Unseen University entrance exam

[Gob]

Unseen University entrance exam

16/20.

[Bicycle Bill]

15/20 myself.
And not to rub it in, but did I ever mention that I met Sir Pterry in person and had him inscribe my copy of "Going Postal"?
(I also have a copy of "The Last Hero" inscribed by both Pratchett and Kidby)

-"BB"-

[Gob]

Did I ever tell you that I got a personal email from Sir Terry, praising me for my short story, "The Birdman of Ankk-Morpork", but cautioning me that it was only to be posted at the two websites we had agreed?

[Lord Jim]

I never heard of the guy, and I managed to get 10/20...

One could count as an educated guess...the one about the album cover; not because I had ever seen the book cover, (or ever heard of the book, any more than I'd ever heard of the author) but because I know the album...

The other nine I got right were pure point and click...

[MajGenl.Meade]

By random sequencing, I managed 5! (Ha ha LJ - you lost a point by picking Leonard Cohen, didn't you huh? huh?)

[Big RR]

I got 10 by guessing as well; I don't know his writing at all.

[Lord Jim]

I was a little embarrassed to admit I had never, ever heard of the dude, or anything he has written, after I read this:

He is best known for his Discworld series of 41 novels. Pratchett's first novel, The Carpet People, was published in 1971; after the first Discworld novel, The Colour of Magic, was published in 1983, he wrote two books a year on average. His 2011 Discworld novel Snuff was at the time of its release the third-fastest-selling hardback adult-readership novel since records began in the UK, selling 55,000 copies in the first three days.[3] His final Discworld novel, The Shepherd's Crown, was published in August 2015, five months after his death.

Pratchett, with more than 85 million books sold worldwide in 37 languages,[4][5] was the UK's best-selling author of the 1990s.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Terry_Pratchett

But apparently I'm in good company...

I'm guessing this guy must have been wracking up his sales numbers primarily in the UK, the Commonwealth Countries and Europe...

you lost a point by picking Leonard Cohen

In addition to not knowing anything about this writer or anything he ever wrote, that was actually one of the few names in the lists of possible answers that I'd actually heard of...

[MajGenl.Meade]

I read one of his recently (because he was the subject of a thread here - probably when he died). I can't remember the title or what it was about but do remember thinking at the end, "Huh".

[Gob]

I'm guessing this guy must have been wracking up his sales numbers primarily in the UK, the Commonwealth Countries and Europe...

Yeah, wouldn't have gone down too well in the US, intelligent reading, satire, pastiche, parody, you know, stuff that needs thought and worldly wisdom.

[Lord Jim]

I'm guessing this guy must have been wracking up his sales numbers primarily in the UK, the Commonwealth Countries and Europe...

Yeah, wouldn't have gone down too well in the US, intelligent reading, satire, pastiche, parody, you know, stuff that needs thought and worldly wisdom.

[Scooter]

I've never heard of him either, but I'm not a fan of the genre, there are far too many authors who think they can be another Tolkein and it's just too torturous to read them.

[Burning Petard]

9/20 And I am SOOOO jealous BB

Later edit. Pratchett was indeed a late addition to the bookstores in the USA. My son introduced me after he picked up some copies when his US Navy boat (yes, it was a boat, even if it was named after a city in the midwest) visited Australia. It was another ten years before I saw one in a store here. (I could get them easily from Amazon UK)

For those who have not read his stuff, it is very much NOT imitation Tolkien. More like Jonathan Swift. Each takes some current social or political topic and satirizes it to oblivion, with lots of jokes along the way. Consistent target was the british class system. Also one entire book took on Australia.

snailgate

[Gob]

I've never heard of him either, but I'm not a fan of the genre, there are far too many authors who think they can be another Tolkein and it's just too torturous to read them.

He's the anti-Tolkien, really, you'd love him if that is your view!!

[Lord Jim]

This is the classic anti-Tolkien:

He would have fired again on the poor wretch, but pity stayed his hand...

"It's a pity I've run out of bullets," thought Frito dejectedly...

[Scooter]

I remember reading that when it came out. It was pretty well done.

And that was something like 30 years before all the movie hype began.

ETA - and to clarify, I love Tolkien; I have probably read TLoR right through about 15 times, but I can't stand most of what I have read that uses his work as a model.

[RayThom]

""You got 6/20: “He's out of his depth on a wet pavement.” Try again."" (Why?)

[Lord Jim]

ETA - and to clarify, I love Tolkien;

I'm a big Tolkien fan too..

I got turned on to The Bored Of The Rings by a friend in college after having read the original trilogy in high school, and I thought it was absolutely hilarious ...

I still remember a lot of the lines, (that one I quoted is my favorite)

CHAPTER ONE: "It's My Party And I'll Spurn Who I Want To"...

[Bicycle Bill]

I actually liked the cover on the earlier paperback better.



-"BB"-

[Lord Jim]

Bill, that's the one I was given...

(I'll bet if I started digging around in the boxes in my garage, I could find it... )

And who can forget the dramatic way Frito Bugger and Spam Gangree were saved by Deus Ex Machina Airlines...

[MajGenl.Meade]

Not to mention Dildo and Goodgulf