My Bookshelf Trivia Quiz

Answer: 'Neverwhere' by Neil Gaiman

The book explores London Below, where there are real shepherds in Shepherds Bush and a real earl at Earl's court. As well as being adapted into a novel, 'Neverwhere' has also been made into a radio series, a stage play, and a comic book.

Answer: 'The Illustrated Man' by Ray Bradbury

The illustrated man's tattoos play out prophecies about the future. The stories explore the future of mankind through themes like technology and space travel.

Answer: 'The War of the Worlds' by H. G. Wells

This book contains the famous tripod-like aliens, and was adapted for radio in America in 1938. The radio play is the subject of an urban myth: that listeners believed the radio reports within the script were true accounts, and that mass hysteria took hold of America. Newspapers greatly exaggerated the story to discredit radio broadcasting.

Answer: 'The Colour of Magic' by Terry Pratchett

Naive Twoflower arrives in Ankh Morpork and Rincewind is tasked with ensuring that he has a pleasant stay. There are 41 novels in the Discworld series. It starts with 'The Colour of Magic' and ends with 'The Shepherd's Crown'. They're light-hearted stories with parodies of other fiction, myths and legends, and of modern life.

Answer: 'Brave New World' by Aldous Huxley

The Oxford English Dictionary Online defines 'eugenics' as 'the science of improving a population by controlled breeding to increase the occurrence of desirable heritable characteristics.' The story explores the horror of a world in which humans can create babies to become charismatic politicians or lowly sewage workers.

Answer: 'Killing Floor' by Lee Child

'Killing Floor' was published in 1997 and Lee Child has written a sequel once every year since then, though two Jack Reacher books were published in 2010. One of the books in the series ('One Shot') was adapted into a film (called 'Jack Reacher') starring Tom Cruise. I love these books because they are so fast-paced.

Answer: 'The Lion, the Witch and the Wardrobe' by C. S. Lewis

Lucy, along with Peter, Susan, and the Beavers, meet Aslan at the Stone Table as spring arrives in Narnia. Although 'The Lion, the Witch and the Wardrobe' was the first book of the Narnia series to be published, the events in 'The Magician's Nephew' come before it.

Answer: 'Diamonds are Forever' by Ian Fleming

The book was adapted into a film with the same name, though the plot is quite different. The villains in the book are the Spang brothers: leaders of an American gang smuggling diamonds into the US from Africa. In the movie, however, it is Blofeld (the leader of SPECTRE) who is illegally acquiring the diamonds.

Answer: 'Dracula' by Bram Stoker

See what I did there? You can really sink your teeth into this well-known story. This Gothic horror follows a group of friends' attempts to track down and eliminate the Count when he arrives in Whitby and attempts to take up residency in London. 'Dracula' is often credited as a major influence on modern fantasy and horror.

Answer: 'A Game of Thrones' by George R. R. Martin

All of these places are in Westeros. Castle Black is on the wall in the North; King's Landing, Lannisport, and Highgarden are in the South. Although the TV series is called 'Game of Thrones', the series of books as a whole is called 'A Song of Ice and Fire'.