Arithmetic By The Book Trivia Quiz

Answer: 20

Start with Hawthorne's "House Of Seven Gables" (an 1851 Gothic romance detailing the history of the Pyncheon family and their ancestral home). Add Jerome K. Jerome's "Three Men In A Boat" (a humorous 1889 description of a two-week boat trip taken by Jerome, two friends, and Jerome's fox terrier, where more things seem to go wrong than could).

Then add Graham Greene's "The Tenth Man" (a 1985 complicated tale of a prison camp bargain and its future results). [7 + 3 + 10 = 20.]

Answer: 25

Start with Jules Verne's "Twenty Thousand Leagues Under The Sea" (the 1870 undersea exploration in "The Nautilus" by Captain Nemo and others of the wonders of the ocean depths). Divide by Yasunari Kawabata's "Thousand Cranes" (a 1996 examination of passion, regret, jealousy, and death, and of the sensitivities that bind the living to the dead). Add Kurt Vonnegut's 1969 "Slaughterhouse-Five" (the time travels of Billy Pilgrim featuring Vonnegut's personal experience as a POW of the firebombing of Dresden). [20,000 divided by 1,000 = 20; 20 + 5 = 25.]

Answer: 214

Start with "206 Bones" (2009) by Kathy Reichs (Temperance Brennan, accused of botching an autopsy, finds herself bound in a very dark small space). Subtract Doyle's 1890 "Sign Of The Four" (Holmes and Watson help Mary Morstan deal with a generous benefactor).

Then add Jeff Archer's 1994 "Twelve Red Herrings" (a collection of twelve short stories, each of which has a twist, and in each of which the reader is to spot a "red herring"). [206 - 4 = 202; 202 + 12 = 214.]

Answer: 4

Multiply Hosseini's 2007 "A Thousand Splendid Suns" (a study of thirty years of Afgan history seen through the eyes of Mariana and Laila, two women of different generations), by the 1859 "A Tale Of Two Cities" by Dickens (the Charles Darnay-Sydney Carton-Lucie Manette triangle set in peaceful London and in Paris during the Reign Of Terror).

Then divide by "The 500 Hats Of Bartholomew Cubbins" (Dr. Seuss writes in prose in 1938 of King Derwin of Didd and his confrontation with the peasant Cubbins, who was required to remove his hat, but each time he did, another hat appeared on his head, until the number got to 500). [1000 X 2 = 2000; 2000 divided by 500 = 4.]

Answer: 199

Begin with Pynchon's 1966 "The Crying Of Lot 49" (a very complex study of Oedipa Mass and her attempt to serve as the executor of the estate of a former boyfriend who had numerous financial interests). Multiply the 1844 novel by Dumas "The Three Musketeers" (Athos, Porthos, Aramis, and D'Artagnan battle Cardinal Richelieu and his evil spy Milady).

Then add Leonard's 1977 "Fifty-Two Pick Up' (Harry Mitchell, a married and successful businessman, decides to get even with those trying to blackmail him because of an affair he had.) [49 X 3 = 147; 147 + 52 = 199.]

Answer: 20

Start with Marquez's 2003 novel "One Hundred Years Of Solitude" (the history of the Buendia family is used to tell of the beginning, rise, fall, and end of the town of Macond). Subtract Verne's 1873 "Around The World in Eighty Days" (Phineas Fogg and Passepartout use many means of transportation to win a bet).

Then multiply by Kesey's 1962 "One Flew Over The Cuckoo's Nest" (a battle between Randle Patrick McMurphy, who defies all rules in a mental hospital, and Nurse Ratched who tries to enforce all the rules). [100 - 80 = 20; 20 X 1 = 20.]

Answer: 2

Add John Buchan's 1915 "The Thirty-Nine Steps" (the first novel about Richard Hannay, action hero who specializes in getting out of tough situations) to "One Corpse Too Many" (1979) by Ellis Peters (where Brother Cadfael discovers one body too many in a group of battle dead).

Then divide by the 1845 book "Twenty Years After" (Alexandre Dumas presents the four swordsmen twenty years after their encounter with Richelieu and Milady, but this time the villain is the evil son of Milady). [39 + 1 = 40; 40 divided by 20 = 2.]

Answer: 27

Begin with Heller's "Catch-22" (when Yossarian tries to plead insanity to get out of flying combat missions, he's faced with a directive that indicates if one wants to fly missions he is insane, but if one tries to get of missions he is sane). Add "Five Red Herrings" by Dorothy Sayers (Lord Peter Wimsey must decide which of six artists, all with motives, killed a fellow artist).

Then multiply by Solzhenitsyn's "One Day In The life Of Ivan Denisovich" (a day in the life of a prisoner who tries to maintain his dignity in a Stalin work camp). [22 + 5 = 27; 27 X 1 = 27.]

Answer: 2001

Start with Arthur C. Clark's 1968 work "2001: A Space Odyssey" (an enigma found on the moon sends humans on a quest deep in space where things begin to go very wrong). Add Rita Mae Brown's 2014 "Nine Lives To Die" ("Harry" Haristeen and her animal sleuths, cats Mrs. Murphy and Pewter, and the corgi Tee Tucker, joined by Odin the coyote, solve the mystery of a serial killer).

Then subtract Asimov's "Nine Tomorrows" (nine short stories and two comic poems). [2001 + 9 = 2010; 2010 - 9 = 2001.]

Answer: 65

Start with 1955's "Seventy-Nine Park Avenue" by Robbins (Maryann Flood, who runs a large "pleasure" empire, and Mike Keynes, a prosecuting attorney are in love, but problems arise when she is arrested and he is chosen to prosecute her). Subtract Marilyn Hirsh's 2009 "The Rabbi And The Twenty-Nine Witches" (a rabbi devises a plan to prevent twenty-nine mean, evil witches from terrifying the villagers every full moon, with humorous results). Multiply by Jay Asher's 2007 book "Thirteen Reasons Why" (Clay Jenson receives a set of cassette tapes from his friend Hannah Baker who committed suicide two weeks earlier, and he uses them to track down the thirteen reasons his friend acted as she did). Divide by Melanie Gerth's 2000 children's book "Ten Little Ladybugs" (the ladybugs disappear one by one, but where did they go?). [79 - 29 = 50; 50 X 13 = 650; 650 divided by 10 = 65.]