To work in New York City’s iconic bookstore, The Strand, you have to pass the test – literally. Annie Correal includes samples of the literary matching test from The Strand’s job application in her article for a The New York Times – There Will Be a Quiz.

Isn’t it rewarding to know The Strand requires its employees to read? From checking the list, I found myself lacking and need to catch up with The Strand standards – more potential reads for my library list.

Here’s a sample if you’d like to try your book smarts. (Note: one pair is incorrect – The Strand’s “trick question.”)

Match Authors:

1. Tool
2. Ibsen
3. Ellison
4. Swift
5. Gogol
6. McCullers
7. Woolf
8. Kundera
9. Orwell
10. Naipaul

To Literary Work:

• The Heart is a Lonely Hunter
• Animal Farm
• To the Lighthouse
• A House for Mr. Biswas
• Invisible Man
• A Confederacy of Dunces
• Dead Souls
• Waiting for Godot
• Gulliver’s Travels
• The Unbearable Likeness of Being