Comments on: titular

By: Rabia

Rabia — Thu, 11 Mar 2010 14:03:27 +0000

Ha, that is a crazy long title! I like some of those, too, in small doses. I’ve always found the Alexander McCall Smith titles (The No. 1 Ladies’ Detective Agency, In the Company of Cheerful Ladies, and others of the series) to be charming.

I would certainly give a second glance to a book called The Knife of Never Letting Go, as long as it had an attractive-to-me cover. Then the blurb would have to live up to the title. I dislike it when I get excited by title only to find that the blurb is not remotely interesting to me.

Thanks for stopping by, Marina.

By: Marina

Marina — Thu, 11 Mar 2010 06:59:12 +0000

I read a book once that boasted the delightful title And to My Nephew Albert I Leave the Island What I Won Off Fatty Hagan in a Poker Game. I enjoyed the book but now, maybe 30 years later, I remember nothing of the plot — but I’ll never forget that title!

I like titles that aren’t immediately understandable, so you wonder what the book’s about, and have to take a look to find out — like Patrick Ness’s The Knife of Never Letting Go. I also like allusions to poetry, and clever titles that mean several things at once — but I can’t think of any at the moment … must get off the internet before my brain has a meltdown.

By: Megs - Scattered Bits

Megs - Scattered Bits — Wed, 10 Mar 2010 20:01:00 +0000

Yeah, I’m big on the one-word, two-word, or poetry EVOCATIVE. Not real overwhelmed by ANY of the other templates, even if it’s a favorite book.

By: Rabia

Rabia — Wed, 10 Mar 2010 18:21:38 +0000

Oh, yes, The God Themselves. That’s one of the few Isaac Asimov books I can remember every after all these years (I went through my Asimov phase in high school).

One of the other ones I really like is “A Great and Terrible Beauty”. It sounds like a literary allusion, but I haven’t been able to track it down as one. Any ideas?

I recently submitted a short story I titled Beauty, Unraveling. I just love that name. I guess that’s the [noun], [adjective/verb] template.

Good call on the [verb][someone/something]. I feel like I’ve seen enough of the Saving [Someone] titles that it’s lost some of the spark for me. Ditto with Redeeming [noun]–or maybe it’s from too much exposure to christianese.

By: Megs - Scattered Bits

Megs - Scattered Bits — Wed, 10 Mar 2010 16:28:44 +0000

Those little quotation ones are short stories, I know. But…at least it’s fiction and they really are some of my favs.

By: Megs - Scattered Bits

Megs - Scattered Bits — Wed, 10 Mar 2010 16:28:00 +0000

Favorite book titles:
A Ring of Endless Light (line of poetry)
Midnight Never Come (poetry again)
“Captivity” (one-word)
“Darkness Box” (adjective)(noun) with a twist. It’s really (noun)(noun) in a way. It’s just lovely and evocative.
The Gods Themselves (phrase of a quote, similar to poetry) [I'm catching my own trend here. ]

Other templates (thought LOOOOOOOONG and hard on this):
(verb)(someone/something). Examples: Saving Sarah Cain, Finding Forrester.

Hmm…I’ll never look at a title the same way again.