h2g2 The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy: Earth Edition

Well, we all have to go sometime... .

I'm sure they'll be dancing in the streets when I finally pop my clogs...

Dag-nabbit, I shoulda known that one! John Huston had a life-long fascination with the Canadian North doing several early documentaries. He almost single-handledly created the world demand for Eskimo art. His ex-wife runs a gallery (called Huston North Gallery) in Lunenburg, Nova Scotia and I have often worked with his son John who also lives here in Nova Scotia, working in the film industry.
Poo!
~jwf~

*waves to Nova Scotia from Scotia originalus*

White Hunter, Black Heart!
I found that in my 'black white heart' google search for the two tone organ. I even wrote it down right here! Then I ignored it. Never mind. It's all clear now.

Good question, Polidari. There's a very high standard of question on this thread. I can soon change that though.

Right, the next question will be here in a moment. A little cutting and pasting to do first.

Below are excerpts from five novels. I am asking for the title of all five, and the odd one out. Just the odd one out won't do, because that's pretty obvious, so I'm asking for all 5 titles.

Book 1
Soon after the First World War a violent event took place in the village which drew us together in a web of silence and cut us off for a while almost entirely from the outside world. I was too young at the time to be surprised by it, but I knew those concerned and learned the whole story early. Though it was seldom discussed – and never with strangers – the facts of that night were familiar to us all, and common consent buried the thing down deep and raked out the tracks around it.

Book 2
Literary criticism is not your forte, my dear fellow. Don’t try it. You should leave that to people who haven’t been at a University. They do it so well in the daily papers.

Book 3
She went up to her room and opened the envelope. There was only one question today, but it was even dumber than the previous three:-
Why is Lego the most ingenious toy in the world?

Book 4
Right. Ridiculous to have had video for two years and never to have been able to make it record anything. Also is marvellous FV 67 HV VideoPlus. Simple matter of following instructions, locating buttons etc., certain.

Book 5
Modesty forbids me to reveal the Secrets of the Marriage Bed, but nothing could have happen’d more suitable to my circumstances than that, as above, my Husband was so fuddled when he came to bed, that he could not remember in the morning, whether he had had any conversation with me or no.

I think I've read Book 1, but I can't for the life of me think what it is.

Book 4 looks like it could be Bridget Jones's Diary, which I haven't read, but I saw the film.

No idea about the others.

I'll kick us off, then.
Rather sure #3 is "Sophie's World" by Jostein Gaarder.

OK, #3 was organic memory (honest). I also had a hunch that #5 was "Moll Flanders" by Defoe, which the computer confirmed. Pure Google confessed for #4 (which is indeed "Bridget Jones' Diary") and #2, which I'd guessed as being Waugh or possibly Snow, but which turns out to Wilde : "The Importance of Being Earnest"

So that just leaves #1, still locked. Off for another look...

Nope. Stuck. And off to bed...
(Best guess is that #2 is odd since rest have girls' names in title, though what that would make #1 is anyone's guess. I thought it could be Woolf, maybe - but only "Mrs Dalloway" is remotely near a girls' name. The Weddell thought "Testament of Youth", Vera Brittain - but the author was an adult by the time of WWI, so that can't be right)
Help, somebody!

#1 reminded me of John Wyndham's "The Midwich Cuckoos", but alas

Funny it struck you as Sci-Fi too.
I thought it might be HGWells "War-o-the-Whirleds" but that was published in 1898.

jwf

#1 reminded me of what I vaguely know about 'Jamaica Inn'. Any advance on that?

My hunch for number 1 was Cider with Rosie by Laurie Lee but I can't seem to confirm or deny with Google...

Agree on Cider with Rosie - only read it a couple of months ago - it's the story of the murder on the village...

Possibly 'in the village' would be better English .

Assuming the correct titles are now listed, who wins; Pinniped who did all the work or Sprout who completed the list?

The odd book out could therefore be "the importance of being Earnest" as it is the only one with a man's first name in the title, all the others having female first names in the title.

As mentioned in post 3569 by Pinniped...

whoops -didn't read that one

Another enjoyable test of the little grey cells
Thanks Cleo