Reading with the Rockers Quiz | Mixed Literature

Quiz Answer Key and Fun Facts

1. Team leader redwaldo became interested in fiction when he read this novel by Albert Camus. What is the name of the book that details life changing events in its central character's life, Meursault ?

Answer: "The Outsider" (or "The Stranger")

"The Outsider" (or "The Stranger") is the best known work by Camus. It details the 'absurd' nature of events in the life of a young French Algerian, Meursault.
Albert Camus won the 1957 Nobel Prize for literature. His novels and plays display notions of existentialism and the absurd.

2. Our team member CmdrK likes reading the continuing saga of Harry Dresden, Chicago's only wizard who advertises in the "Yellow Pages". Dresden battles vampires, evil faeries, fallen angels and the occasional errant human. The stories are collectively known as "The Dresden Files". Who is the author of these stories?

Answer: Jim Butcher

Jim Butcher has written over a dozen Harry Dresden novels. All those witches, werewolves and things you worried were under your bed as a kid - they're all real to Harry Dresden. He also has a real faerie godmother, who is definitely not the grandmotherly-type!

3. Tezza1551 has a passion for a Scottish writer, Jane Duncan, who wrote a series of novels all commencing with the words "My Friend/s". Which of the following was NOT one of her titles?

Answer: My Friend Flicka

"My Friend Flicka" was written by Mary O'Hara in 1941. It was made into a TV series. "Flicka" is a horse.

Jane Duncan's "Friends" are all characters who have affected her life in one way or another.

4. Lesley153's favourite books are the ones that make her laugh. All these books are centred on hospitals, and all were made into films, but can you name the only one that is intentionally funny, and the only one whose author has had medical training?

Answer: "The House of God" by Samuel Shem

Samuel Shem is the pen-name of Stephen Bergman, who is an American psychiatrist, educated and trained in England and America. The book was made into a film which sank without trace, but it inspired the much more successful television series "Scrubs".

Ken Kesey was born in 1935, and was a successful young wrestler before a shoulder injury forced him to stop. In 1959, he volunteered to take part in Project MKULTRA, a study of the effects of psychoactive drugs, at the Menlo Park Veterans Hospital. Kesey is said to have continued the experiments long after he left the project.

Ondaatje was born in Ceylon in 1943, and was educated in England and Canada. "The English Patient" won the 1992 Booker Prize for fiction, and was made into a film in 1996.

Jodi Picoult was born in Long Island in 1966, and wrote "My Sister's Keeper" in 2004. The character Anna was created as a "saviour sibling" for her sister, who has leukemia, and the plot centres on her attempts to make her own decisions about her body. It was made into a film in 2009.

5. On iCaramba's book shelves, you will notice a well-worn copy of "A Confederacy of Dunces", whose protagonist has been described as "huge, obese, fractious, fastidious... a Don Quixote of the French Quarter." What is the name of this unlikely hero?

Answer: Ignatius J. Reilly

John Kennedy Toole's brilliant picaresque novel was published 11 years after his death by suicide, and earned him a posthumous Pulitzer Prize. The book vividly portrays life in New Orleans in the early 1960s and a society that was in a state of cultural flux.

6. Cazza1964 enjoys young adult fiction. This genre often combines likeable characters, rollicking action and a good dollop of moral guidance. Which one of these series for older children does not contain the Christian story in disguise?

Answer: "Cherub" by Robert Muchamore

Despite the angelic-sounding title, this series takes its name from an acronym. C.H.E.R.U.B. stands for Charles Henderson Espionage Research Unit B., a fictional unit of the British intelligence services which trains children for covert operations.

7. A favorite of elvislennon, this New Zealand novel by Alan Duff was published in 1990 and filmed in 1994 under the same title. It tells the tale of an urban Maori family dominated by a drunken, abusive father who, by his own actions, slowly destroys his family and himself. What was the title of this disturbing novel?

Answer: Once Were Warriors

When the novel was filmed in 1994, the role of Jake "the Muss" Heke was played by Temuera Morrison. He first became known in New Zealand for his portayal of Dr Hone Ropata in local soap "Shortland Street", and later went on to appear in several Hollywood productions such as "Speed 2 - Cruise Control", "Star Wars: Episode II - Attack of the Clones" and "Green Lantern".

He is the nephew of iconic New Zealand singer, Sir Howard Morrison.

8. Rockinsteve's favorite book, "Flowers For Algernon", tells the story of the mentally challenged and ultimately tragic character Charlie Gordon. Who is the author of this wonderful book?

Answer: Daniel Keyes

Mr. Keyes was never able to follow up the success of this novel. He published a couple more books but they were almost completely unnoticed. He was a "one hit wonder" in the publishing world.

9. In trivvya's favorite novel, the author's experience in WWII was the inspiration for his famous novel about an optometrist who randomly travels time. Montana Wildhack, Kilgore Trout, Valencia Merble, Tralfamadorians and Billy Pilgrim are some of the characters. What is the title?

Answer: Slaughterhouse-Five

Kurt Vonnegut, Jr., was born in Indianapolis, Indiana on November 11, 1922. He died on April 11, 2007.

10. Antoine de Saint-Exup�ry (1900-1944) is the author and illustrator of casey317's favourite book. The first drawings to accompany the text involve a snake and an elephant. Or is it just a hat? You be the judge. Which book is this?

Answer: "The Little Prince"

This little French novel "Le Petit Prince" or "The Little Prince" tells of a young boy's journey through the Universe after leaving his own tiny planet. To me it's full of moral allegory. Each time I read it I shed a tear for our planet. The author was a Frenchman who actually wrote this story while in America. A pilot as well as an author, his reconnaissance plane disappeared while flying for the Free French Forces 31st July 1944.

An excerpt from "The Little Prince":
"Here, then, is a great mystery. For you who also love the little prince, and for me, nothing in the universe can be the same if somewhere, we do not know where, a sheep that we never saw has - yes or no? - eaten a rose...

Look up at the sky. Ask yourselves: is it yes or no? Has the sheep eaten the flower? And you will see how everything changes...

And no grown-up will ever understand that this is a matter of so much importance!"

Source: Author tezza1551

This quiz was reviewed by FunTrivia editor looney_tunes before going online.
Any errors found in FunTrivia content are routinely corrected through our feedback system.

Reading with the Rockers Trivia Quiz

Come for a wander round the bookshelves of the Rock the Clock team members. Learn a little about our favourite books and authors.

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