This is not a literacy test. If you are a well-read person and you don’t know the answers, don’t worry – it only means we have been reading different books. Then you can check out these books. The answers will appear in my blog, jessicarulestheuniverse.com, on Monday, December 25.
Which author wrote a series of short story collections and a novel set in Cubao?
In this book, Benedict Anderson asserts that Jose Rizal’s writing was influenced by anarchism. Name the book.
Which short story by Nick Joaquin was filmed as Tatarin?
What novel by STAR columnist Krip Yuson was set in the St. Louis World Exposition of 1904?
A new translation of Noli Me Tangere was recently published by Penguin Classics. What is the translator’s name?
The Katipunero general Artemio Ricarte wrote a fascinating autobiography. What was his nom de guerre?
What is the title of the first anthology of erotica written by Filipino women? (It was published in 1992.)
"Dead Stars" is one of the first published Filipino stories in English. Who wrote it?
The title of this groundbreaking gay anthology is now the name of the gay, lesbian, and transgendered Filipino political party. What is it?
Whose short story was adapted into the Nicolas Roeg film, Don’t Look Now?
Daniel Day-Lewis plays an English twit who gets dumped by the heroine in the film version of E.M. Forster’s novel. What is the title of the book and movie?
What poem by e.e. cummings is recited in Woody Allen’s Hannah and Her Sisters?
The line "Eternal sunshine of the spotless mind" is taken from whose poem?
Which book of the Old Testament is quoted in PT Anderson’s film Magnolia?
Luchino Visconti’s magnificent film The Leopard was based on the novel by this Italian nobleman. What was his name?
What is the title of the book Hugh Grant is reading in the last scene of Notting Hill? (It was also made into a movie. A terrible one.)
The narrator of this Mark Haddon novel has Asperger’s syndrome. What is the title of the novel?
Who is The English Patient in Michael Ondaatje’s novel of the same title?
This Irish author had cerebral palsy, which did not stop him from boozing, brawling, and writing My Left Foot. What was his name?
Dostoevsky’s hero in The Idiot spent many years in an institution because of this ailment. What is the ailment?
The all-knowing cat in the title role of this short story by Saki (H.H. Munro).
Merlin’s owl in T.H. White’s The Once and Future King.
Who’s the guy in Franz Kafka’s story who wakes up one day to find himself transformed into a cockroach?
What is the title of the short novel by Evelyn Waugh set in a pet cemetery?
Name at least three of the Glass children in J.D. Salinger’s stories. (Bonus points if you can name all of them, extra bonus points if you give the titles of the stories in which they are the main protagonists.)
What was the name of King Arthur’s evil sister in The Once and Future King?
Which House emerged triumphant at the end of Frank Herbert’s Dune?
Why did Clytemnestra kill Agamemnon?
Who is the pastry chef in Cyrano de Bergerac who loves poetry and feeds freeloading poets?
This early play by Shakespeare features cannibalism.
What is the title of that Roald Dahl story in which the murder weapon is a frozen leg of lamb?
In this novel by Chuck Palahniuk, the protagonist frequently requires the Heimlich maneuver in restaurants.
Holden Caulfield was the manager of which team at Pencey Prep?
In The Great Gatsby, Nick Carraway was dating Jordan who played what sport?
In The Age of Innocence, Newland Archer’s wife May dabbled in what sport?
This Nabokov novel about a chess grandmaster was sometimes published as The Defense. What is its slightly longer title?