Waterstones Week In Books Quiz, 26th September 2014

This week we quiz you on Stephen King and scratch’n’sniff. Not a sentence we write very frequently…

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Waterstones Week in Books Quiz, 26th September 2014

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Question 1

Another week and another Stephen King book is heading to the screen. This time Star Trek, and now Star Wars, head honcho J.J Abrams is overseeing the adaptation of one of King's novels to the small screen. But which one?
A
11/22/63
B
The Dark Tower
C
Mr Mercedes
D
Joyland
Question 1 Explanation: 11/22/63, about a man who is able to travel back in time and attempts to prevent the assassination of President John F. Kennedy, will be overseen by Abrams' Bad Robot production company and aired on Hulu in the US. How good it wil be, or when we'll see it on these shores, only time will tell...
Question 2

Cheers Fitz! Wednesday saw the anniversary of F Scott Fitzgerald's birthday. Born September 24, 1896, the notorious drinker died forty-four years later on December 21, 1940. One of those paying their respects at the funeral was Dorothy Parker. What was she said to have uttered at the gathering?
A
“It serves me right for putting all my eggs in one bastard.”
B
“That would be a good thing for them to cut on my tombstone: Wherever she went, including here, it was against her better judgment.”
C
"The poor son-of-a-bitch."
D
“I require three things in a man: he must be handsome, ruthless, and stupid.”
Question 2 Explanation: Parker is reported to have cried and murmured "the poor son-of-a-bitch", a line taken from Jay Gatsby's funeral in Fitzgerald's own The Great Gatsby. Just a pity he wasn't around to hear it. Happy 118th, old sport.
Question 3

Michael Chabon is perhaps best known as the Pulitzer Prize winning author of The Amazing Adventures of Kavalier and Clay. A long-time comic-book fan, he wrote an early unseen draft of Spider-man 2 and also worked on the completed script to sci-fi flop John Carter, something he's possibly not so proud of. But what long lost piece of work by Chabon has just recently been discovered?
A
An early unseen draft of Kavalier and Clay.
B
Recording of him reading from Wonder Boys.
C
Photos of him dressed up as Spiderman
D
A recording of him performing in a punk rock band.
Question 3 Explanation: The Pulitzer Prize-winning author of such books as “The Mysteries of Pittsburgh” and “Wonder Boys” was once in a punk rock band called The Bats. Positively rocking the mic in a now discovered recording, Chabon describes his performance as being filled with "weirdly (J.G.) Ballardian lyrics about car accidents and plane crashes." before adding “Thank God I never pursued that line of work any further!”
Question 4

Sticking with comic books for now, employees at Nexen, an oil and gas company in Canada, this week broke the world record for the most number of people dressed as which character?
A
Spider-man
B
Batman
C
Wonder Woman
D
Bananaman
Question 4 Explanation: Nexen has a track record of record-breaking with superheroes as they broke the previous record of 250 people dressed as Batman with 542 people dressed as The Dark Knight. Back in 2011 they set records with the most people dressed as Superman, but were beaten by a company here the United Kingdom. Quite how we haven't set a record for the most people dressed as a Waterstones bookseller remains a mystery.
Question 5

Forty-six years ago, a certain tiger came round for tea... Now for her 31st book, Judith Kerr, author of the aforementioned The Tiger That Came To Tea, is uncovering which animal hiding under a bed?
A
Alligator
B
Crocodile
C
Kangeroo
D
Ananconda
Question 5 Explanation: Out this week, The Crocodile Under The Bed was actually written after Tiger but Kerr didn't think it was up to scratch. "I don't know how I wrote such a boring book," she said. "It was a second book; everybody does a second book that is no good." Now re-written, it's worthy of the wait.
Question 6

Exciting news for the capital's commuters this week as it was announced that the London Underground will run 24hrs a day from next year. Finally we can whizz around London with our head stuck in a book day and night. But not every book makes it their intended destination on buses, trains and tubes. How many books were said to reside inside the Transport for London Lost Property Office last year?
A
29,000
B
48,000
C
51,000
D
100,000
Question 6 Explanation: Amongt the 246,241 items handed in, including the slightly odder items such as computers and the ashes of a dead man, 51,000 books were forgotten and abandoned in search of a new reader. Seriously people - look after those books.
Question 7

This week was Banned Books Week where bookshops, libraries and schools across America took part in what has become an annual celebration of the right to read. So what did a school in Texas decide to do during the week that caught the public's attention?
A
They banned a number of books from the classroom
B
Gave children copies of the most commonly banned books
C
Banned 'books' and gave students all a Kindle
D
Only let students watch the film equivalent of famous novels
Question 7 Explanation: With excellent timing, Highland Park High School in Texas chose to mark Banned Books Week by suspending seven books from its classrooms. These include works by Toni Morrison and John Green, after parents complained about their children having access to “obscene literature”. Perhaps all those lost books on the Underground could be sent their way...
Question 8

Letters to Véra by Vladimir Nabokov was published this week, featuring letters to his wife. Vera Nabakov was the first reader of all his work and this collection of passionate letters give us an insight into their relationship. But what unusual condition was Nabakov afflicted, or blessed, with?
A
He had an extraordinary sense of smell.
B
He associated words and letters with colours
C
He never had a hangover
D
He had no sense of smell
Question 8 Explanation: Both Vladimir and Vera were said to have 'synesthesia', with Vladamir from a very young age equating the number five with the colour red. Scholars have poured over his works finding numerous examples of this within his novels. Perhaps Vlad was on to something as the word 'five' has always made me think of the number 5...
Question 9

The Assassination of Margaret Thatcher. From the title alone, Hilary Mantel's collection of short stories was always going to generate headlines. In the title story a woman waiting in her Windsor flat for a plumber lets in a man who turns out to be an assassin, waiting to shoot Thatcher as she leaves the private hospital opposite after an eye operation. Last year Mantel's remarks about another public figure generated headlines after the media thought she was taking pot shots at them. Who was it?
A
The Queen
B
Duchess of Cornwall
C
Duchess of Cambridge
D
Tony Blair
Question 9 Explanation: No stranger to controversy, in her speech on the media and royal women at the British Museum, Mantel commented on Catherine, Duchess of Cambridge, saying that the Duchess was forced to present herself publicly as a personality-free "shop window mannequin". Rather strangely, Mantel's comments criticising the media's portrayal of Kate didn't go down too well with the media...
Question 10

And finally... who isn't a fan of a good gimmick? Who hasn't bought a packet of cereal just for the free toy? Who doesn't immediately press the red button when instructed to on TV? Well it turns out DC Comics are fellow gimmick fans. For the upcoming Harley Quinn Annual #1 they are creating a scratch'n'sniff issue. Except this particular issue has had to be altered for their foreign markets (ie the UK). Why?
A
The 'smells' would wear off as the comics were shipped overseas.
B
The 'scratch' part didn't scratch off
C
One of the 'smells' resembled a controlled substance
D
American 'candy' tastes and smells nothing like ours.
Question 10 Explanation: The US version of the comic will contain smells including leather, suntan lotion, pizza and what is referred to in the story as “cannabisylocibe 7-A." Naturally this homegrown substance would get the sniffer dogs at customs all rather excited. Instead, the international version will ship with the smell of fresh-cut lawn clippings, which won't get quite so many tails wagging.
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