Morning all! I’m only after four book titles today from the following picture clues – the clues may be phonetic or literal… As ever answers to euan.hirst@blackwell.co.uk to have the chance of winning a modest prize. Good luck!

Answers revealed below – thanks for everyone who played, the winner as chosen by Alison out of the hat is Derek! Congratulations

Book 1

     +      

1.(Steve) Waugh + Peas (War & Peace)

Book 2

2. Tom (Conti) Saw Year (Tom Sawyer)

Book 3

 +

3. Pride + Pre Judge Ice (Pride & Prejudice)

Book 4

 +

4. Shots Miss (Marple) Cell NE (Schott’s Miscellany)

Filed under: Competitions, Guess the Book

Morning all! We keep a lovely selection of posters that have the full text of classic books on them. Each poster has a design that reflects the book. Usual rules apply  - email euan.hirst@blackwell.co.uk before 4pm with as many authors and titles as you have. Good luck!

A lot of you got all books correct – they were

Beowulf
Frankenstein – Mary Shelley
Harry Potter and the Philosophers Stone  – JK Rowling
Hound of the Baskervilles – Arthur Conan Doyle (although I accepted Sherlock Holmes as there is no other clue to the book)
The Great Gatsby – F Scott Fitzgerald
Peter Pan – JM Barrie
The Jungle Book – Rudyard Kipling
The Origin of Species – Charles Darwin
The Wind in the Willows – Kenneth Grahame

Congratulations to all who got them correct, the name out of the hat was Joanna

Filed under: Competitions, Guess the Book

After my post-conference lull last Friday we are back with a tricky little puzzle today. 12 authors and titles to guess

As ever answers to euan.hirst@blackwell.co.uk by 4 pm. A lovely Papuro ‘Roma’ journal awaits one of you lucky, lucky people Good luck!

As a number of you recognised these are details on the jackets of the Man Booker longlist that was announced this week: 

Nicola Barker, The Yips (Fourth Estate)
Ned Beauman, The Teleportation Accident (Sceptre)
André Brink, Philida (Harvill Secker)
Tan Twan Eng, The Garden of Evening Mists (Myrmidon Books)
Michael Frayn, Skios (Faber & Faber)
Rachel Joyce, The Unlikely Pilgrimage of Harold Fry (Doubleday)
Deborah Levy, Swimming Home (And Other Stories)
Hilary Mantel, Bring up the Bodies (Fourth Estate)
Alison Moore, The Lighthouse (Salt)
Will Self, Umbrella (Bloomsbury)
Jeet Thayil, Narcopolis (Faber & Faber)
Sam Thompson, Communion Town (Fourth Estate)

And the name out of the hat this week is………Chris D. Hearty congratulations and, of course, thanks to all for playing 

Filed under: Competitions, Guess the Book

A sea of red jackets for your delight today. Just email the author and title of each book to euan.hirst@blackwell.co.uk before 4pm today to have a chance of winning a very modest prize. Good luck!

Thanks for everyone who played – the answers are 1. The Talented Mr Ripley by Patricia Highsmith 2. Wolf Hall by Hilary Mantel 3. Extremely Loud and Incredibly Close by Jonathan Safran Foer 4. The Little Stranger by Sarah Walters 5. The Uncommon Reader by Alan Bennett 6. Jonathan Strange and Mr Norrell by Susanna Clarke. Hearty congratulations to thos of you who got them all correct. Name pulled out of the hat this week is Joanna! Will drop you an email to sort out our, as ever, very modest prize – thanks to Sophie for picking the winner

Filed under: Competitions, Guess the Book

Welcome to our ‘Joseph and His Amazing Technicolour Book Jacket’ 12 Authors and Titles to unpick from this one image. As many answers that you can come up with to euan.hirst@blackwell.co.uk by 4 pm. As ever, a very modest prize awaits… Good luck!

So from left to right, top to bottom we have Richard Dawkins Magic of Reality, Mark Henderson The Geek Manifesto, Mark Williams Mindfulness, Lewis Carroll Alice in Wonderland, Daniel Kahneman Thinking Fast and Slow (the pencil), Robert Macfarlane Old Ways, John Farndon Do You Think You’re Clever, John Kay Obliquity, EB White Charlotte’s Web, Frances Aschroft Spark of Life (buy this book it is AMAZING), Diego Marani New Finnish Grammar and John Julius Norwich History of England in 100 Places.

Phew! Thanks for playing…and the name out of the hat to day is Jennifer. Well done, I’ll be in touch to sort out a modest prize for you

Filed under: Competitions, Guess the Book

So, how did you fare? The answers from top to bottom are:  

Cat in the Hat – Dr Seuss, Clockwork Orange – Anthony Burgess, Lolita – Vladimir Nabokov, The God Delusion – Richard Dawkins, Catch 22 – Joseph Heller, Freedom from Fear – Aung San Suu Kyi, Where The Wild Things Are – Maurice Sendak, Girl With The Dragon Tattoo – Stieg Larsson, Fungus the Bogeyman – Raymond Briggs, The Da Vinci Code – Dan Brown, On the Road – Jack Kerouac, No Logo – Naomi Klein

Most number of correct answers was Marin with eleven of the twelve…

Happy Friday, one and all

I guess you all know the score by now, but for any newcomers to our weekly competition all you have to do is guess the authorss and titles of the books in the picture below. Email your answers (it is worth sending your answers in even if you can’t get all of them) to euan.hirst@blackwell.co.uk before 4pm today. Answers – and the winner of a modest token of esteem – are revealed as soon after the deadline as I can manage! Good luck

Filed under: Competitions, Guess the Book

So congratulations to Elisabeth, Claire, Chris, Luke, Nigel, Lara, Tim, Marin and Jocelyn for getting all five correct – Booker winners from 1984-87 thereby giving Oscar and Lucinda by Peter Carey, winner in 1988, as the mystery book. The winner was drawn out of the hat by ALison, our Operations Manager and it is….Lara

Apologies for my terrible organisational skills last week – here is the competition that should have appeared then! The usual in terms of naming the author and title for the book jackets below but as you will see there are only 4 jackets but I am looking for 5 answers! What connects the four books will give you the fifth. Answers will be revealed at 4pm, email your answers before then to euan.hirst@blackwell.co.uk Good luck!

Filed under: Competitions, Guess the Book

It’s Friday, it’s a beautiful day and it is time to give away a rather beautiful handmade leather journal produced by Papuro in Italy. We’re back to Guess the Book – 5 books below with the author and titles removed, email your answers to euan.hirst@blackwell.co.uk by 4pm today when the answers will be revealed. Good luck!

A challenging competition this week – answers are now revealed. Only 3 of you got all 5 correct, despite the second highest number of page views ever. So well done to Tobias, Marin and Chris (and Subiksha for a heartening display of fair play). Ros, our wonderful Admin person drew the name out of the hat – Congratulations to Tobias, you are now the proud owner of a rather gorgeous leather journal. Thanks for everyone who played! See you soon…

Filed under: Competitions, Guess the Book