Tag: Contest

Win a Copy of Maurice Sendak’s Nutcracker

Biblioklept1 Comment

20121118-123043.jpg

The good people at Random House are giving away a copy of ETA Hoffman’s Nutcracker illustrated by Maurice Sendak to one lucky Biblioklept reader. The book is beautiful, so you’ll have to work for it. The first person to answer all of the following questions correctly will be sent a copy of the book (sorry, US addresses only). Email answers and your mailing address to biblioklept.ed[at]gmail[dot]com.

Okay, folks, we got a winner. Congrats to Mihaela Geaman who was the first to send in a set of correct answers. Answers below:

1. Which Sendak book most often appears on the ALA’s 100 Most Frequently Challenged Books list?

2. Which two American Renaissance era writers did Sendak frequently cite as favorites?

3. What English artist did Sendak “borrow” images from for his collaboration with Robert Graves?

4. What fictional character did Sendak consider his “twin”?

5. What tragic news story inspired elements of Sendak’s book Outside Over There?

ANSWERS

1. In the Night Kitchen

2. Emily Dickinson & Herman Melville

3. Beatrix Potter

4. Mickey Mouse

5. The Lindbergh baby kidnapping

Win a Copy of Sam Lipsyte’s Debut Novel The Subject Steve

Biblioklept8 Comments

To promote their new edition of Sam Lipsyte’s first novel The Subject Steve, Picador will give away two copies of the book to two lucky Biblioklept readers (U.S. addresses only). What do you have to do to win? Simply post your favorite line (0r consecutive lines) from a Lipsyte novel in the comments section of this post (limit yourself to one response of one cohesive quotation, please). An Esteemed Panel of Honorable Judges will select their favorites. We’ll announce winners next week.

Win a Copy of Zachary Mason’s Novel The Lost Books of the Odyssey

BibliokleptLeave a comment

The kind folks at Picador are offering you, dear reader, a chance to win one of two copies of Zachary Mason’s The Lost Books of the Odyssey, a dazzling re-imagining of Homer’s epic tale. And you’ll want to read this book, folks. Here’s a snippet from our review–

In his preface to The Lost Books of the Odyssey, author Zachary Mason tells us that before the story we now know as the Odyssey was organized by the poet Homer, the “material was formless, fluid, its elements shuffled into new narratives like cards in a deck.” Mason’s goal in The Lost Books is to echo these older versions of the story of Odysseus, omitting “stock epic formulae in favor of honing a single trope or image down to extreme clarity.” He succeeds admirably — Lost Books is an engaging and perplexing work that challenges our assumptions about one of the most foundational stories of Western literature. Mason’s “novel” (it is not really a novel, of course) strikes a wonderfully resonant and deeply upsetting chord, disrupting our sense of narrative satisfaction, breaking us away from the outcomes we thought we knew.

So, how do you get your grubby little hands on a copy? First, you need to have a U.S. mailing address. Second, you need to email us at biblioklept.ed@gmail.com, responding to this simple prompt: Who is your favorite character in The Odyssey, and why? Our esteemed judges will choose the winners from the best responses and post them as an announcement next Friday. Good luck!

Win a Copy of James McManus’s History of Poker, Cowboys Full

Biblioklept4 Comments

Biblioklept and the kind folks at Picador want to give you a handsome new trade paperback copy of James McManus’s history of poker, Cowboys Full — but you’ll have to ante up by taking our literary poker quiz. The first person to post correct answers in the comments section to all three questions will win a copy of McManus’s books.

UPDATE: Commenter Aspher correctly answered the initial questions–only he happens to live in Australia. And the contest is only open to U.S. addresses. Which I knew, but forgot to include in the original version of this post. So. Big sorry out there. I suppose this may confirm one of those American stereotypes–you know, that we see ourselves as the center of the universe. Fortunately, Aspher, via his cordial emails, confirmed a positive Australian stereotype: a good-natured easygoingness about the whole mistake. Mea culpa.

So anyway, there are some NEW questions to answer, under the first set.

1. What Edgar Allan Poe tale of doppelgängers features a duplicitous card sharp?

2. What Faulkner story about two brothers involves a poker game that will decide not one but two marriages? (Hint: although this story can stand alone, it is rightfully part of a collection that is sometimes classified as a cohesive novel).

3.  Which British essayist and critic said “Cards are war, in disguise of a sport”?

1. Which Tennessee Williams play ends, significantly, during a poker game?

2. Which Mark Twain story features a poker game set on a steamer headed from Acapulco to San Francisco?

3. Which Russian writer wrote a novel about gambling to pay off gambling debts? (Name the novelist and the novel).

Win a Copy of Blood Meridian

Biblioklept3 Comments

Biblioklept wants to give you a copy of Random House’s new 25th anniversary edition of Cormac McCarthy’s Blood Meridian. But you’ll have to earn it because if Blood Meridian teaches us anything (beyond spitting and scalping and riding on), it’s that existence costs. So, if you’d like one to win a handsome new hardback, send us a postcard–the most Blood Meridianish one you can muster. (Do not put blood or anything like blood on the postcard. Seriously). If you’re a fan of the book, include a favorite quote. If you’ve never read it before, let us know why you want to read it. Email us at biblioklept.ed at gmail dot com to get our snail mail address (please make “Blood Meridian contest” the subject of your email). The sender of our favorite postcard will receive a copy of the book, courtesy Biblioklept and Random House. Contest closes October 12, 2010 and is limited to addresses in the continental US.