The fifth annual Festival of Books will take place virtually on Saturday, Aug. 21, 10 a.m.-5 p.m. For information about this bibliophilic event, click sdfestivalofbooks.com.
Honoring this great cultural event, I share with you a quiz of “Perfect Matches,” from my bouncing baby book, Richard Lederer’s Ultimate Book of Literary Trivia.
Match each real or imaginary person in the left-hand column with his or her perfect literary title in the right-hand column. Let’s start with a cast of imaginary people, such as Apollo, The Sun Also Rises; King Midas, Goldfinger; and Barney the Dinosaur, The Color Purple.
1. Captain Ahab … Arms and the Man
2. Ben-Hur … The Big Sleep
3. Bugs Bunny … Chariots of Fire
4. Chicken Little … A Farewell to Arms
5. Count Dracula … Fences
6. Lemuel Gulliver … For Whom the Bell Tolls
7. Lady Macbeth … Giant
8. Popeye … The Jungle
9. Hester Prynne … The King Must Die
10. Quasimodo … Magnificent Obsession
11. Tom Sawyer … Marley and Me
12. Ebenezer Scrooge … Rabbit Run
13. Tarzan … The Red Badge of Courage
14. Rip Van Winkle … Skyfall
15. Venus de Milo … White Fang
Answers
1. Magnificent Obsession; 2. Chariots of Fire; 3. Rabbit Run; 4. Skyfall; 5. White Fang;
6. Marley; 7. The King Must Die; 8. Arms and the Man; 9. The Red Badge of Courage; 10. For Whom the Bell Tolls;
11. Fences; 12. Marley and Me; 13. The Jungle; 14. The Big Sleep; 15. A Farewell to Arms.
Now match each real-life person with his or her perfect book title. Examples: Yogi Berra, Catcher in the Rye, and Amelia Earhart, Gone Girl.
1. John and Priscilla Alden … The Birds
2. Louis Armstrong … Black Beauty
3. Neil Armstrong … The Bluest Eye
4. Benedict Arnold … The Boys in the Band
5. John James Audubon … Brave New World
6. The Beatles … The Cherry Orchard
7. Jeff Bezos … Come Blow Your Horn
8. Camilla Parker Bowles … Crime and Punishment
9. Al Capone … Deliverance
10. Christopher Columbus … An Enemy of the People
11. Thomas Crapper … Game of Thrones
12. Euclid … The Good Earth
13. Anthony Fauci … The Grapes of Wrath
14. W.C. Fields … Heart of Darkness
15. Benjamin Franklin … The Hitchhiker’s Guide to the Galaxy
16. Jane Goodall … The Iceman Cometh
17. Wayne Gretzky … Jaws
18. Harry and Meghan … The Kite Runner
19. Adolf Hitler … Life of Pi
20. Jay Leno … Lord of the Flies
21. Bruno Mars and Venus Williams … Love Story
22. Willie Mays … Men Are From Mars, Women Are From Venus
23. Mona Lisa … Moonwalk
24. Moses … The Once and Future King
25. John Muir … The Pilgrim’s Progress
26. Elvis Presley … The Plague
27. Frank Sinatra … Planet of the Apes
28. Neil deGrasse Tyson … The Portrait of a Lady
29. George Washington … Travels with Charley
30. Vanessa Williams … Up from Slavery
Answers
1. Pilgrim’s Progress; 2. Come Blow Your Horn; 3. Moonwalk; 4. An Enemy of the People; 5. The Birds;
6. The Boys in the Band; 7. Deliverance; 8. Travels With Charley; 9. Crime and Punishment; 10. Brave New World;
11. Game of Thrones; 12. Life of Pi; 13. The Plague; 14. The Grapes of Wrath; 15. The Kite Runner;
16. Planet of the Apes; 17. The Iceman Cometh; 18. Love Story; 19. Heart of Darkness; 20. Jaws;
21. Men Are From Mars, Women Are From Venus; 22. Lord of the Flies; 23. The Portrait of a Lady; 24. Up From Slavery; 25. The Good Earth;
26. The Once and Future King; 27. The Bluest Eye; 28. The Hitchhiker’s Guide to the Galaxy; 29. The Cherry Orchard; 30. Black Beauty.
