Best titles

[La Reine]

What are the best titles you've seen or heard? What do you think makes a good title?

The best title I've ever heard is: Bring Me Your Saddest Arizona. I want to read the book just because of that, and I haven't even read a review, I've just heard it's good.

The next best I've heard is: Reading Lolita in Tehran. Unfortunately I found this title a bit deceptive/misleading.

[sunandshadow]

I think the funniest title I've ever heard is _A Heartbreaking Work of Staggering Genius_ :Clap:

[Jaoman]

Human, All Too Human

[Cabinscribe]

Two of my favorite books are:

"To Kill a Mockingbird" and "Slaughterhouse Five".

In thinking about my favorite titles, these immediately came to mind, but I'm not sure if I can really explain the elements that comprise an interesting or memorable title.

This is good food for thought though! If I ever get off the computer and start writing, I'll need to think of some good titles for when the time comes that I finish writing something!

;)

[arrowqueen]

'A Big Boy Did It and Ran Away.' and 'Boiling a Frog.' (both Christopher Brookmyre.)

[ANNIE]

Lord of the Flies.

I just love that book- The title says it all.

Annie

[Jonny Ryan Mac]

"This Present Darkness", that was a title that hit me from a distance. Its a real fun book as well.

[maestrowork]

ahem...

;)

[AprilBoo]

Is there a book titled "Shameless Plug"?:)

[Susan Gable]

Is there a book titled "Shameless Plug"?:)

Hey, if Ray doesn't plug his book/title, who will? :)

Ray, can you tell us a bit about what The Pacific Between means? Between what?

Titles can be great, but I don't get too fired up a lot with titles. Because my personal experience with titles is that authors don't often get to keep the title they put on a book. I did really like The Five People You Meet in Heaven - very evocative, and it also clearly illustrated what the story was about.

I think that's what makes a good title - it's evocative, it illustrates in some way what the book is about, and it also is catchy enough to make the reader pick the book up off the shelf.

Two title stories: I titled my second book Firefly Wishes. I thought it very evocative of the mood I tried to create with the book and it tied into the plot. It got retitled The Mommy Plan. <sigh> (That's one I'm going to weep about for a long time. <G> But that's the business, and that's how it goes. I think I'm allowed to be disappointed, though. <G>) I had one reader tell me that based on the title she would have never bought the book - but the cover made her pick the book up, and once she read the backcover blurb, she was hooked. Thank goodness!

Now, my new book (shameless plug of sorts! <G> It's out this week!) is called The Pregnancy Test, and my tagline is, "Sometimes life tests a man." (See signature. <G>) But I have a friend and fellow author who ALSO has a romance novel called The Pregnancy Test coming out in October from another publisher. She told them that I already had a book coming out with that title, and they really didn't care. :)

Which is fine with us, because we're working it! <G> We're running promotions and contests on our websites, talking about our TWINS. <G> We're going to do book events together that are like baby showers. :PartySmil So, we're having fun with it.:Jump:

But every time I tell someone about our two books with the same title, I always get a weird look from people. I'm not sure why. Do they think there can't be two books with the same title? Does it just strike the average folk (i.e. non-writers) as wrong?

Susan G.

[maestrowork]

Good question.

I'm not going to answer it, though, until everyone has a chance to read the book. :) Needless to say, the title has both literal and metaphorical meanings. But there's no question this book has something to do with the Pacific Ocean, east and west, that sort of things... it's the metaphorical meanings you need to find out by reading the book.

Yes, I'm shameless. But if it sells books...

;)

[aadams73]

"Fear and Loathing in Las Vegas." Neat title.

[mkcbunny]

Running with Scissors

[Albedo of Zero]

Sick Puppy

[scribbler1382]

My favorite title of all time is: "Orange is for Anguish, Blue is for Insanity" It was a novella by David Morrell in the Prime Evil anthology edited by Douglas E. Winter back in 1988. It's also my favorite story to date.

As a rule, my favorite novel titles are ones that seem cool on their own, but after reading the book make you go "Ahhhhhhhh" with a knowing head nod as you understand the title's true meaning.

[DragonHeart]

Just glancing at my bookshelf, Song in the Silence is a title that catches my eye. For one thing, it makes me wonder what said title means. For another, it strikes me as an impossibility, so naturally I want to know the reason for such a title.

Basically, I like titles that have a touch of mysteriousness to them. I'm as likely to impulse buy a book with an unexpected title as I am to pick up the latest from a favorite author. (Although I admit anything with 'Dragon' in it automatically has my interest. XD )

~DragonHeart~

[zarch]

Pudd'nhead Wilson...how can you not be interested in a character named Pudd'nhead?

[Ronda]

My favorites are _Rue the Day_ and _Molly's World: In search of the Magic Kibble_. Of course, those are mine, and you'll have that sense of "Ah, I understand" once you understand why they have those names. I'm still in the process of finding publishers for those.

Shameless pre-plugging aside, there's a book called, Diary of the Late, Great God. Never read it but it sounds fun just for the title.

Ronda

[Maryn]

I admire "Hello, He Lied." So catchy and easy to remember, and fits the book to a T.

Maryn

[Susan Gable]

Oh, I just thought of another genre book title that I thought was very catchy.

I Waxed My Legs for This?

Susan G.

[SJB]

"Cry, the Beloved Country."

Even the title of that book makes me lachrymose.

"The Heart is a Lonely Hunter" and "Gone with the Wind" are also effective titles (and they belong to marvellous novels, besides).

I really hate two- or three-word titles that begin with "The," which fails to account for the huge number of John Grisham and Stephen King books gracing my groaning bookshelves.

Diverting topic.

[jules]

There was a short story nominated for one of the SF awards a couple of years ago called "The Wages of Syntax". Once I'd read the title, I simply had to go and find a copy of the story. It's the only title that has ever had that effect on me.

[Maryn]

Interesting, jules. I react in the opposite way to titles that are deliberate puns. Of course, those are the ones that shove other candidates to one side when I'm titling my own work. Please make "Carl's Bad Tavern" go away!

Maryn

[Zane Curtis]

I always thought that Harlan Ellison had the best titles. How could you not be curious about a story called "Repent Harlequin!" said the Tick-Tock Man, or I Have No Mouth and I Must Scream.

[katiemac]

Sort of off-topic, I guess, but along the lines of catchy titles.


Has anyone slapped a ridiculous and unfitting, but nontheless catchy title on their manuscript or short in hopes to drag them out of the slushpile?

[Puddle Jumper]

I like the title, "The Fellowship of the Ring." I just think that's a cool sounding title.

[Kiva Wolfe]

Dune, The Exorcist, Razor's Edge, Basic Instinct, American Psycho, SWF, Bastard Out of Carolina, Valley of the Dolls, Even Cowgirls Get the Blues, Diary of a Mad Housewife...

I have to stop here out of my fear of six-word titles.

[aka eraser]

Something Wicked This Way Comes - Ray Bradbury
The Three Stigmata of Palmer Eldritch - Philip K. Dick
The Well At The World's End - William Morris
I Have No Mouth And I Must Scream - Harlan Ellison
What Fish Don't Want You to Know - Frank P. Baron (HAY! If Ray can do it....)

[jules]

Dick had a few good titles along those lines, actually. We can remember it for you wholesale, which was the short story that eventually became Total Recall. Your appointment will be yesterday was kind of cool, too.

[blacbird]

Don't know the author, or whether the thing is good or not, but the title I saw a few years ago was wonderful: "Lead Us Not into Penn Station".

Then there's always Manuel Puig's "Eternal Curse on the Reader of These Pages."

bird

[La Reine]

I also like "The Bluest Eye" by Toni Morrison.

[Supafly]

To be honest, The Pacific Between is a nice title. I like the way it sounds.

[KTC]

A Confederacy of Dunces by John Kennedy Toole.
The Neon Bible by John Kennedy Toole.
You Shall Know Our Velocity by Dave Eggers.
The Bell Jar by Slyvia Plath

I am always drawn to a book by its title. I would never underestimate the power of a catchy title. I agree with Supafly, as well, on Ray's title.

[maestrowork]

I must have a dirty mind... I keep seeing something else in the title of this thread.... ;)