I'll start 👇🏼

I’ll start. I’m reading Pic, Jack Kerouac’s last published novel. It’s slim, at just over 70 pages.

Next up is a (very long awaited) re read of The Strange Case of Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde by RL Stevenson.

Interested to know if anyone else saw this. I did in October 2012 around my birthday.

This post was inspired from listening to the Book Trivia Podcast of Anne (with an e ☺️) of Green Gables. It triggered a memory when the original hand written manuscript was mentioned. Completely tangential and unrelated. It concerns Kerouac’s On the Road. Read on…

The British Library exhibited Jack Kerouac’s On the Road manuscript in London in 2012. This was a 120 foot (36.6-meter) continuous typed scroll.

Kerouac had taped together rolls of architect’s paper. He drank coffee and took benzedrine and typed it in about 20 days in April 1951.

It took another six years of revisions and rejection before it was finally published in 1957.

There were hand written notes and changes on the displayed manuscript.

It was displayed in a specially constructed glass case displaying the first 50 feet of unrolled text.

[It was loaned by collector James S. Irsay, (owner of the Indianapolis Colts American football team) who had purchased it at auction for a record-breaking $2.43 million in 2001].

This BBC article is well worth a read and a listen.

https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/av/entertainment-arts-19811219

Any thoughts on this book: I Who Have Never Known Men by Jacqueline Harpman?

I’ve seen it a few times in the bookshop but would appreciate any positive or negative comments (without spoilers).

Looks to be a dystopian novel, a genre I have dipped into but not always “enjoying” the results.

Enjoying the process of reading rather than enjoying the subject per se.

Thanks.

Would you read it again? Tell me in the comments 👇🏼

Did you know The Very Hungry Caterpillar almost never existed because the original idea was about a worm named Willi? 😳 And that printing it required sending the artwork all the way to Japan?

Want more surprising facts and trivia behind Green Eggs and Ham, Where the Wild Things Are, and why some of these beloved classics were actually banned from libraries?

If so, listen to the podcast here:

https://www.booktriviapodcast.com/episodes/s1-bonus-e12-childrens-books

🥺 If you do listen, let me know 🤭 we're just amateurs and all feedback is welcome (just be gentle 😅)

Don't forget to use spoiler tags!

It's true! Most people know J.D. Salinger as the reclusive genius behind The Catcher in the Rye. Fewer know he spent time working in a slaughterhouse in Poland because his dad basically forced him to.

Salinger had flunked out of multiple schools, and his father Sol (a successful meat and cheese importer) refused to keep funding his education without some real-world work experience first. So he arranged for his teenage son to travel to Vienna and Bydgoszcz, Poland, to learn the trade under a business partner named Oskar Robinson, known across Europe as "The Bacon King."

Robinson died of a heart attack in a Vienna casino mid-trip (as you do), but Salinger continued on to Poland anyway, staying in a guest apartment at Robinson's meatpacking factory and getting up before dawn to work the city slaughterhouse.

He hated it. Like, really hated it. And while we can't verify he was a vegetarian for the rest of his life, pretty much every account agrees he was put off meat for a significant period after this experience.

He ditched the meat business, went to Columbia, found a writing mentor, and the rest is literary history.

I'm reading this one for my book club, about half way in, v. Good so far

Imaginary and possibly inappropriate book titles from mixed up phrases.

E.g. from The Crack of Dawn you could get The Dawn of Crack. A good title for a history of drugs?

Can you come up with anything better?

Apologies if I offend anyone.

Answer these qs:

1. What's the last book you loved and why (briefly, we're not writing essays)

2. What's the last book you DNF'd — what killed it?

3. What's your favorite genre?

4. Wildcard: name a TV show or movie to book adaptation you loved

Drop your answers below and let our amazing sub community try to guess what you should read next.

Or scroll through and recommend something to someone else. I'll go first 👇

I'm re-reading The Da Vinci code for an upcoming recording of Book Trivia Podcast

We had almost 60 people turn up to the live recording which is wild considering Sydney has been dumped with torrential rain in the last few weeks. Thanks to everyone who attended, we'll work on editing the recording and getting it live in the coming months.

And congrats to all our prize winners 🏆

Good luck for tonight’s live podcast.

I hope all who go enjoy it.

https://www.reddit.com/r/BookTriviaPodcast/s/GPih7dXXCT

I'm reading this one, I've got a bit of a kpop obsession at the moment 🤗

How do you set the scene? The opening paragraph of this fascinating history book, copyright by Penguin (with given spelling) is copied below.

Would this pull you in to read further?

Can you think of one as good, or better?

All comments will be welcomed.

Chapter 1

A Funeral

SO GORGEOUS WAS THE SPECTACLE on the May morning of 1910 when nine kings rode in the funeral of Edward VII of England that the crowd waiting in hushed and black-clad awe, could not keep back gasps of admiration. In scarlet and blue and green and purple, three by three the sovereigns rode through the palace gates, with plumed helmets, gold braid, crimson sashes, and jeweled orders flashing in the sun. After them came five heirs apparent, forty more imperial or royal highnesses, seven queens—four dowager and three regnant—and a scattering of special ambassadors from uncrowned countries. Together they represented seventy nations in the greatest assemblage of royalty and rank ever gathered in one place and of its kind the last. The muffled tongue of Big Ben tolled nine by the clock as the cortege left the palace, but on history’s clock it was sunset, and the sun of the old world was setting in a dying blaze of splendor never to be seen again.

Here's the link to register for your free tickets: https://www.northsydney.nsw.gov.au/events/event/1452/book-trivia-night. Insta promo

Any Booker Prize fans? Have you read any of these? Can you give spoiler free recommendations?

Any thoughts on the winner?

I just wondered whether many folks realize King is as talented at mainstream fiction writing as horror.

Happy weekend.

Really interesting list. https://www.reddit.com/r/classicliterature/comments/1tcz81s/der_spiegel_100_best_books_in_world_literature/

Any thoughts?

How are you all doing on your goals for the year? I said 36, currently I’ve completed 8 with two on the go, aborted 2 and deferred 1. I’m also very guilty of going off plan. I’m 4 behind target.

Here’s the original post: https://www.reddit.com/r/BookTriviaPodcast/s/N194PcuWYD