# Literary quotes as book titles: a trivia quiz **URL:** \ **Category:** Cafe Society\ **Created:** [March 21, 2026, 10:13pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/literary-quotes-as-book-titles-a-trivia-quiz/1028673 "2026-03-21T22:13:20Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 8\ **Page:** 3
**Author:** ![Yllaria](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/yllaria/32/3452_2.png) [@Yllaria](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Yllaria)\ **Post date:** [March 24, 2026, 8:38pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/literary-quotes-as-book-titles-a-trivia-quiz/1028673/41 "2026-03-24T20:38:26Z")
> [@Exapno\_Mapcase](#): > > Chinua Achebe, _Things Fall Apart_ (novel) [a great book] > Elyn R. Saks, _The Center Cannot Hold: My Journey Through Madness_ (memoir) > Woody Allen, _Mere Anarchy_ (humor) > Jesse Kauffman, _The Blood-Dimmed Tide: Central Europe’s Long Great War, 1905–1921_ (history) > Robert Ribman, _The Ceremony of Innocence_ (play) > > Not to mention _Slouching Toward Bethlehem_ (essays) by Joan Dideon and _What Rough Beast_, a novel by William John Watkins. _The Widening Gyre,_ Robert B. Parker. ---
**Author:** ![Robot\_Arm](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/robot_arm/32/18280_2.png) [@Robot\_Arm](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Robot_Arm)\ **Post date:** [March 24, 2026, 8:49pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/literary-quotes-as-book-titles-a-trivia-quiz/1028673/42 "2026-03-24T20:49:03Z")
I can’t believe it took me this long to think of it, but _Infinite Jest_ gets its title from the graveyard scene in Hamlet. And we could fill this thread with titles of TV show episodes. ---
**Author:** ![Thudlow\_Boink](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/thudlow_boink/32/320_2.png) [@Thudlow\_Boink](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Thudlow_Boink)\ **Post date:** [March 24, 2026, 9:11pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/literary-quotes-as-book-titles-a-trivia-quiz/1028673/43 "2026-03-24T21:11:01Z")
> [@jsc1953](#): > > That Ecclesiastes guy must have been a lot of fun at parties. Which is why they gave him a [rose](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/A_Rose_for_Ecclesiastes). ---
**Author:** ![Dendarii\_Dame](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/d/bbce88/32.png) [@Dendarii\_Dame](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Dendarii_Dame)\ **Post date:** [March 28, 2026, 3:15pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/literary-quotes-as-book-titles-a-trivia-quiz/1028673/44 "2026-03-28T15:15:19Z")
Several authors have written books called _None But the Brave_, including Lou Cameron, Joy Chambers, and Hamblen Sears. It’s from John Dryden’s poem “Alexander’s Feast”. ---
**Author:** ![Treppenwitz](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/treppenwitz/32/3445_2.png) [@Treppenwitz](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Treppenwitz)\ **Post date:** [April 5, 2026, 6:48pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/literary-quotes-as-book-titles-a-trivia-quiz/1028673/45 "2026-04-05T18:48:20Z")
For no reason that I can think of, The Darling Buds Of May (book by HE Bates, plus 2 different TV series) popped into my mind. The title comes from Shakespeare’s 18th sonnet (“_Shall I compare thee to a summer’s day._..”). The Larkin family series of 5 books by Bates has three other titles whose literary origins are fairly googleable/obvious The Darling Buds of May (above) A Breath of French Air (?) When the Green Woods Laugh (_Laughing Song_, a poem by William Blake) Oh! To be in England (Robert Browning’s poem _Home-Thoughts, from Abroad_) A Little of What You Fancy (a comic song, _A Little Of What You Fancy Does You Good_ (I assume)) j ---
**Author:** ![Q.Q.Switcheroo](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/q.q.switcheroo/32/5713_2.png) [@Q.Q.Switcheroo](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Q.Q.Switcheroo)\ **Post date:** [April 6, 2026, 2:22am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/literary-quotes-as-book-titles-a-trivia-quiz/1028673/46 "2026-04-06T02:22:10Z")
> [@Treppenwitz](#): > > The title comes from Shakespeare’s 18th sonnet (“_Shall I compare thee to a summer’s day._..”). Tennessee Williams’ play _Sweet Bird of Youth_ takes half of its title from Sonnet 73 (“Bare ruin’d choirs, where late the **sweet birds** sang.”). (_Bare Ruined Choirs_ was also the title of the title character’s smash-hit play in _Barton Fink_.) ---
**Author:** ![papermache](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/p/f08c70/32.png) [@papermache](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/papermache)\ **Post date:** [April 6, 2026, 2:47am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/literary-quotes-as-book-titles-a-trivia-quiz/1028673/47 "2026-04-06T02:47:49Z")
> **[Where Late the Sweet Birds Sang](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Where_Late_the_Sweet_Birds_Sang)** > > Where Late the Sweet Birds Sang is a science fiction novel by American writer Kate Wilhelm, published in 1976. The novel is composed of three parts, "Where Late the Sweet Birds Sang," "Shenandoah," and "At the Still Point," and is set in a post-apocalyptic era, a concept popular among authors who took part in the New Wave Science Fiction movement in the 1960s. > Before the publication of Wilhelm's novel in 1976, part one of Where Late the Sweet Birds Sang was featured in the fifteenth edition o... ---
**Author:** ![hogarth](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/hogarth/32/1773_2.png) [@hogarth](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/hogarth)\ **Post date:** [April 6, 2026, 11:28am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/literary-quotes-as-book-titles-a-trivia-quiz/1028673/48 "2026-04-06T11:28:09Z")
> [@Peter\_Morris](#): > > **Taken at the Flood** > > _“There is a tide in the affairs of men, which taken at the flood leads on to fortune …”._ > > Shakespeare’s Julius Caesar On the same note, there’s a Larry Niven story called **There is a Tide**. [Previous page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/literary-quotes-as-book-titles-a-trivia-quiz/1028673.md?page=2)