One title to say it all
Before I start a new book, I have to know three things : 1) The title 2) The main characters’ names and 3) An idea how the opening will begin. If I don’t have those three things, I can’t start writing. It’s just the way my brain in wired. When I chose a title for a book, I try pick it based on two criteria: the obvious premise of the story, but I also want it to carry a second meaning that goes deeper than the surface of the story, touching on the growth/change in the main character(s). I love dreaming up titles or brainstorming with others to come up with titles for their stories. It’s fun and challenging to find just the right play on words to encompass the story.
I know we’ve talked about how book covers can draw us to a book like moths to the flame, but what about titles? Have you ever picked up a book just because it had a cool title that grabbed your attention? Here are a few that caught my eye, either for its clever play-on-words or because the image/feeling that popped in my mind when I read it.
Eats, Shoots & Leaves
Something Wicked This Way Comes
The Hitchhiker’s Guide to the Galaxy
Lord of the Flies
Shut Up and Drive (Loved this! LOL!)
So, have you ever picked up a book because the title was so intriguing? Did you buy it for the title alone? Name a few titles you’ve never forgotten. Why do you think they stuck with you?
The book I most remember picking up just on its title was called “What do you say to a naked elf?” I had to know the answer to that question. The book was very good, but I haven’t seen anything else by that author and it was several years ago that I got that book.
LOL! That would’ve caught my attention to.
Another book I picked up because of the title was: All I Really Need to Know I Learned in Kindergarten.
I really enjoyed that book!
*g* yea I remeber that one… it’s from ‘Cheryl Sterling’, isn’t it?
Unfortunately I had no money in my pocket when I happened to see it – that was one of the times when I wondered if anybody would notice it if I stole the book (of course I didn’t steal it… *sigh* I never steal things , it would make me feel really bad, but I often think about it, especially at the end of a month…)
I always liked “A Wrinkle in Time” by Madeliene L’Engle. Also, A. Lee Martinez always has good titles – e.g., A Nameless Witch, In the Company of Ogres. I am attracted to a book by a cover or a title. (Or an author I know I like.) Then I read the back, and maybe even the first chapter to see what I think. But a title will certainly attract me.
Patrice — BTW, Karen Moning’s Shadowfever (the 5th and last book) will not be out until 12/28/10. So sad!! Waaah!
Ooh, A Wrinkle in Time is one of my favorite books. I heard that there will be graphic novels coming out. I’m SO excited!
Thanks for the head up on KMM’s Shadowfever. December!?!?!?! *thud*
I love titles. A title can pull me or repel me as much as the cover art can.
I love the title of Bitten. It fits the story so well, it’s short, to the point, and intriguing. It’s about a werewolf, so bites are superficially relevant, but as you get into the story you realize the circumstances of how she was bitten are central to her character and her relationships with the other werewolves.
Finders Keepers sounded okay at first, but after I read the back cover (“she found a foreign soldier but she won’t be allowed to keep him”) it sounded even better.
Undead and Unwed is really catchy title. It rhymes! And I think it captures the spirit of the story really well. It’s about a single thirty-year-old vampire who’s more interested in your really cute shoes than that juicy vein in your neck.
MJD has some of the BEST titles, but then her humor always is spot on too.
I like titles that pull me in with evocative images or humor..
I picked up Magic Bites a couple of years back because I liked the title. The cover was cool and the summary sounded like a good deal.. but in all honesty, it was the title that first caught my eye.
Same deal with Nalini’s Archangel’s Blood.
Honestly,the title probably plays a bigger role for me in the urban fantasy/science fiction genre in deciding what to pick up/ look over .. more so than any other genre of fiction (ie: Romance/mystery etc).
You make an interesting point about the genre. I’m also more pulled in by unique UF titles than Romance ones.
I started reading Kim Harrison because of Dead Witch Walking. I love her covers too.
You’re right. Kim has some great book titles!
the german title of undead and unwed drew my attention too.
But else I´m mostly attrackted by covers or more precise, colors.
Only with authors I know interesting titles decide which one I read next.
Wolfgang Hohlbein´s “War of Angel” I read because of the title and fell in love with when I was twelve. I recently got even my own copy, since I love rereading it so much.
I hadn’t thought about the colors angle, but that makes sense. Maybe that’s one of the reasons fonts (and their colors) are also a big part of the book cover.
I could never forget ‘Something Wicked This Way Comes’ and ‘Lord of the Flies’ either. I think I remember LOTF because of its arresting cover (an illustration of a blood-smeared pig’s head).
Other titles:
‘Zero at the Bone’ by Jane Seville
‘Son of the Morning’ by Linda Howard
‘Bury My Heart at Wounded Knee’
‘The Violent Bear It Away’ (I still don’t get this title)
‘Slow Heat in Heaven’ by Sandra Brown
‘To Say Nothing of the Dog’
‘A Heartbreaking Work of Staggering Genius’
‘Far From the Madding Crowd’
‘I Sing the Body Electric’ (and Susan Squire’s ‘Body Electric’)
And Nora Roberts’s oxymoronic titles, such as ‘Honest Illusions’, ‘Public Secrets’ and so on.
Yep, the pig’s head was the cover I saw for LOTF (many years ago) as well.
I LOVED Sandra Brown’s early romances! Slow Heat in Heaven was such a great title. It was included in a hardback version of three-books-in-one when I bought it many years ago.
And I really like titles like Nora’s…kind of makes you go…hmmmmm, what’s that all about.
My favorite is “I Still Miss My Man but my aim is getting better,” by Sarah Shankman.
Cackle!
I’m going to look for that one!
=A
LMAO! What a great title. That’s so funny. Did you read the book?
haha, funny!!!! *G*
‘Magic Bites’ and ‘Dead Witch Walking’, for sure. Also, ‘Death of the Necromancer’, ‘Kitty and the Midnight Hour’ and ‘Alien Taste’.
)
But the best title I have ever seen is non-fiction: ‘The Unforgiving Minute’. Even if you aren’t familiar with Kipling’s ‘If’ it’s good. If you happen to remember the last verse of ‘If’, it rocks. If you know what happened to Kipling’s son, to whom ‘If’ is speaking, it feels like a gut punch. Then I picked up the book and saw it’s the memoir of an American soldier fighting in Afghanistan – which is where Kipling’s son died – and I bought it even though I’m not yet able to read military non-fiction. This title I will never forget.
(If only I could come up with titles that affected people so profoundly
=A
…If you can fill the unforgiving minute
with sixty seconds worth of distance run,
then yours is the earth, and all that is in it.
What’s more, you’ll be a man, my son.
(He died trying to live up to the expectations his father charted in the poem.)
One piece of Kipling’s work that I’m familiar with and am ALWAYS moved by is THE POWER OF THE DOG. If you’ve ever lost a pet, especially a dog, read this one. It’s both heart wrenching and uplifting and a poem I always send on to friends grieving over a beloved pup’s passing.
Off to read IF now.
Wicked Lovely
A Great and Terrible Beauty
Beautiful Creatures
Wonderous Strange
I can’t remember the author, this was a random suggestion on Amazon but the title has completely, forever, stuck in my brain. “The last camel died at noon.” Turns out it is part of a series and all the titles are just as fun.
Bought one last week on title alone (and six others because I’ve moved house and have shelf space again!) – The Space Travller’s Handbook. It’s non-fiction. How could I resist?
I like when a series has a theme which gets repeated in all the titles…. *smiles*
like GRAVE in all of Jeaniene’s Cat and Bones books.
Or MAGIC in all KD books from Ilona.
And if there is both a play of word AND that theme it’s also very cool.
I very much like Hohlbein’s titles, like you lacrima, right from the beginning:
Schattenjagd for instance (Shadowhunt)
or Märchenmond (Fairytale moon)
and many others….
Hey CheeseBK! I followed you here from the cemetary!
Lora Leigh also has a series that carries a theme to all the titles and the title of the first book caught my eye. It’s her “Nauti” series.