twain

7. The hills are alive with the beautiful voice of this actress and children’s book author. Julie Andrews

8. This early female erotica author dropped out of school at 16. I wonder if Henry and June approved? Anais Nin

9. This long time Yankee catcher and manager is famous for his Yogiisms, like, “It ain’t over till it’s over.” He co-wrote a few books with his sound observations. He dropped out of school in the eighth grade. Yogi Berra

10. This author’s Sense and Sensibility weren’t learned in the classroom. Jane Austen

Mom Quiz

May 15, 201212 Comments

I know I should have been together enough to get this up last week, but that didn’t happen so here it is a little late. These are noteworthy mothers, good and bad. I’ll take the name of the mom or the book/movie.

You have until noon Sunday to submit your answers as a comment. Comment will be hidden until I post the answers. No Googling!

Have fun and Good Luck! Last week’s Boggle Quiz here. Leaderboard and rules here.

1. It couldn’t have been easy raising seven red-headed kids with little money and it got a whole lot tougher when you take in a son’s BFF, one with a shocking tattoo no less, and love him like your own.

2. The prairie was a wonderful place to raise four children, especially one precocious pig-tailed girl who went on to write about her childhood.

4. This was one tough chick. She had to fight to stay alive so that one day in the future her son could save mankind. Good thing she was so buff.

5. This mother had to wear her shame for life after bearing an illegitimate daughter.

6. Having to choose which child will live and which will die is enough to drive this mother into a dangerous depression.

9. The original mom who was a temptress with an apple.

10. This saintly mother of four daughters endures hardship and still inspires.

Big Boggle Quiz

May 8, 201217 Comments

Here’s how to play…Words are formed from adjoining letters. (You may not skip over letters) Letters must be in the proper sequence to spell a word. They may join horizontally, vertically, or diagonally to the left, right or up-and-down. No letter cube may be used more than once in a single word.

No proper nouns, abbreviations, contradictions, hyphenated or foreign words.

Scoring-Make up to 20 words with at least 3 letters. If someone else makes the same word you will still get one point. If you are the only one to find a word you will score how many letters are in that word (3 letters=3 pts, 4 letters=4 pts, etc)

Bonus-There is an author’s name (first and last name connected). Find it for 2o points.

I love Boggle and have already made my list of 20 words. The more people who play the more fun it is. Spread the word

See how that last round played out here. Current leaderboard here. Last week’s Frenchy quiz here.

A Day Late and a Dollar Short Quiz – guessing closed

February 7, 2012February 14, 201220 Comments

See if you can tell me the name of the book or movie described below. 10 points for each correct answer and an extra 10 if you tell me the theme of the quiz.

You have until noon Saturday to submit your answers as a comment. Comment will be hidden until I post the answers. No Googling!

This round starts today and will last til the end of March and the person with the most points 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.

Have fun and Good Luck!

1. The Iron Giant (1999)

2. Barbara Hambly wrote this novel about the mothers of the men who founded America. Patriot Hearts:A Novel of the Founding Fathers

3. Patriot Games

4. The fourth book in Orson Scott Card’s Ender’s Shadow series. Shadow of the Giant

5. The Patriot

6. So James meets up with these insects in a piece of fruit… James & the Giant Peach by Roald Dahl

7. This is the first in Ken Follett’s new Century trilogy. Fall of Giants

8. Truly’s story of life in Aberdeen is heartbreaking. The Little Giant of Aberdeen County by Tiffany Baker

9. Little Giants

10. This is the most recent thriller in Dale Brown’s Patrick McLanahan series. A Time for Patriots

Theme – Super Bowl teams (Everyone gets credit for 10 since I had the author as Dan Brown for awhile (thanks for the heads up, Kay) and credit for #4 since I left out an important word! Sorry about the goofs.)

Leaderboard here. Last Week’s Boggle Quiz here (won’t have this quiz scored until later today)

Big Boggle Quiz

January 31, 2012February 8, 201231 Comments

Do you remember Boggle? I went out to buy the game and discovered Big Boggle, who knew? Here’s how to play…Words are formed from adjoining letters. (You may not skip over letters) Letters must be in the proper sequence to spell a word. They may join horizontally, vertically, or diagonally to the left, right or up-and-down. No letter cube may be used more than once in a single word.

No proper nouns, abbreviations, contradictions, hyphenated or foreign words.

Scoring-Make up to 25 words with at least 3 letters. If someone else makes the same word you will still get one point. If you are the only one to find a word you will score how many letters are in that word.

Bonus-There is an author’s name (first and last name connected). Find it for 25 points.

I love Boggle and have already made my list of 25 words (I admit, I mainly went for the big ones). The more people who play the more fun it is. Spread the word 🙂

Still not sure how to play? watch this video

One Day Quiz – guessing closed

January 24, 2012March 19, 201218 Comments

How much can you accomplish in one day? Twenty-four hours goes by pretty quick, but these books and movies seem to have a way to slow down time. The photos are all of movies, just tell me which one.

You have until noon Saturday to submit your answers as a comment. Comment will be hidden until I post the answers. No Googling, but feel free to use anything on hand – like an in-class quiz 🙂

This round will last til the end of March. The person with the most points 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.

Have fun and Good Luck!

1. This very long classic tome follows a day in the life of Leo Bloom. Ulysses – James Joyce

2. Twelve Angry Men (1957)

3. This post WWI classic follows the life of Clarissa Dalloway. Mrs. Dalloway by Virginia Woolf

4. Dog Day Afternoon (1975)

5. This recent YA bestseller follows Clay around as he listens to tapes made by Hannah Baker, who recently committed suicide. 13 Reasons Why by Jay Asher

6. Do the Right Thing (1989)

7. This day-of-the-week book follows a London neurosurgeon on his daily routine. Saturday by Ian McEwan

8. A Night at the Museum 2

9. Ebenezer has a complete change of heart between night and morning. A Christmas Carol by Charles Dickens

10. Bobby (2006)

Details and Leaderboard here. Last week’s Scholarly Author Quiz here.

Hero Quiz – guessing closed

January 10, 2012January 16, 201235 Comments

Who are some of the best heroes in literature or film? See if you can recognize them for 10 points each. I’m looking for the character name, not the actor’s name.

You have until noon Saturday to submit your answers as a comment. Comment will be hidden until I post the answers. No Googling!

This round starts today and will last til the end of March. The person with the most points 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.

Have fun and Good Luck!

1. Clark Kent/Superman