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Original poster

Literary fiction: what are the best ever book titles, and why?

62 replies

nighbynight · 31/10/2009 13:29

Is this question considered on creative writing courses? (Never done one, so dont know.)
Anyway, I was trying to think of a good title, and was thinking of lots of famous books, and recent books, and why the titles are so great.

Quotes are out, I think? (dated). Like "The agony and the ecstasy" or "To Love and Be Wise"

A title like "Crime and Punishment" is too big for the book, unless you are writing, well Crime and Punishment.

I rather like wordplay like Faiza Guene's "Just like tomorrow" (kifkif demain) in which the author is describing a way of life from which it is very hard to escape.

The sorrows of an american is a great title as well, because it's so memorable.

what are your favourite book titles?

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Original poster
nighbynight · 01/11/2009 13:22

Some interesting suggestions here.

Love in a Cold Climate is pure genius - it's snappy, and neatly sums up the book.

I have never figured out what Catcher in the Rye actually means, but I probably wasn't concentrating because the book had numbed me by the time it was explained.

I was also thinking of something like "Wuthering Heights," which ties the action to a place, and evokes pictures of the moors.
This book could easily have been called something else though, like "Heathcliffe's Revenge." I wonder what other titles were considered??

I think that long titles like "Midnight in the Garden of Good and Evil" or "If Nobody Speaks of Remarkable Things" work like advertising slogans, they whet your curiosity to pick the book up.

Oh, have just thought of another personal favourite: "My Name Is Red" by Orhan Pamuk. (translated from turkish of course)

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troutpout · 01/11/2009 10:17

I like..

If Nobody Speaks of Remarkable Things

not sure why really...but i do

Blackduck · 01/11/2009 10:08

Altered Carbon - Sci Fi book with clever idea about how to change identity....

dittany · 01/11/2009 01:25

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dittany · 01/11/2009 01:21

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PrincessFiorimonde · 01/11/2009 01:21

Some great titles already mentioned.

How about:
Love in a Cold Climate
I Know Why the Caged Bird Sings

(v evocative titles)

PrincessFiorimonde · 01/11/2009 01:11

Plagued by the Nightingale

said · 01/11/2009 00:44

By Grand Central Station I Sat Down and Wept - great when you're young in troubled love, requited or otherwise.

Bonjour Tristesse - ditto. Both also have "not UK" glamour

(Bit of a theme there)

The Catcher in the Rye

The Razor's Edge

Both enigmatic; what do the mean exactly?

PrincessFiorimonde · 01/11/2009 00:37

I am sure there was a book called something like 'Destroyed by the Nightingale' (but even more startling) and it was published by Virago. I read it in the 1980s and for years I used to quote it as an unusual title, but now my brain has atrophied and I can't recall it... Can't find it on Virago's website tho, so maybe it was all a dream.
(Good book, tho.)

jodee · 01/11/2009 00:37

The Hollow Chocolate Bunnies of the Apocalypse.

I Capture the Castle.

MissGreatBritain · 01/11/2009 00:07

A Short History of Tractors in Ukranian.

Wuthering Heights.

Anything taken from a quote from elsewhere eg

Far From the Madding Crowd

For whom the Bell Tolls

Original poster
nighbynight · 31/10/2009 18:52

any writers about?

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