Category: General Interest

DON’T START WITH ME: What famous novel (by what author) begins this way?   In my younger and more vulnerable years my father gave me some advice that I’ve been turning over in my mind ever since. “Whenever you feel like criticizing any one,” he told me, “just remember that all the people in this… Continue reading Contest Question for September 24

Author Ken Kesey was born on this date in 1935. Though he is best known for his classic novel One Flew Over The Cuckoo’s Nest and the subsequent film with Jack Nicholson’s iconic performance, Kesey’s second novel, Sometimes A Great Notion, was also made into a successful film in 1970. For bragging rights for the… Continue reading Contest Question for September 17

Mary Wollstonecraft died on this date in 1797 at the age of 38, 10 days after giving birth to her daughter, who would become the author of Frankenstein. Wollstonecraft wrote novels, a children’s book, a travel narrative, a history of the French Revolution, and philosophical treatises, and is remembered today chiefly for her Vindication of… Continue reading Contest Question for September 10

DON’T START WITH ME: What famous novel by what important writer begins with this paragraph (in English translation):   On May 20, 1859, a hatless gentleman somewhat over forty years old, wearing a dusty coat and checked trousers, came out on to the doorstep of a little country inn on the X— Highway and inquired… Continue reading Contest Question for September 3

DON’T START WITH ME: What famous novel, by what famous novelist, begins with this passage?   When Caroline Meeber boarded the afternoon train for Chicago, her total outfit consisted of a small trunk, a cheap imitation alligator-skin satchel, a small lunch in a paper box, and a yellow leather snap purse, containing her ticket, a… Continue reading Contest Question for August 27