Question: The 1994 murder of a 14-year-old girl for ritualistic purposes in Botswana inspired the first book of what best-selling series?
Answer: The No. 1 Ladies' Detective Agency by Alexander McCall Smith

Question: Duc de Blangis, the Bishop, the Président de Curval and Durcet are the four libertines who seek extreme gratification by isolating themselves with a harem in the castle of Saint-Martin-de-Belleville, France in what controversial 1785 book?
Answer: The 120 Days of Sodom by Marquis de Sade

Question: The text of what ancient classic is a set of oracular statements represented by 64 sets of six hexagrams, with each hexagram in turn composed of six lines of Yangs or Yins?
Answer: I Ching

Question: During the Siege of Sarajevo in the 90s, Susan Sontag directed what play in a candlelit theater symbolizing the city's absurd anticipation of western intervention?
Answer: Samuel Beckett's Waiting for Godot

Question: In what 1959 classic of German literature do people go to a bar called the Onion Cellar to share memories and peel onions, both to make crying easier and to mitigate the shame for openly expressing their feelings?
Answer: The Tin Drum by Günter Grass

Question: What is the better known nickname of Greg Heffley whose hilarious memoirs are now a hit book franchise?
Answer: Wimpy kid

Question: After this novel was published in the country it was set in, the author was sued by Mineko Iwasaki claiming that the author violated their agreement to protect her anonymity if she told him about her life and profession. What is this 1997 novel that chronicles the pursuit of Chiyo Sakamoto to become an entertainer?
Answer: Memoirs of a Geisha by Arthur Golden

Question: What classic of world literature contains a passage titled The Grand Inquisitor in which the monk Alyosha is questioned about the existence of god?
Answer: The Brothers Karamazov by Fyodor Dostoyevsky

Question: What is the opening sentence of the book that ends with "It was the devious-cruising Rachel, that in her retracing search after her missing children, only found another orphan."?
Answer: """Call me Ishmael."""

Question: What ambiguous 1898 ghost story ends with the governess of Bly House holding the body of a dead child in her hands?
Answer: The Turn of the Screw by Henry James

Question: Talking about the creation of what word did a 20th century author claim he was uninfluenced by existing folklore and wrote "I have no waking recollection of furry pigmies ... And I protest that my ___ did not live in Africa, and was not furry, except about the feet."?
Answer: Hobbit

Question: What popular motivational series got its title from its author remembering his grandmothers' words that what she was serving him would cure anything?
Answer: Chicken Soup for the Soul

Question: If 221B Baker Street is to Sherlock Holmes, 9 Bywater Street, Chelsea is to whom?
Answer: George Smiley

Question: Eliza Donnithorne (1827-1886) who lived in Sydney was jilted by her groom on her wedding day and spent the rest of her life in a darkened house. She is believed to be the basis for which eerie character of Victorian times literature?
Answer: Miss Havisham from Great Expectations

Question: London to Suez = a; Suez to Bombay = b; Bombay to Calcutta = c; Calcutta to Hong Kong = d; Hong Kong to Yokohoma = e; Yokohama to San Francisco = f; San Francisco to New York City = g; New York to London = h. In terms of 19th century adventure time, a + b + c + d + e + f + g + h = ?
Answer: 80 days

Question: Pay your dues. According to a theory, the title figure of what classic tale is said to be based on Nicholas of Cologne who supposedly lured away children for the Children's Crusade?
Answer: The Pied Piper of Hamelin

Question: The Narrow Road to the Deep North is the classic work of which Japanese poet who is best known for a particular short form of poetry?
Answer: Matsuo Bashō (known for his haiku verses)

Question: What seminal work of the 20th century opens with a fantasy called Irma's injection and is the focus of analysis throughout the book?
Answer: The Interpretation of Dreams by Sigmund Freud

Question: In a letter dated dated 1 November, 1889, which author wrote "One must not put a loaded rifle on the stage if no one is thinking of firing it."?
Answer: Anton Chekov

Question: What 1996 American novel that includes hundreds of end-notes takes its title from a dialogue in Hamlet in which Hamlet refers to Yorick as a fellow of this kind?
Answer: Infinite Jest by David Foster Wallace

Question: Which loathsome character of English literature is thought to be partially based on a 19th century Jewish criminal named Ikey Solomon, who was once interviewed by Dickens?
Answer: Fagin from Oliver Twist

Question: In what great work of literature do thirty-one wayfarers engage in a story-telling contest whose prize is a free meal at the Tabard Inn upon their return?
Answer: The Canterbury Tales (1387) by Geoffrey Chaucer

Question: The slave girl Morgiana, the protagonist's elder brother Cassim and the cobbler Baba Mustafa are three prominent characters in what 'seedy' oriental story?
Answer: Ali Baba and the Forty Thieves

Question: What 1899 poem of Rudyard Kipling whose racist title alludes to Western aspirations to dominate the developing world was written after the American colonization of the Philippines?
Answer: The White Man's Burden

Question: The 5th Wave cartoons by Rich Tennant are interspersed throughout the books of what reference series?
Answer: For Dummies

Question: Goodgulf Greyteeth, Dildo Bugger, Frito Bugger and Spam Gangree are some of the characters in a parody of what book? Extra points if you can name the parody!
Answer: The Lord of the Rings (Bored of the Rings is the parody)

Question: The French commune of Illiers adopted the name Illiers-Combray in homage to which author whose vivid recreation of the town (through recollection) opens his vast magnum opus?
Answer: Marcel Proust

Question: What 1903 classic that traces a life from domestication to wilderness was said to have been inspired by/plagiarized from My Dogs in the Northland by Egerton R. Young?
Answer: The Call of the Wild by Jack London

Question: Fill in the next line from an all-time great work of English literature. "...Here we may reign secure, and in my choice To reign is worth ambition though in Hell: ..."
Answer: """Better to reign in Hell, than serve in Heav'n"""

Question: Fill in the missing word in this famous quote of Jorge Luis Borges that is very appropriate coming from a writer! "I have always imagined that paradise will be a kind of ___."
Answer: """library"""

Question: A museum outside Nairobi was donated by the Danish government in 1964 to the new Kenyan government as an independence gift. It was originally a residence of which writer?
Answer: Isak Dinesen/ Karen Blixen

Question: The plot of what genre-defining story has its genesis in the inspiration that its author got from the reaction of the public to an orangutan display in Philadelphia in 1839?
Answer: The Murders in the Rue Morgue by Edgar Allan Poe

Question: What 1953 short story by Isaac Singer tells the story of a simpleton bread-maker who is cheated by everyone his entire life but still retains his goodness?
Answer: Gimpel the Fool

Question: What 1961 novel set on the island of Pianosa in the Mediterranean was written after its author was influenced by the classic 1923 anti-war satire The Good Soldier Švejk by Jaroslav Hašek?
Answer: Catch-22 by Joseph Heller

Question: No sleuthing allowed. What struggling doctor wrote The Narrative of John Smith that was published in 2011 about 130 years after it was first written?
Answer: Arthur Conan Doyle