(photo from here)
Every Monday night I’m easy to find: I’ll be at our local Irish pub playing Pub Quiz. What started out four years ago as just something to do on Monday evenings, has become an important part of my life in Brussels. It’s quality time with Andre and my best friend Ines (both also hard-core quizzers), it’s one reason to actually look forward to Mondays, and somehow it made me more “tuned-in” to what’s happening around me. Our pub also became our “Cheers”: a place where everybody knows your name and always reserves your favorite table.
We all have our specialities and mine are literature, art, Greek mythology and a back-up on pop culture. I’m also useful when we need to make apparently-random connections (e.g. “a dance, a sport, a building, a country… what’s next?”).
Once we had a whole round of naming the novel by its first sentence. A whole round on opening lines! It was a good night. I can still remember all of them:
- “It was the best of times, it was the worst of times…”
- “It was a bright, cold day in April and the clocks were striking thirteen.”
- “If you really want to hear about it, the first thing you’ll probably want to know is where I was born and what my lousy childhood was like, and how my parents were occupied and all before they had me, and all that David Copperfield kind of crap, but I don’t feel like going into it, if you want to know the truth.”
- “Marley was dead, to begin with.”
- “Many years later, as he faced the firing squad, Colonel Aureliano Buendía was to remember that distant afternoon when his father took him to discover ice.
- “It was seven o’clock of a very warm evening in the Seeonee hills when Father Wolf woke up from his day’s rest, scratched himself, yawned, and spread out his paws one after the other to get rid of the sleepy feeling in their tips.”
- “In a hole in the ground there lived a hobbit.”
- “It was a pleasure to burn.”
- “It was love at first sight.”
- “Mr and Mrs Dursley, of number four Privet Drive, were proud to say that they were perfectly normal, thank you very much.”
I’m fascinated by opening lines and if you’re like me and love to be quizzed on them, this is the place to go. I could also spend hours on literary quizzes, like this and this.
Last night I was lucky enough to have 5 juicy book questions. They were:
- Who wrote the 1937 novel Of Mice and Men? Check!
- What do these three things have in common: a novel by Stephen King, a hit by Europe and Start Wars? Check!
- Who was the biggest villain in Harry Potter and the Order of the Phoenix (apart from Voldemort)? Check!
- What was the nationality of the poet Yeats? Check!
- Who wrote the fairy tale Hans and Gretel? Wrong! I said Hans Christensen Anderson. 😦
These type of questions really make my quiz night. Just like winning the brown piece at Trivial. Do you also like playing Trivial Pursuit? We sometimes have intense games with friends that have been known to end in neighbours knocking on our door asking us to quiet down. Neighbours who live across the street…
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August 17, 2010 at 4:58 pm
Steph
How fun! I’ve gone to trivia nights here in Nashville a few times and the book questions are definitely my favourite! Same goes for Trivial Pursuit – I’m rubbish at a lot of the categories (like Sports and History), but I’m a force to be reckoned with when it comes to literature. I was able to answer most of those opening line ones, though there were a few I’m sure I’ve never read.
August 18, 2010 at 2:49 pm
Alex
I’m terrible at Sport and only get the orange piece at Trivial because it’s also about Leisure and sometimes there a food question. Those are also fun!
August 17, 2010 at 8:23 pm
Nymeth
I love games like Trivial Pursuit (and dream of getting the book lovers edition one day), but sadly I can never convince anyone to play with me! *starts daydreaming of throwing a literary trivial pursuit party at the Book Bloggers Con* 😛
August 18, 2010 at 2:47 pm
Alex
Now that’s an idea! I have the game BookChase (www.bookchase.info), but somehow never really got into it. I’ll bring it to the Convention, together with my “So you think you know Jane Austen?” trivia book.
August 17, 2010 at 9:40 pm
leeswammes
That sounds like such good fun! What a great way to spend an evening.
I LOVE trivial Pursuit but haven’t played it for ages. Literature and Geography are my strengths. I’m very bad at Entertainment and Sports.
August 18, 2010 at 2:45 pm
Alex
We’re very serious about our games of Trivial! We’ve been planning a champioship for ages.
August 19, 2010 at 11:13 am
bookgazing
I’m a pub quiz girl too, but yours sound better than ours, much more varied questions. Our quiz always seem to be asking us about cricketers of the 1970s, or name 5 darts players (and between us we know one).
I bet you could get a game going at the Con. Or even a quiz at the dinner – lots of conferences have those.
September 8, 2010 at 3:48 am
stentorpub
Hi Alex,
I just discovered your great blog today (via 2,606 Books and Counting…) and had to comment on this post, even though it’s a couple weeks old now. I am a total pub/bar trivia addict, and as I’m sure you know from your own experience being an avid reader is certainly a plus. We have several “live” trivia games in town, but I’m also a regular player on the Buzztime Trivia Network, which has a few dozen participating locations in town. Don’t know if there’s anything like that over there, but it’s a great ancillary activity while you’re “blowing the froth off a couple…”
-Jay
September 8, 2010 at 7:39 pm
Alex
Hi there, good to meet another quiz lover. If you’re ever in the city please let me know. Unfortunately Buzztime hasn’t reached Brussels yet, but looking into the website it does look very tempting.
I know what you mean about the ancillary activity. We usually call it our zen time 🙂