Calling all book lovers! Behind many of our favorite stories are authors with fascinating habits, bets and mysteries of their own. Here are seven literary facts to share with your book club.
1. Green Eggs and Ham Was Written on a Bet: Dr. Seuss's publisher bet him he couldn't write a book using just 50 different words. He did, and it became one of his bestsellers.
2. Frankenstein Started as a Ghost Story Contest: Mary Shelley began writing it at just 18, during a rainy summer at Lake Geneva in 1816 when her friends challenged each other to write scary stories.
3. Agatha Christie Once Vanished for 11 Days: In 1926 the queen of mystery disappeared, sparking a nationwide search before she was found at a hotel in Harrogate.
4. There's a Word for Buying Books You Never Read: The Japanese word "tsundoku" describes letting new books pile up unread. Sound familiar?
5. Harry Potter Was Rejected Many Times: J.K. Rowling's first manuscript was turned down by a dozen publishers before Bloomsbury took a chance on it.
6. The Real Alice Inspired Wonderland: Lewis Carroll first told the story to a young girl named Alice Liddell and her sisters during a boat trip in 1862.
7. The Library of Congress Is Massive: It holds well over 170 million items, including books, maps, photographs and recordings, making it one of the largest libraries in the world.
Time to go add a few more books to that tsundoku pile!