Written by Musicians Trivia Quiz

Answer: Man In White

"Man In White" (1986) is the only book published by "The Man in Black". In this fictional novel Cash tries to portray the historical background and Saul's state of mind leading to his conversion, a pivotal event in the history of Christianity.

Cash later recorded a song by the same name in his album "God" (2000). The wrong options are distorted titles of three of his most famous songs.

Answer: Stranger Music

"Stranger Music" (1993) is a compilation of poems and song lyrics.

"The Spice-Box Of Earth" (1961) and "Flowers For Hitler" (1964) are poetry books, the former being the one which won Cohen literary acclaim in Canada, aged 27 at the time it was published.

"Beautiful Losers" (1966) is a novel which unfolds a truly bizarre love triangle - a must-read if I may say so.

The Wikipedia page for Leonard Cohen is a good anchor for information on the full scope of his literary work.

Answer: Experimental Fiction

"Tarantula" is often described as a rambling Dylan zigzagging between the footsteps of Beat personas and classic poets, jumping between locations and characters wherever the momentary stream of consciousness leads him to. It was written and unofficially published in 1965 (which makes the question's wrong options extremely unlikely!), but Dylan's 1966 motorcycle accident halted its official publication which had to wait till 1971.

Answer: Madonna

"The English Roses" (2003) is Madonna's first children's book. Five more books in the series followed until 2007 and two more are scheduled for 2008. The stories deal with friendship, jealousy, love and a host of other emotions within a flamboyant group of girls. Madonna published a few other children's books as well.

The wrong options are, well, wrong. I will ask FT management to allocate 10 extra points to each one of you who was made to laugh by the option "John Cooper Clarke". (editor's note: we would if we could)

Answer: He is mute

The novel's name is borrowed from the Biblical story of Balaam and his ass. Euchrid, much like the ass, is a deprived and viciously treated being who is able to observe divinity but is confined to his own silent world, at least until the divine takes over him. Not an easy book to read.

Numerous Nick Cave songs are strewn with Biblical and religious references and commentary. My favourite ones are "Tupelo" which describes the birth of Elvis as a divine incarnation and "Foi Na Cruz", a traditional song on Jesus Christ which Cave recorded after watching the film "Pixote" where it is recited by the Brazilian kids.

Answer: John Lennon

As their titles coarsely hint, both books are a collection of short stories filled with nonsensical humor and linguistic puns. Pretty safe to say that if you liked "I Am The Walrus", you are going to like the books, while if you didn't like it this is one reading effort you had better neglect.

Yoko Ono enabled a posthumous release of Lennon's various works in "Skywriting By Word Of Mouth" (1986), "Ai: Japan Through John Lennon's Eyes: A Personal Sketchbook" (1992) and "Real Love: The Drawings for Sean" (1999).

Answer: The Lords And The New Creatures

In his short life, Jim Morrison wrote hundreds if not thousands of poems. It seems to me that he considered himself a poet more than a rock star. His tendency to recite, rather than sing, many of The Doors songs is a mere hint to that. "The Lords And The New Creatures" as well as the rest of his published poetry works deal with subjects similar to his song lyrics.

"Killers, Angels, Refugees" is a collection of poems, letters and short stories by Van der Graaf Generator frontman Peter Hammill.

"Cripple Nation" is a collection of poems by Alan Vega, half of the pioneering electronic pop duo Suicide.

"Cool Gardens" is a collection of poems by Serj Tankian from System Of A Down.

Answer: Henry Rollins

Henry Rollins may be described as a freestyle writer. His books contain anything from travelogues to soulsearching to political comment. He can afford it since he publishes his own books, his publishing house is called "2.13.61".

Rollins has released numerous spoken word albums in the past two decades, and his latest literary effort is an audio book of the novel "World War Z" by Max Brooks.

Answer: True

I admit that if someone had asked me this True or False before authoring this quiz, I would probably go for "False". But it's true, Woody Guthrie's son did publish this children's book.

The book is illustrated by Alice M. Brock who is the former owner and chef of the restaurant which gave its name to Arlo Guthrie's 1967 debut album and anti Vietnam war hymn.

Answer: Pete Townshend

Townshend's latest work, "The Boy Who Heard Music", is published on the website of his Eel Pie Publishing as an online book, as are other literary works by him, e.g. his spiritual project "The Lifehouse Method".

The interaction works in both ways, for example Townshend released "The Iron Man" (1991) based on the children's book by British Poet Laureate Ted Hughes.

Thank you for taking my quiz. Authoring it has added quite a few books to my to-read list and I hope it will motivate some of you for the same.