Here are 15 humorous literary-related ‘facts’ that I have compiled for you, my newsletter subscribers:
Bibliosmia — a fetishism, which entails the compulsion to smell books, particularly old books.
The reclusive J.D. Salinger (The Catcher in the Rye) was a big fan of Burger King.
Dorothy Parker’s epitaph reads, Excuse my dust
Dr Seuss included the word ‘contraceptive’ in a draft of his children’s book Hop on Pop to make sure the publisher was concentrating.
ELIYZABETH YANNE STRONG-ANDERSON is the author of Birth Control Is Sinful in the Christian Marriages and Also Robbing God of Priesthood. Every letter in the book capitalised.
In 1912 Ambrose Bierce invented 1 of the earliest emoticons, the snigger point, written as \ ___ /! It was designed to look like a smiling mouth.
Billy Wilder epitaph is, I’m a writer but then nobody’s perfect
Winnie-the-Pooh was banned from a Polish playground because ‘he’s a half-naked hermaphrodite.’
Eugene O’Neill (1888–1953) – ‘I knew it. I knew it. Born in a hotel room, and God damn it, died in a hotel room.’
Dr. Seuss’s book Green Eggs and Ham uses only 50 different words.
Franz Kafka co-founded Prague’s first asbestos factory.
Librocubicultarist — people who read in bed. This literary slang term is yet to be included in the dictionary, but it is surely only a matter of time.
On his deathbed when asked by the priest to renounce Satan, Voltaire allegedly said, ‘Now, now, my good man, this is no time for making enemies.’
50 Shades of Grey is Britain’s best-selling book of all time.
A person who reads 50 Shades of Grey has no advantage over one who can’t read. — Author Guy Portman
Tsundoku — a Japanese word for the condition that is acquiring lots of books and then not getting around to reading them.
