The Penguin Book Quiz

The Penguin Book Quiz

From The Very Hungry Caterpillar to Ulysses – The Perfect Gift!

Summary

LOOKING FOR A GIFT FOR THE BOOKWORM IN YOUR LIFE? THIS QUIZ BOOK IS IT!

Which Haruki Murakami novel shares its title with a Beatles song?
In Roald Dahl's Charlie and the Chocolate Factory, what is Charlie's surname?
What is heavy-drinking Rachel Watson known as in the title of a 21st-century bestseller?

And what do you get if you add the number of Bennet sisters in Jane Austen's Pride and Prejudice to the number of Karamazov brothers in Fyodor Dostoevsky's The Brothers Karamazov?

With four hundred questions covering books from literary classics to modern bestsellers, through iconic children's books and books you say that you've read but really you haven't, The Penguin Book Quiz is as appropriate for making you look well-read at a party as it is for a book-loving family to tuck into after Christmas dinner: it's as enjoyable to read as it is to play.

Featuring the work of everyone from Antony Beevor to Zadie Smith, books from The Very Hungry Caterpillar to Ulysses, and with movie, music, television, theatre and literary references abounding, this entertaining quiz tickles the fancy (and the brains) of light and heavy readers alike.

Answers:
- Norwegian Wood
- Bucket
- The Girl on the Train
- Eight (five sisters, three brothers)

'Unceasingly enormous fun' Alan Connor, author of The Joy of Quiz

'I'll definitely be buying copies of this book as gifts' Emma Healey, author of Elizabeth is Missing

'The greatest social lubricant since the invention of alcohol' John Preston, author of A Very English Scandal

Reviews

  • Tip: Start the day with a quiz. My long-suffering partner bought me James Walton's The Penguin Book Quiz for Christmas. It wakes you up, gives you a laugh and makes you feel like you're not wasting your time, because you're learning things
    Jacqueline Wilson, The Sunday Times

About the author

James Walton

James Walton has written and hosted 17 series of BBC Radio 4's books quiz, The Write Stuff. He also writes questions for BBC2's Only Connect and contributes a weekly quiz to the FT Weekend magazine. He is the books editor of Reader's Digest and reviews books for the Spectator, The Times, Guardian, Daily Mail, Daily Telegraph and The New York Review of Books. His previous books are The Faber Book of Smoking and Sonnets, Bonnets and Bennetts: A Literary Quiz Book.
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