May 17 2011
Apt Authors
After the rigours of last week, turning our major cities into some monster clues, let’s take a change in pace, and wander into the local library. This week we need to pick an actual book title, and nominate a fitting author. You may just go for pun (always encouraged), or bio-gag, or maybe some other aptness you detect. Here’s a glimpse:
Fahrenheit 451 by Bram Stoker
Butcher Boy by Raymond Carver
1984 by Gretel Killeen
Holidays in Hell by Schapelle Corby
The Queen by Elton John
What Colour is Your Parachute? by Graham Greene
The Postman Always Rings Twice by Norman Mailer
Naturally this idea could spark a bonfire of match-ups, so let’s apply some DIY filtering and celebrate the best in the forum below. We could be forgiven for straying into filmdom (a-la that Queen example), since so many films become books etc, but I’d like to keep things more bookish than cineplex. Plays are fine too. Kid stuff. DIY. Non-fiction. Just think more shelf than box office, if you can, since movies are a separate maze.
Come judgement day, I’ll be looking for the freshest wordplay, or smartest bio-links, while avoiding the more obvious tangents, a-la that queenly Elton example again.
So with Thursday sundown as your deadline, let’s aim towards a weekend list of 20 bestsellers. I’ll also single out 3,2,1 for the pick of the pairings. Wits aroused? Go for a browse.
Comments
RK — 17 May at 12:14PM
Love this concept, DA. Here are two to get the ball rolling:
The Importance of Being Earnest - Hemingway
Great Expectations - Barack Obama
RK — 17 May at 12:21PM
Two plays for two leaders:
Macbeth by Julia Gillard
Much Ado About Nothing by Tony Abbott
JPR — 17 May at 12:59PM
Breaker Morant: A Play in Two Acts, by Evelyn Waugh
Boniface — 17 May at 01:18PM
Red Riding Hood by Pauline Hanson
SK — 17 May at 01:25PM
Pride and Prejudice, also by Pauline Hanson
Boniface — 17 May at 01:34PM
The Uncommercial Traveller by Julia Gillard
Mr X — 17 May at 01:41PM
It's a homophone but:
Remembrance of Things Past by Umberto Eco
JPR — 17 May at 01:43PM
The Nipping Shoes, by Rev William Spooner (etc)
The Master Builder, by James Joist (or Johann Girder)
RK — 17 May at 01:49PM
The Woman in White by Kate Middleton
Boniface — 17 May at 01:51PM
Love's Labour's Lost by Barry O'Farrell
Mauve — 17 May at 02:18PM
Housekeeping by Laura Norman/Andrassy
DC — 17 May at 02:21PM
A Farewell to Arms, by Shakespeare
And the Ass Saw the Angel, by Tom Cruise
Someone must have done that first one before. And I'm sure the second could be interpreted in various ways.
Does everyone know "The Man Who Melted Jack Dann"? Based on an actual book spine, it's a game to match up the title and author of a book in a way that (sort of) makes sense.
LR — 17 May at 03:27PM
So Long, and Thanks for All the Fish
-By Salman Rushdie
SK — 17 May at 03:38PM
Dangerous Liaisons, by Dominique Strauss-Kahn
SK — 17 May at 03:40PM
A trilogy from Lily Serna-
The Power of One
The Life of Pi
The Story of O
DA — 17 May at 03:42PM
Middlemarch by Julius Caesar
How Green Was My Valley by Shannon Lush
The Life of Pi by Lily Serna
DA — 17 May at 03:42PM
What are the odds??! (And we need Lily to calculate them!)
SK — 17 May at 03:50PM
Wow, that's bizarre.
So DA, you haven't read her two other books?
DA — 17 May at 03:52PM
No, but I can recommend One Fish, Two Fish, Three Fish, Blue Fish.
JPR — 17 May at 03:59PM
The Hunchback of Notre Dame, by Lara Bingle [anag] [almost]
or shld that be
Hcnuheht of Notre Dame
LR — 17 May at 04:00PM
Tomb Raider II
- By Richard Morecroft
(apologies for straying into the film zone)
Boniface — 17 May at 04:13PM
Tigerlily's Orchids by Michael Hutchence
Mauve — 17 May at 04:38PM
Brideshead Revisited, by Prince William
Catch 22, by Desmond Tutu
The Sun/Son Also Rises, by Gary Ablett Junior
It, by Him
Heart Of Darkness, by K.N.
The Magus, by Micky Maltus
SK — 17 May at 04:59PM
Nice Catch 22, Mauve. I was trying to think of something along the cricketing lines, but that's a much better tack. And Bon's tribute to NSW politics made me laugh.
IC — 17 May at 05:21PM
The 10pm Question - Tony Jones
IC — 17 May at 05:24PM
Around the World in 80 Days - Kevin Rudd
IC — 17 May at 05:31PM
The Lord of the Rings - PT Barnum
DA — 17 May at 06:45PM
@Kaz, who's counting? (No, you're quite right. I was carried away by the music of numbers...)
Invisible Man by Anon
Howard's End by Kevin Rudd
Portnoy's Complaint by Philip Pullman
RV — 17 May at 06:55PM
The Lovely Bones by Tim Flannery or Fido Dogstoevsky (I remember seeing Snoopy reading Crime and Punishment by him).
RV — 17 May at 07:24PM
Men are from Mars, women are from Venus by Stephen Hawking.
RK — 17 May at 08:02PM
White Teeth by William Colgate
David Copperfield by Harry Houdini
The Quiet American by Oxy Moron
Hard Times by Anthony Douglas & RK
AK — 17 May at 08:49PM
Much Ado About Nothing by Jerry Seinfeld
LR — 17 May at 09:08PM
Combining my favourite book with one of my favourite authors results in a tenuously homophonic nominee:
The Dice Man
by Roald Dahl
RV — 17 May at 09:31PM
Of mice and men: BJ Skinner
Revolutionary Road: Dora the Explorer
On The Road: Arthur Miller (prequel to Death of a Salesman)
Anthony Douglas — 17 May at 10:03PM
@RK - you raised a chuckle.
Based on what we're reading the kids at the moment...
The Two Towers - Sorry for the bad taste, but surely this has to go to Osama
Five Get Into Trouble - the Spice Girls
The Never-Ending Story -
(sic)
RK — 17 May at 10:17PM
The Portrait of a Lady by Leonardo da Vinci
The First Men in the Moon by Neil Armstrong & Buzz Aldrin
Kidnapped by Charles Lindbergh Jr
A Doll's House by Barbie
Oliver Twist by Revilo
RK — 17 May at 10:19PM
Metamorphoses by Eric Carle
PRS — 17 May at 11:46PM
Here's a bunch, all from the same original author:
The Fourth K by The Ku Klux Klan
The Godfather by Jesus of Nazareth
The Dark Arena by Carbon Tax
Fools Die by Suicide Bomber
The Family by Gomez and Morticia Addams
The Fortunate Pilgrim by Godfrey of Bouillon, Duke of Lorraine
ML — 17 May at 11:52PM
Around the world in 80 days - Charles Atlas
Lord of the Flies - Elias Howe
To Kill a Mockingbird - Hunter Thompson
My Brilliant Career - Thomas Edison
AK — 18 May at 06:57AM
Going Solo by Harrison Ford
DC — 18 May at 08:32AM
An Aussie YA author collection:
The Story of O, by Garth Nix
Fight Club, by Shaun Tan
Ship of Fools, by Gary Crew
The Martian Chronicles, by John Marsden
Oedipus Rex, by Libby Gleeson
and the film
Bottle Shock, by Robin Klein (maths joke)
RK — 18 May at 08:41AM
The Curious Incident of the Dog in the Night-Time by Lindy Chamberlain
AS — 18 May at 10:40AM
RK, that was a classic.
Mine pale in comparison:
Blindness by Borges
Infinite Jest by Robin Williams
Invitation to a Beheading by Marie Antoinette or Oliver Cromwell
The Lady with the Little Dog by Paris Hilton
King Lear by Norman Mailer
Simon L — 18 May at 01:04PM
I believe the word for the Serna incident in the comments above is ninja'd...
And Then There Were None - Nick Clegg autobiography (to be published after the next UK election).
A Brief History of Time - Peter Cundall
RK — 18 May at 01:40PM
Sybil by Prunella Scales
What Katy Did by Russell Brand
A Series of Unfortunate Events by Karl Stefanovic
JPR — 18 May at 02:46PM
Huldra by Mary Shelley
[fwiw, opinions will differ but i thought RK's was well over the offensive line]
JPR — 18 May at 03:14PM
The Dragoman, by J. Steerforth
usw
DC — 18 May at 03:20PM
Advertising For Dummies, by Clive Barker and Stephen Hawking
Simon L — 18 May at 04:16PM
The Secret Garden, by Casey Stoner
Simon L — 18 May at 04:21PM
The Merry Wives of Windsor, by Fergie
Simon L — 18 May at 04:24PM
Paradise Lost, also by Fergie
DA — 18 May at 04:26PM
Keeping things literary:
Shipping News by Raymond Chandler
The Road by Angela Carter
30-Minute Meals by Gary Disher
Time's Arrow by Jeffery Archer
Mauve — 18 May at 05:20PM
Never Say Die, by Salman Rush---
Truth, by Graham Richardson
Chopper, by Jack O'Toole
The Slap, by Zsa Zsa Gabor
Ivanhoe, by Glen Waverley
JPR — 18 May at 06:34PM
White Fang by Voltaire
JPR — 18 May at 06:35PM
The Constant Gardener by Diderot
JPR — 18 May at 06:39PM
Diderot also wrote 'A Tale of Two Cities'
Mr X — 18 May at 08:15PM
Sticking to actual authors:
The Rivals by Jasper Fforde and Kate Holden
The Kamasutra by H.P. Lovecraft
Paul Bunyan by Henry Longfellow
Cat on a Hot Tin Roof by Robbie Burns
The Beach by the Bronte sisters (Victorian readers can use their nom de plumes - the Bells)
and a homophone:
Remembrance of Things Past by Umberto Eco
LR — 18 May at 08:19PM
Mr X, i think Mary Shelley also co-wrote The Beach
DA — 18 May at 08:59PM
That's astounding X - Brontes and Bells, what a lovely littoral fluke. While Lovecraft is hot.
Though DC's Story of O (Garth Nix) was a gem as well.
Boniface — 19 May at 01:14AM
The God Delusion by Shaun Diviney
Peta — 19 May at 09:01AM
Dune by George Sand
RK — 19 May at 09:57AM
Birdsong by Lewis Carroll
Silent Spring by HG Wells
Perfume by Christian Dior
Danny the Champion of the World by Danny Green
The Alchemist by William Golding
JD — 19 May at 11:02AM
The Three little Pigs by Virginia Woolf
Cinderella by Beatrice and Eugenie
JPR — 19 May at 05:28PM
Don't Look Now by Samuel Pepys
The Admirable Crichton by Jeremy Irons (and Walt Disney)
Tender is the Night by Sir Grahame Greene [only he wasnt]
CF — 25 May at 10:34PM
All the Pretty Horses - Sarah Jessica Parker
The Time Traveller's Wife - Tracy Pollan
A Handful of Dust - Charlie Sheen
Cryptonomicon by David Astle
DA — 25 May at 10:41PM
Welcome CF - and don't be shy. Plenty of wit and wiseacre opportunities on this blog to come, including the next few Storms where real-life tangible prizes will be up for grabs.