Trivia – Page 4 – Interesting Literature

10 Forgotten Books and Their Surprising Claims to Fame

By Dr Oliver Tearle (Loughborough University)

Our founder and chief librarian, Oliver Tearle, has written the following article on forgotten but noteworthy books, to mark the UK publication of his book, The Secret Library: A Book-Lovers’ Journey Through Curiosities of History. The book is a whistle-stop tour of 3,000 years of Western history and is crammed full of the most surprising and fascinating facts he’s uncovered over the last four years since he founded Interesting Literature. If you want to learn about what the ancient Greeks laughed at, or like the idea of Tudor tales about talking cats, read on. The article originally appeared on the Huffington Post.

10 Weird and Wonderful Words about Literature and Reading

By Dr Oliver Tearle (Loughborough University)

We love to collect interesting words, especially those related to literature, reading, and other such things. Indeed, since the stuff of literature is words, we love to delve into the wonderful world of the lexical. Here are ten of the best literary words we’ve encountered recently, with a definition for each. If you enjoy these words, you’ll probably enjoy our 10 words for book-lovers and our 10 words for writers.

A panchreston is a broad thesis that purports to cover all aspects of its subject but usually ends up as a gross oversimplification.

Papyrocracy is government by paper, especially newspapers and literature.

Rhapsodomancy is divining the future by picking a passage of poetry at random.

Five Fascinating Facts about George R. R. Martin

By Dr Oliver Tearle (Loughborough University)

1. Contrary to popular belief, George R. R. Martin’s middle initials are not a homage to J. R. R. Tolkien.

Although George R. R. Martin is often referred to as ‘the American Tolkien’, it would appear that the two middle initials shared by both masters of fantasy literature are a coincidence and not a direct tribute to Tolkien on Martin’s part. Martin was born George Raymond Martin, and adopted a further middle name Richard upon his Catholic confirmation at age 13 (as, in fact, Martin himself confirms – as it were – in this video, at around 8:30 minutes in).

Eight of the Best Books about the English Language

By Dr Oliver Tearle (Loughborough University)

The best non-fiction books are often the most accessible, at least if you’re a keen amateur or enthusiast rather than a specialist. From language trivia books to overviews and histories of the English language, there are many informative and engaging books about words and language out there, so where to begin?

Five Fascinating Facts about D. H. Lawrence

The life of D. H. Lawrence, told through five interesting pieces of biographical trivia

1. He wrote a story about Jesus Christ called ‘The Escaped Cock’. This story, also sometimes published under the title ‘The Man Who Died’, was summarised by Lawrence himself as follows: ‘I wrote a story of the Resurrection, where Jesus gets up and feels very sick about everything, and can’t stand the old crowd any more – so cuts out – and as he heals up, he begins to find what an astonishing place the phenomenal world is, far more marvellous than any salvation or heaven’. In fact, the story ends with a last line that would be made more famous by another writer, Margaret Mitchell: ‘Tomorrow is another day.’