Judging a Book By Its. . . Title

Comments by Jeanne

While not as popular as judging a book by its cover, book titles can help make or break a book.  Some are just so nondescript they’re forgettable which is why I can’t remember any just now.  Other titles are so popular that they’ve been used repeatedly by many authors.  If someone asks for The Search or The Quest or The Rescue, there are many possibilities.  Is it The Search by Nora Roberts, Grace Livingston Hill, Iris Johansen, or Jerry Jenkins?  Even saying that it’s an Amish story only helps a little, because there are books by that title by both Suzanne Woods Fisher and Shelley Gray Shepard.

A few years back I remember great confusion over two “big” books due out, one by Douglas Preston& Lincoln Child and the other by Patricia Cornwell.  Both were entitled The Book of the Dead. One was delayed in publication for a few months and I always wondered if it was because of the titles. 

Then there are the titles based on famous poems or phrases.  Just take a look for the lines of “Stopping by the Woods on a Snowy Evening” and you’ll find books entitled And Miles To Go, Miles to Go, Promises to Keep, and Before I Sleep.  There are variations galore on “Now you see me/him/her,” quotations from Shakespeare, the Bible, popular songs, and nursery rhymes.

Then there are great titles that become classics but do have the potential to mislead readers. Zen and the Art of Motorcycle Maintenance is certainly in that category because it baffled readers  hoping to repair their Harley; To Kill A Mockingbird is not a guide to hunting; and nobody knows what A Catcher in the Rye is.

On the other hand, there are some that sound so intriguing that one wants to read the book just to see if it can possibly live up to that title or to at least find out what the heck it means.  Here are some of my favorites:

If I’d  Killed Him When I Met Him by Sharyn McCrumb

Hitchhiker’s Guide to the Galaxy by Douglas Adams

I Still Miss My Man (But My Aim Is Getting Better) by Sarah Shankman

When In Doubt, Add Butter by Beth Harbison

Maybe He’s Just a Jerk by Carol Rosen

He’s Just Not That Into You by Greg Behrendt

So Long, And Thanks for All the Fish by Douglas Adams

Beware the Naked Man Who Offers You His Shirt by Harve Mackay

Mama Makes Up Her Mind and Other Dangers of Southern Living by Bailey White

Saturday. . . My Day to Wear the Underwear! by Allen Jennings has a title that both intrigues and hints at what it was like to grow up in "'old' Fries, Virginia."

Finally, there’s the great title which prompted this column:  Chose the Wrong Guy, Gave Him the Wrong Finger by Beth Harbison.

Kristin favors titles by Lewis Grizzard, especially Elvis Is Dead and I Don’t Feel So Good Myself.  She also likes The Grass is Always Greener Over the Septic Tank by Erma Bombeck and Monsters Eat Whiny Children by Bruce Eric Caplan.

And, at a recent meeting of the Nevermore Book Club Jud serendipitously presented a book about craft beer-making which he said he had picked up because of the title:  The Audacity of Hops by Tom Acitelli.

Does anyone else have a favorite title?