Pretty Bloody Civil of You
Blarney Rubble
Shining of the Corn
Mister E
Double O Something
100
Margaret Mitchell wrote this 1936 epic while she was healing from a car crash and almost titled it "Tomorrow is Another Day," as that was the book's last line. The story itself depicted the Georgia days at the "Tara" plantation, owned by a wealthy Irish immigrant family, the O'Haras.
What is "Gone with the Wind?"
100
This 18th century scribe is regarded by the Encyclopædia Britannica as the foremost prose satirist in the English language, and "A Modest Proposal" was satire, no doubt about it. But we more remember him for "Gulliver's Travels," which was no modest classic.
Who is Jonathan Swift?
100
After the world is devastated by a man-made plague, a battle of literally Biblical proportions ensues between the survivors. Sounds big, don't it? And King was not thinking small with this 1978 effort, trying for an epic "Lord of the Rings"–type story in a contemporary American setting.
What is "The Stand?"
100
This Scottish physician and writer created the world's most famous detective based on an infirmary doctor he once worked for, one who had amazing observational skills. That doctor did not reside at 221B Baker St., however, so the similarity ended there.
Who is Sir Arthur Conan Doyle?
100
The title of this 1955 Bond story refers to Britain's first nuclear missile project and all the action spy stuff is set on Earth, with none of it in space. Fleming considered it one of his most ambitous novels, having researched the V-2 missile, and the movie at least retained the book villain's name: Drax.
What is "Moonraker?"
200
This 1895 effort told the tale of Henry Fleming, a cowardly solider of the Union Army who flees from battle at the beginning, then later craves a wound to show he's grown some balls after all. The blood-colored wound is the symbol of the book's title, penned by Stephen Crane.
What is "The Red Badge of Courage?"
200
Early in his career, this 19th century author met Ármin Vámbéry, a Hungarian writer and traveler who crafted dark stories of the Carpathian mountains. After meeting him, the author researched European folklore and mythological stories of vampires. The result? His most famous novel: "Dracula."
Who is Bram Stoker?
200
This 1979 best seller might be based on self-proclaimed "psychic" Peter Hurkos, who hurt his head falling, and afterward claimed to be able to know things about people by touching objects that belonged to them. Next came the movie version, then a TV series based on this horrific brainbuster.
What is "The Dead Zone?"
200
This mid-20th century crime novelist wrote realistically, rather than using an amateur hero to solve crimes, seeming like he knows more than the cops. This quality was evident in his hard-boiled detective Phillip Marlowe and in his screenplay for the 1944 film noir "Double Indemnity."
Who is Raymond Chandler?
200
This 1962 Fleming effort is the shortest and most sexually explicit Bond novel. But more importantly, Fleming hated it and tried to stop it from being published. The movie version used almost no elements from the book except the villian Jaws, which was loosely based on a baddie in the original pages.
What is "The Spy Who Loved Me?"
300
Louisa May Alcott unveiled this 1868 two-volume effort, which detailed the lives of four sisters from childhood to adulthood. The novel had three major themes: domesticity, work, and true love. Now we know what inspired "The Brady Bunch."
What is "Little Women?"
300
This writer/poet refined his ideas about the supremacy of art in a series of dialogues and essays, and incorporated themes of decadence, duplicity, and beauty into his only novel, The Picture of Dorian Gray (1890). He descibed his homosexuality as "The love that dare not speak its name."
Who is Oscar Wilde?
300
How'd you like it if you came back to the boyhood town you grew up in, and everyone there was turning into vampires? The protagonist of this 1975 King novel, his second one published, might be asking that question.
What is 'Salem's Lot?"
300
The New York Times referred to this one-time San Franciscan as "the dean of the... 'hard-boiled' school of detective fiction." Characters like Sam Spade and the couple in "The Thin Man" series solved his mysteries, which contained "scenes that seemed never to have been written before," according to another crime writer.
Who is Dashiell Hammett?
300
This is the first Bond adventure, and also considered one of the best. It opens with a high-stakes baccarat game in a gambling environment, and introduced Bond's famed martini, his smoking habits and CIA agent Felix Leiter. He also falls in love ... Bond in love? You betcha.
What is Casino Royale?
400
This 1997 best seller gave us W. P. Inman, a wounded deserter from the Confederate army near the end of the war who walks for months to return to Ada Monroe, the love of his life; the story shares several similarities with Homer's "The Odyssey." The 2003 movie version shared billing between Jude Law and Renee Zellweger.
What is "Cold Mountain?"
400
The 1922 modernist novel "Ulysses" boasts 265,000 words in length, uses a lexicon of 30,030 words and is divided into eighteen episodes. This wordy man crafted it, and did so using a "stream of consciousness."
Who is James Joyce?
400
Many considered this 1996 book an example of magical realism, as it told the tale of a Cold Mountain State Penitentiary death row supervisor's encounter with John Coffey, an unusual inmate who displays inexplicable healing and empathetic abilities. Father Theresa, anyone?
What is "The Green Mile?"
400
Frederic Dannay and James Yaffe fashioned this pseudonym, which was also the name of the title detective in the both the novels and magazine stories that bore his name. Done in the style of a classic "fair play" whodunit mystery, the reader obtains clues in the same way as the protagonist and the book becomes an intellectually challenging puzzle.
Who is Ellery Queen?
400
This 1965 Bond novel did not glitter with the critics, and its leaden quality was due to the fact that Fleming died before he could write a second draft. The novel came out posthumously, presenting a robot-like, humorless characterization of Bond.
What is "The Man with the Golden Gun?"
500
This 1855 publication is one of Elizabeth Gaskell's best known novels, and it led to two television adaptations (one in 1975, the other in 2004). Think of the two sides of the Civil War (duh) and think "directionally."
What is North and South?
500
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An avant-garde novelist, playwright, theatre director, and poet all rolled into one, his classic "Waiting for Godot" showed this writer's enormous influence in the 20th century. He himself was influenced by silent films, but his Nobel Prize in 1969 was not kept in silence.
500
DAILY
DOUBLE
This 1999 shelf buster was described as "the Great American Baby Boomer Novel" ... but not so great for the characters in it as all of them fail profoundly, or are paying the costs of some profound failure on their part. Anthony Hopkins top-billed the movie version, which was a lesser failure.
500
After J.K. Rowling, this former award-winning police reporter is the world's second best-selling female author. Her heroine Dr. Kay Scarpetta, a medical examiner who is a perfectionist, an incredibly hard worker and completely immersed in her work. Wonder where she got that from.
Who is Patricia Cornwell?
500
Fleming decided to take a break from Bond in 1961 with this fanciful four-wheeled tale, one where he got his inspiration from a series of aero-engined racing cars built in the early 1920s.
What is "Chitty-Chitty-Bang-Bang: The Magical Car?"
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