“You Can’t Cheat Karma: The Punk Quiz Book” By Martin Punktilious (Earth Island Books)

Let’s be honest, there’s a lot of fluff out there that claims to test your punk rock knowledge. You pick up a book, breeze through questions about the three chords in “Blitzkrieg Bop,” and walk away feeling smug but totally unchallenged. Forget that noise. The moment I got my hands on You Can’t Cheat Karma: The Punk Quiz Book by Martin Punktilious, I knew this was different. It’s a deep dive into the definitive history of Punk, presented in quiz form. This book will have you hooked from the first question to the last, and trust me, you’re going to need to bring your A-game. Author Martin Punktilious clearly went full historian mode here. The info promised here is “punktiliously researched,” and you can feel it on every single page. This book is designed to dispense knowledge you definitely don’t already possess, pushing the limits of even the most seasoned punkaholics.

The sheer scope of this book is brilliant. It spans every corner of the punk rock universe, leaving no stage floor unswept. We’re talking classic punk rock like Sex Pistols and The Damned, but it doesn’t stop there. Punktilious fluidly moves into the darker corners of post-punk, the bursts of pop-punk, garage, and  hardcore punk. The author covers it all. You’re not just staying in 1977, but travelling through the decades and the subgenres, forcing your brain to switch gears from The Ramones to Dead Kennedys, from The Pogues to Siouxsie And The Banshees, and through dozens of other crucial, genre-defining acts. The range of bands mentioned here exemplifies his dedication. He drops names that are foundational to the scene, like Blondie, The Cure, Stiff Little Fingers, Eater, and honestly, that’s just the tip of the iceberg. You’re getting a crash course in the entire family tree of punk, from the most famous figureheads to the influential, often-overlooked architects of sound. It’s a treat for both newbie and veteran punk rockers. But the real brilliance of You Can’t Cheat Karma lies in the type of questions it asks. This is where it leaves every other quiz book in the dust. The questions don’t just revolve around your favorite albums and singles. That would be too easy. Instead, you’re tested on the DNA of the subculture, events, legendary gigs, forgotten zines, specific recording details, and all sorts of minutiae only a true lifer would know.

We’re talking about knowing what specific brand of leather jacket Joey Ramone wore on a Tuesday in ’79, or the exact date The Cure played their first gig under that name, or who threw a chair at whom during an infamous UK punk summit. Okay, maybe I’m exaggerating slightly, but you get the point. It’s about the context, the moments, the glorious, messy details that actually shaped the scene. This approach transforms the book from a simple quiz into a definitive historical record, forcing you to engage with the culture’s background narrative. It’s a book for those who want to know who was publishing the zines, who was booking the back rooms, and who was starting the fights. The book is perfectly designed for its dual audience. If you consider yourself a punkaholic, this is your Mount Everest. You can instantly check your knowledge about your favorite subgenres and find out just how deep your fanaticism runs. It’s humbling, frustrating, and, at some points, necessary. You might know all the lyrics to every Dead Kennedys song, but do you know the precise legal wrangling that led to a specific album’s cover art controversy? This book makes you work for it. You can casually browse, find a topic you love, and suddenly you’re immersed in the history of The Pogues’ early days or the exact moment The Damned solidified their line-up. It’s a page-turner that encourages exploration. It’s the perfect way to learn history without reading a dry textbook. You absorb the information through the challenge itself, turning trivia into history lessons.

Whether you’re taking notes on your desk or challenging your friends after too many beers in a living room, this book is a must for challenging your friends, putting those long-standing, often drunken arguments about punk history to the ultimate test. It finally gives you the definitive answers, cutting through the haze of conflicting memories and online myths. You Can’t Cheat Karma is the ultimate truth-telling device for the punk rock world. It’s a carefully researched and challenging quiz book that covers the range and depth of the subculture like no other book before it. It’s a definitive historical statement, packaged perfectly for consumption by the deeply obsessed veterans and the curious newcomers. If you claim to love punk rock, you need this book. Go buy it, start quizzing, and figure out just how much karma you’ve accumulated over the years. You’ll probably learn you’ve been cheating yourself out of some serious punk knowledge. Head to Earth Island Books for more information about ordering.