ROUND 2: Guess the Book With Help From the Library of Congress!

by Gillian Brassil · February 20, 2014

working-xerox
Please post your scores in the comments. HONOR SYSTEM, kids. Honor system! Only the nerdiest shall prevail. If you have a degree in library science, please assign yourself a two-point penalty. If you missed Round One, catch up here.

1. Brothers and sisters
Genetic engineering
War games

2. Murder victims
Millionaires
Islands
Devon (England)

3. Triangles (Interpersonal relations)
Illegitimate children
Women immigrants
Married women
Puritans
Adultery
Revenge
Clergy
Boston (Mass.)–History–Colonial period, ca. 1600-1775

4. Murder
Algeria

5. Astronauts
Astronautics

6. Igbo (African people)
British–Nigeria
Men–Nigeria
Race relations

7. Villages–France
France–Social life and customs–19th century

8. Compulsive behavior
Addicts

9. Vietnam War, 1961-1975–United States
Belief and doubt
Mothers–Death
Male friendship
Predestination
Birthfathers
Young men
Boys
New Hampshire

10. African American women
Women slaves
Infanticide
Ohio

11. Murder–Kansas–Case studies.

12. Fathers and daughters
Political refugees
Shipwreck victims
Magicians
Islands
Spirits

13. Religions
Conduct of life
Puberty

14. Beat generation

15. Juvenile delinquency
Homeless persons
Friendship
Buried treasure

16. Women–Georgia
Plantation life
Georgia–History–Civil War, 1861-1865

17. Passivity (Psychology)
Genetic engineering
Totalitarianism
Collectivism

18. Fate and fatalism
Reincarnation

19. People with mental disabilities
Gifted persons
Brain–Surgery

20. Industrial accidents
College teachers
Stepfamilies
Death
Middle West

21. Survival
Regression (Psychology)
Islands
Boys

22. Survival
Television programs
Interpersonal relations
Contests

23. African American women
Florida

24. Poets
Americans–Spain
Self-realization
Art and literature
Madrid (Spain)

25. Fathers and daughters
Race relations
Trials (Rape)
Girls
Southern States

***

Answers: (1) Ender’s Game (2) And Then There Were None (3) The Scarlet Letter (4) The Stranger (5) The Right Stuff (6) Things Fall Apart (7) In Search of Lost Time (Swann’s Way) (8) Infinite Jest (9) A Prayer for Owen Meany (10) Beloved (11) In Cold Blood (12) The Tempest (13) Are You There God? It’s Me, Margaret. (14) On the Road (15) Holes (16) Gone with the Wind (17) Brave New World (18) Cloud Atlas (19) Flowers for Algernon (20) White Noise (21) Lord of the Flies (22) The Hunger Games (23) Their Eyes Were Watching God (24) Leaving the Atocha Station (25) To Kill a Mockingbird


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95 Comments

    2. walkingthecow +2

      Doesn’t the majority of that volume take place in Paris? “Villages” totally threw me off.

  2. rallisaurus +19

    I’m a librarian, I’ve even cataloged a time or two, and I still only got the ones I’d read before. And not even all of those! Can we have a YA edition so I can actually get more than 1/3 of these? I’m starting to feel like a bad librarian!

    Felt pretty awesome about getting Gone with the Wind though. And The Stranger! Oh LC, never change.

    1. NotBob

      I’m a librarian too, and a cataloger (though not of fiction most of the time) and I only got 8 right. There were a few I should have guessed better though.

      2. deleted2845473 +6

        I guessed “The Giver,” and now am realizing that I don’t remember enough about either book to know how wrong I should feel

  4. bgprincipessa +15

    I got 8, which is okaaay I guess.
    For #22, I was convinced there must be a novelization of Survivor.

    2. dakimel +9

      I was sure #22 was Libba Bray’s BEAUTY QUEENS. (Which is so good, y’all.) (In audio it’s amazing, too.)

  6. Ophelia +11

    I got 9, missing some that in retrospect are glaringly obvious, and getting a few that were lucky guesses: “well, boys + New Hampshire MUST be Irving, so I’ll pick…that one.”

    1. Roman

      Ha, I love how obvious it is that number was Irving. I guessed Cider House Rules, which in hindsight is very dumb.

  8. 900ccs +2

    Assuming we’re not deducting points for wrong guesses, I got 7 which isn’t great but better than I did last time! (4, 6, 12, 14, 19, 21, 25)

    1. catoclock +7

      For 22 I wrote down “The Hunger Games/Battle Royale/The Long Walk????” There’s a surprisingly big field of books about televised survival contests, apparently.

    2. elsajeni +3

      I came up with The Running Man, too! I think, for ones like that where the same keywords suggest multiple books, it’s really hard to think of any others after the first one that occurs to you.

      1. elldubs +2

        True. And the “television programs” part kind of threw me off the Hunger Games scent. Obviously the games were broadcast for public consumption, but they didn’t really focus on the in-home viewing system that much. In the Running Man, the TVs themselves were a big part of the story.

      1. elldubs +2

        I didn’t know there was a film! I looked it up on Wikipedia, and assuming you’re talking about the ’87 Schwarzenegger movie, I feel pretty confident that the book is better.

        1. stuffisthings +4

          I mean, Stephen King is a pretty good writer, but I doubt that he has a great ear for Austro-American dialect.

  11. bastardsnow +2

    I got 10! But I’m a librarian, so, 8. Also, I knew #6, I ‘ve read 6, I couldn’t think of the name for 6, and then I thought the wrong name for #6. Ugh. So disappoint.

  12. momoulton22 +5

    Oh, god, I love these. A measly eleven, but some of my mistakes amused me… like I guess “My Antonia” for “White Noise.” Maybe I should reread that…

    Does anyone else remember the book about the boy (Slade? Slake?) who runs away and hides in the subway tunnels and finds a little room where he can make his home off one tunnel? I loved that book so much. I guessed it for 15 though I knew it would be wrong. Happy nostalgia though.

    1. wickedtongue +2

      Are you thinking of Shade’s Children, by Garth Nix? Because that’s the first thing that came to mind, but I don’t think that’s the name of the boy, and I can barely remember the plot other than runaways, dystopia, and maybe rebellion? Not sure.

  14. cosmia +5

    Aw, I got five, and it was only one’s I’d read 🙁

    Cloud Atlas made me smile because it is my boyfriend’s least favourite book and I imagine his would just read
    18. Stupid garbage face I hate you.

    1. Ophelia +5

      Hahahah. For me, Cloud Atlas would be tagged with, “Ugh, just give up and stop reading this by page 22.”

  15. rkfire +8

    I got 8.. I gave myself half points for being like “eh, that Camus book” for #4 and “some Kerouac book” for #14.

    My first thought for #1 was Ender’s Game, but I didn’t remember anything about brothers and sisters so.. damnit. I also can’t believe I didn’t catch Hunger Games for #24.

    1. KivrinEngle +6

      My first thought for #1 was Ender’s Game, but I thought I must be wrong because I still don’t remember anything in that book about genetic engineering…

        1. LeastBittern +3

          Bean, But it’s only revealed in future books. Ender is the result of a couple generations of selective breeding – also only clarified in later books.

          1. KivrinEngle +2

            Ah, okay. I remembered the kind of weird breeding issues with him being a “Third” and all…

  17. anon210 +3

    13. Like leapingrabbit, I missed White Noise even though I’ve read it. I didn’t really like it, though, so maybe that’s why I’ve mostly forgotten it.

    Guessed The Bluest Eye for #10. I must have read it in college, because the reason I remembered the Ohio connection is that the books mentions Lorain, the closest town to my little liberal-arts paradise. (That’s where Morrison is from, so no surprise that there’s an Ohio connection in more than one of her novels.) I did not remember any infanticide, though.

  18. antigonewiththewind +10

    15! Half of those were guesses for books I’ve never read but had vague ideas of what they were about, though. This is why I was good at Quiz Bowl/ am good at faking my way through conversations. And then I didn’t get Holes, which I’ve read a zillion times.

  19. heartstillatwar +4

    I love these! Even though I only got six of them. Really surprised that ‘Murder-Algeria’ wasn’t ‘Heart of Darkness.’

    1. leapingrabbit +8

      I’ve read Heart of Darkness three times and I remember almost nothing about it. So it could be. 😀

      1. heartstillatwar +6

        My biggest accomplishment in AP Lit was not acing the test, but the fact that I read ALL of ‘Heart of Darkness’ instead of skimming it. Only a few things stuck, however…

    3. robot_dinosaur +3

      That’s what I guessed too, because I couldn’t think of anything else. I’ve even read The Stranger! I think I forgot it was set in Algeria.

  20. ArsenioB_Ham +4

    I got 8, which is mostly shameful given my brace of literature degrees, but I was pleased to get “And Then There Were None” because I just read it last month and it’s the only Agatha Christie I’ve ever read in my 29 years on Earth.

    1. heartstillatwar +5

      That’s ok, because it’s the best Agatha Christie. (I imprinted hard on that book in middle school…)

  21. lemonadefish +2

    I got 6, 21, and 25. I guessed 24 was something Hemingway… There are only three more of these that I have read, so maybe I don’t feel too bad? Though I feel maybe I should have read more of them…

    1. lemonadefish +2

      Just went back and did part I; got two, missed five that I’ve read… I’m not very good at this game for a book nerd! Needs more scifi…

  23. greyhavens9 +2

    I got 7. And I feel rather dumb for not getting To Kill a Mockingbird.

    Also, I thought #24 was The Sun Also Rises.

  24. littlehuntingcreek +3

    I got 15. I really need to get out more. Husband got 6. Son, who is in senior year in college, also 15, but different ones. We both missed 23. He also thought 24 wss The Sun Also Rises- that hint does kind of sound like it.

  25. hex__10 +2

    15/25! Plus a couple author-only, flukily right guesses, but that doesn’t get points I suppose.

  27. tibia_ +1

    I got 13! And surprised myself on being correct about almost all of the ones I could guess, including a last-minute hail mary for “Then There Were None.”

  29. iarenivar +5

    I got 10, but kind of 11–maybe 10.5? I knew they were talking about “In Cold Blood” for number 11, but I just couldn’t think of the title. Do I have to take the penalty if I’m only in my first semester of library school? I’m also super mad about missing Holes, but tell me Huck Finn isn’t a terrible guess for that one (please).

    1. zizzivivizz +3

      I think I put Tom Sawyer for that one (isn’t that the one with the cave and the treasure? Or am I having a fit of the bad memory again?), so I’d say no, Huck Finn’s not terrible. Then again, I’m clearly biased in my own favor…

      1. iarenivar +2

        I couldn’t remember if there was buried treasure in Huck Finn, but it sounded like something that might be in there, and the rest of it kind of fit. In retrospect, Tom Sawyer probably would have been a better guess. I mean, still not right, but better.

    2. rusty +3

      I guessed Tom Sawyer (which iirc is the one with the cave with treasure in it), so you aren’t the only one, at least

  32. Ashdrastic +12

    I don’t know why but having only Beat Generation listed for Kerouac’s On the Road is deeply satisfying.

  33. rusty

    I got 15, but did distinctly worse on the books I’ve read — missing IJ, Owen Meany, Holes, Cloud Atlas, White Noise — than the ones I haven’t (incl Scarlet Letter, The Right Stuff, In Cold Blood)

  34. zizzivivizz +3

    I got 16! Including a couple I’ve never read (although I did miss White Noise, which I have read and loved. Time to re-read, clearly.) So all those people who told me a PhD in literature would never get me anywhere, SUCK IT.

    ::exultant chair-dancing::

  35. johannespunkt +1

    I got 7 right! This game is hard. (#1, #4, #6, #12, #21, #22, #25). I got momentarily upset when I read the answer to #14, because I thought I had just read that novel, but then I saw that there was an ‘On’ in the title too.

    1. stuffisthings +2

      How was 7 not Madam Bovary? I also feel like a deserve a half point on 6 for remembering the author but not the name of the book.

  38. Goatse Fanfiction +2

    Even after reading your key I am still convinced the one correct answer to #15 is Treasure Island.

  39. elsajeni +1

    13! (#1, 3, 4, 9-12, 16, 17, 19, 21, 23, 25.) And all but one of the ones I missed, I just drew a complete blank — nothing, no ideas, not even vague “maybe this author?” stuff. So the positive way of looking at that is, if I had any idea at all about what the book might be, I was almost always right! Woo!

  40. meetapossum +3

    I only got 6. How did I not get “White Noise?” There should be a “Grocery store” category for that one.

  42. highfivesforall

    I got 10 and I feel good about it. I did so much better than the last one, for sure. Are these only selected tags? I feel like the LoC should be able to come up with more than 2 for Infinite Jest (or maybe I’m just bitter because I guessed Choke for that one).

    Also thank you for this, such a fun game!

  43. inapartydress +6

    12. Poor showing!
    I maintain that #14 is Howl (if it’s On the Road, where are “road trips” and “insufferable,” eh?) and #17 could totally be The Giver.

  44. MsNormaDesmond +3

    I would have sworn that #22 was Charlie & the Chocolate Factory. Like, bet a lot of money on it.

    I guess I’ll go give my MLS back to Pratt now. See also: 7/25

  45. jihanchao +1

    I love this thing. I got 9. Of the ones I’ve read, I missed To Kill a Mockingbird and then I guessed correctly for a couple that I haven’t read (Beloved and The Hunger Games). I also thought #24 was The Sun Also Rises. Everything else I had no clue.

  46. mjcrom +8

    I have never commented on the Toast before (long-time lurker) but I got 14 and I am just so proud of myself!

  47. Katethekate

    I got 15 and feel pretty pleased. Would have been 16, but I confuse all Agatha Christie titles and thought it was a different one. ALTHOUGH. I worked at a used bookstore with no system of inventory whatsoever, so I’m pretty sure that even though I have no lib sci degree I still lose at least 2 points. And my answer for number 8 was sooooooo far from Infinite Jest that I think all of my answers might actually be disqualified now, and I should show myself quietly to the door.

  48. aks

    This was enormously fun! I got sixteen right: 1, 2, 3, 5, 7, 9, 10, 11, 12, 13, 14, 16, 17, 19, 21, 25. I thought Cloud Atlas was Life After Life, and 24 was something by Hemingway.

  49. wickedtongue

    I got 13, although with the librarian penalty it’s 11. I did even worse on the previous round. I second the request for a YA addition. I definitely guessed at what I know about plots, because I am ridiculously poorly read for a person who likes books.

  50. Anti_kate +1

    11! If I count that I couldn’t remember the title of The Tempest and instead wrote down “the one about Prospero and Caliban”.

  51. dirge

    I got 15 correct.
    My mind put the buried treasure from Tom Sawyer into Huckleberry Finn for #15.
    Haven’t read all of them, but I have read a ton of unfortunate high-school essays about most of them.

  53. honeybree

    This was so much fun! I got 11 – for number 22 I wrote (I was keeping track on a post-it) ‘Battle Royale/Hunger Games’ and I’m going to just go ahead and say it counts. I also guessed that 24 was something by Hemingway and am very disappointed in myself for not getting 18 because Cloud Atlas is one of my favorite books.

  54. Sam

    I’m saying 11…on #8 I went “I’d love it if that were IJ but there’s no way they would try to represent that book in three words”