| Author | Message | ||
     Rhysaurus (Rhysaurus) Username: Rhysaurus Registered: 01-2010 Posted From: 212.219.233.223 |
I've just blogged about book titles and made a list of my top ten titles ever. The blog entry can be found here: http://mantoucan.blogspot.com/ I don't like simple titles: I prefer intricate, lyrical, clever titles. Anyway... | ||
| Carolinec (Carolinec) Username: Carolinec Registered: 06-2009 Posted From: 92.232.199.129 |
Agreed, Rhys, a good title draws me in as a reader - it makes me want to read the book (or short story, as I tend to go for those). Current favourites sitting here on my shelf in front of me are: "Never Trust a Rabbit" - Jeremy Dyson "Love Songs for the Shy and Cynical" - Rob Shearman I'm sure there are many others I could think of, but I'm dashing off to do something right now ... | ||
| Kate (Kathleen) Username: Kathleen Registered: 09-2009 Posted From: 86.131.51.196 |
Some of my best-loved titles are from giallos: The House with Laughing Windows All the Colours of the Dark Seven Notes in Black What Have You Done to Solange? Even if the films aren't always as good as their titles, they always intrigue me enough to want to see them. | ||
| Des (Des) Username: Des Registered: 09-2010 Posted From: 86.169.219.237 |
The House of Canted Steps (though I haven't read it) Hello Summer, Goodbye The Fruit Stoners Martin Pippin in the Apple Orchard Monitored Dreams & Strategic Cremations -- 1: "The Bisquit Position" and 2: "The Girl With Rapid Eye Movements | ||
| Tom_alaerts (Tom_alaerts) Username: Tom_alaerts Registered: 03-2008 Posted From: 194.78.35.175 |
To me, a title & the cover design mainly serve for the prospective reader in a bookshop to pick up the book amongst countless others that are demanding your attention. In this context, a very effective title is Reggie Oliver's "The Complete Symphonies of Adolf Hitler". Often I have friends who are browsing my bookcases and utter "What the .... is that" when they encounter that one, and they always want to find out more. Other titles that I liked were: - Invitation for a beheading (an interesting early Nabokov) - Gangrene (Belgian modern classic) - Leonardo's Judas (Leo Perutz... check him out) - Death and the Penguin - A Short History of Tractors in Ukrainian - The Girl Who Kicked the Hornet's Nest - The Discovery of Heaven (Dutch modern classic) | ||
| Karim Ghahwagi (Karim) Username: Karim Registered: 03-2008 Posted From: 193.89.189.24 |
some favourite titles: The Hollow Chocolate Bunies of the Apocalypse Nostradamus Ate My Hampster The Spy Who Came in From The Cold If You Could See Me Now The Face That Must Die The Restaurant At the End Of The Universe The Collector Collector John Dies At the End Gravity's Rainbow Good To Be God The Atrocity Exhibition The Great And Secret Show Her Fearful Symmetry The Wavering knife The Fortress of Solitude How Spoiler's Bleed Invisible Cities Cosmicomics Foucault's Pendlum Sunset with a Beard | ||
| Tony (Tony) Username: Tony Registered: 03-2008 Posted From: 86.153.151.150 |
I'm rubbish with titles and tend to use one word (with 'The' in front of it). I love titles that begin with 'The Man' and 'The House' but there's so many now. Also I actually think just hearing the title The Lion, the Witch and the Wardrobe as a child got me into art and writing in one fell swoop (sad story; it got read to us at school - I was new to the school and the whole class knew and loved the book, had had it read to them before. When the teacher offered to read it to them all again the classroom exploded with excitement. What a reaction for a book to have...). Ian Fleming gave great title. BTW - as a request for advice, which title is better, The Secret Sea or Dissolution House? | ||
| Tony (Tony) Username: Tony Registered: 03-2008 Posted From: 86.153.151.150 |
Oh, and stories/books that begin with 'The Girl' or 'The Boy' are up there with 'Man' and 'House.' | ||
| John Llewellyn Probert (John_l_probert) Username: John_l_probert Registered: 03-2008 Posted From: 213.253.174.81 |
Some rubbish movie titles include: Can Hieronymous Merkin Ever Forget Mercy Humppe & Find True Happiness? 30 Is A Dangerous Age, Cynthia Turk 182 The Last Airbender Although if they've stuck in my head have they in fact achieved their purpose? And would Jack Vance's Servants of the Wankh have achieved such a degree of chuckling publicity at UK SF conventions if it had been called something else? |