Book Trivia Board Game

Here is a great “gifts for book lovers” that I stumbled upon: It Was a Dark and Stormy Night, is a book trivia board game all about books.

book trivia game

I haven’t played this one yet, but it sounds like something I’d enjoy. Basically, you and your friends move around the board while trying to identify books by their opening lines or book covers.

It Was a Dark and Stormy Night has been for sale via a few sites around the interwebs for a while. The price floats around the $30 mark. A few of the book trivia categories are:

  • novels
  • poetry
  • mysteries
  • children’s books
  • science fiction
  • books made into movies

I have to admit that identifying a book simply by its opening line sounds tough, but maybe it’s all multiple choice. That’d be better.

Good luck and let me know if you’ve played It Was a Dark and Stormy Night. I’d like to know if it’s as fun as I want it to be.

Google Explore For Book Lovers

Last week Google launched a new search feature for their Google+ social network. Basically, it adds groupings, tags, etc. and makes the network all searchable so that you can skim through all of the content generated on Google+.

So what’s the first thing I did? I did a few simple searches through Google Explore to see if I could find any books and book-related content that was of interest. I really wasn’t looking for people “curating” (like pinterest or tumblr), but for real content that harkened back to the days of book blog rings and such.

So I clicked on the “Explore” button up top…

google explore book search

and searched for “Books”. I was thankful for the Google Explore displayed all of the books-related tags that I could follow and check out.

google explore books

Early on I found these not worth following because of all the ads, spam and sales pitches:

  • #free
  • #eBooks
  • #kindle
  • #kindlebooks
  • #author

The rabbit holes I really enjoyed falling down through Google Explore were:

  • #Reading
  • #BookReview
  • #AuthorInterview
  • #BookLovers (the best of the bunch)

google explore book lovers

As you can see, once you click on #BookLovers you’re presented with a whole new slate of sub-categories and tags to click through. As new as the feature is (and as under-used as Google+ is) it’s not hard to quickly separate the signal from the noise and find folks worth following. From there it’s a single-click to add them to a new (or old) circle to keep up with them.

When I next have a few free moments I’m going to click around with category, subject and book genre searches. Hopefully those will yield more leads to books worth reading. So check it out and let me know if you find any bookish folks worth following.

Fight Club Sequel Finished

Chuck Palahniuk said yesterday that he has finished his Fight Club sequel and sent it to a publisher for review. I’m glad to hear that Tyler Durden is still clicking along with his reboot society sentiment.

All we know at this point is that Palahniuk’s Fight Club sequel takes place 10 years after the big implosion at the end of the first book and that Tyler is stuck in Jack and bored in the suburbs, ready to make a comeback!

Fight Club cover

Though I have to admit that I’m a little bummed that the story is planned as a seven issue graphic novel release and not as a comprehensive novel/novella. Maybe that will change if things take off for Tyler and crew again? Of course, according to a quote in that Guradian article, Palahniuk is stressed about the graphic novel format and the implications it has on story telling. I’m just curious: I wonder how long of a straight-text book a 210 graphic novel converts into? I’ll have to look up some math on that.

I’m anxious to see what impact Durden (and the books) have, on the world.

Book Trivia Quizzes

If you like book trivia, here is a quick classic novel quiz with just 17 questions (and it’s multiple choice!). All you have to do is read the opening line from a classic novel and then check the box of the book you think it came from.

book trivia

Your score is tallied at the end with all of the wrong answers in red and the correct answers showing up with green boxes.

I missed 7 of them. I’ve never been very good at “opening lines” quizzes, but I do enjoy taking them. I just never really pay attention to opening lines, though I know there are some great ones. It’s definitely something I want to pay closer attention to. Trivia is always fun, but it’s even better when all the questions are book-related.

book trivia quizup appAlso, if you haven’t played it yet, there is a new app out called QuizUp (it’s only on iOS right now, but an Android app is coming). It has a Literature category with 27 sub-categories and more being added weekly. This is waaaaay too much fun and I’ve lost waaaaaay too much of my life to this game. Some of the book trivia subcategories are General Lit, Classical Lit, Batman comics, Twilight, Science Fiction, Harry Potter, and the Hunger Games.

Anyway, chime in with how you did on the 17 question book trivia Classic Novel Quiz game.

Books, Publishing and Birmingham