Favourite title?

Never let it be said that this blog is too *deep* – enough of my posts have talked about how nice the covers of books are, to do away with that idea. And we’re sticking to surfaces here – because I want to know what your favourite book title is. Not your favourite book, nor necessarily one where the title accurately represents the book, but which is – purely and simply – your favourite title.

I ask because I’m going to be reviewing mine tomorrow… I have mentioned it recently, but I’m going to keep you guessing…

(Oh, and it’s not one of the ones above, I just wanted to put up a picture of books… for more on those titles, look back here.)

32 thoughts on “Favourite title?

  • March 23, 2010 at 1:27 am
    Permalink

    Hmmm…I will admit that hese are all tied to the fact that I did love the books. Favorites off the top of my head: Time Traveller's Wife, Love That Dog, and the Sunne & Splendour.

    Reply
  • March 23, 2010 at 1:39 am
    Permalink

    I love The Sweetness At The Bottom of The Pie – just gorgeous!

    Reply
  • March 23, 2010 at 1:41 am
    Permalink

    for long term memories: "East of the Sun, West of the Moon"
    and for something that flow from the ton like honey:
    "shadow of the wind"

    (seems i have some sort of organic fixation?)

    Reply
  • March 23, 2010 at 2:45 am
    Permalink

    I Would Have Loved Him if I Had Not Killed Him, for no particular reason other than the title.

    Reply
  • March 23, 2010 at 4:34 am
    Permalink

    The one-word titles always get to me: Kate by William J. Mann (although that one does have a subtitle, The Woman Who Was Hepburn); Belinda by Rhoda Broughton; Pendennis by Thackeray; Eucalyptus by Murray Bail; Reeling by film critic Pauline Kael. Time to stop this. It could go on and on.

    Reply
  • March 23, 2010 at 6:37 am
    Permalink

    Plant Dreaming Deep by May Sarton

    (And for a book that I almost didn't read because I hated the title so much…Guernsey Potato Pie blah blah blah. Thank god I got over my aversion to it since I loved the book so much.)

    Reply
  • March 23, 2010 at 9:37 am
    Permalink

    I love long vaguely convoluted titles such as 'The Guernsey Literary and Potato Peel Pie Society' and 'The Miraculous Journey of Edward Tulane'. I also loved the books!

    Reply
  • March 23, 2010 at 9:39 am
    Permalink

    'The World My Wilderness' Rose Macaulay.
    'Ill Met By Moonlight' W.Stanley Moss.
    'The Day After Tomorrow' Allan Folsam.
    'Empire of the Sun' JG Ballard.
    'As I Walked Out One Midsummer Morning' Laurie Lee.
    'The Story of a Nobody' Anton Chekov.
    'Dance to the Music of Time' Anthony Powell.
    'So Long See You Tomorrow' William Maxwell'
    'The House of Lost Souls' FG Cottam.

    Just rummaged through my bookshelves for these. I have been known to buy a book just because of its title.

    Reply
  • March 23, 2010 at 9:48 am
    Permalink

    I have a few:

    – Sputnik Sweetheart by Haruki Murakami
    – The Loudest Sound and Nothing by Clare Wigfall
    – Wuthering Heights by Emily Bronte
    – Other Stories and Other Stories by Ali Smith (which was the title that inspired my blog's name)

    As a corollary to this topic, this seems like an apt moment to share my favourite newspaper headline. A few years ago, the big news in my native Scotland was that Celtic, one of the two biggest football teams in the country, had been beaten by the tiny Inverness Caledonian Thistle. The Daily Record (Scottish equivalent of the Mirror) had this GENIUS headline:

    "SuperCaleyGoBallisticCelticAreAtrocious"

    I have no interest in either football or tabloids, but my goodness, that headline is a belter.

    Reply
  • March 23, 2010 at 10:10 am
    Permalink

    "Under the Greenwood Tree"
    "The Darling Buds of May"
    Off the top of my head & probably influenced by spring *finally* arriving :)
    Oh yes, "The Body in the Library" always makes me smile.

    Reply
  • March 23, 2010 at 11:24 am
    Permalink

    A Dance to the Music of Time (Anthony Powell) – though I hated the three books I managed to get through.
    The Towers of Trebizond (Rose Macaulay).
    The Serendipity Shop (Dorita Fairlie Bruce).
    If This is Love, I'll Take Spaghetti (a teenage novel I have never read, but the title stuck).

    Reply
  • March 23, 2010 at 12:14 pm
    Permalink

    Liked your post. Someday I hope to write a book where the royalties will pay for the copies I give away.
    :-)
    Nikki

    Reply
  • March 23, 2010 at 12:27 pm
    Permalink

    I slept on this one last night. It appears my favorites are long titles, and many of them from the humor category. That said, Howard's End is on the Landing has got to be my favorite (but then I love everything about it from cover to contents).

    For other titles that I love (not necessarily for their contents), I turn to some of our southern humorists like Fannie Flagg, who gave us The Fried Green Tomatoes at the Whistle Stop Cafe, and Welcome to the World, Baby Girl! Then there's Lewis Grizzard who came up with these, "Don't Bend Over in the Garden, Granny, You Know Them Taters Got Eyes" and "I Took a Lickin' and Kept on Tickin' : And Now I Believe in Miracles." And to round them off with another great bibliophilic title there's Kathy L. Patrick's, "The Pulpwood Queen's Tiara-Wearing, Book-Sharing Guide to Life."

    I agree with Karen on The Sweetness, and loved Kirsty's news headline, and Ali Mal reminded me of "Who Killed Roger Ackroyd," and "Why Didn't They Ask Evans?"

    And I'll just stop here since I could go on and on. What a fun thing to think about – thanks again Simon, for putting the question out ther.

    Reply
  • March 23, 2010 at 12:38 pm
    Permalink

    Hmmmm a favourite title… I think I am going to have to go away and think about that one Simon as I have never really thought about it before! I will be back with answers pronto!

    Reply
  • March 23, 2010 at 1:07 pm
    Permalink

    The two that pop into mind are Loves Music, Loves to Dance and then also The Moon is a Harsh Mistress. I haven't read Heinlein's book yet, but I just love that title.

    Reply
  • March 23, 2010 at 1:31 pm
    Permalink

    The Kitchen God's Wife – Amy Tan

    The House of the Spirits – Isabel Allende

    White is for Witching – Helen Oyeyemi

    And lest we forget a true great …

    Angus, Thongs and Full Frontal Snogging – Louise Rennison

    (actually the whole series)

    Reply
  • March 23, 2010 at 1:42 pm
    Permalink

    That's tough! Here's my favorite three (off the top of my head, so I might be forgetting something)…The Curious Incident of the Dog in the Night-Time, Ella Minnow Pea, Now We Are Six.

    Reply
  • March 23, 2010 at 1:45 pm
    Permalink

    Raising More Hell and Fewer Dahlias, The amazing Maurice and his educated rodents, Love's Labour's Lost, and I have *always* enjoyed Much Ado About Nothing, largely because most don't realise that is a fair summary of the plot.

    Life, Liberty and the Pursuit of Sausages is one on my reading list. Although Holt's books are known for their brilliant titles and poor narrative (with a few exceptions).

    Reply
  • March 23, 2010 at 2:16 pm
    Permalink

    I'm attracted to beautiful titles as much as I am to covers! Some of my very favourites:

    One Hundred Years of Solitude by Gabriel Garcia Marquez
    Memories of My Melancholy Whores by Gabriel Garcia Marquez
    The Moor's Last Sigh by Salman Rushdie
    The Unbearable Lightness of Being by Milan Kundera
    To the Lighthouse by Virginia Woolf
    The Mambo Kings Play Songs of Love by Oscar Hijuelos
    A Simple Habana Melody (from when the world was good) by Oscar Hijuelos
    Everything is Illuminated by Jonathan Safran Foer
    Never Let Me Go by Kazuo Ishiguro
    The Book of Luminous Things, edited by Czeslaw Milosz

    So many more, but I'll stop taking over your comments page!

    Reply
  • March 23, 2010 at 10:12 pm
    Permalink

    'The Finest Type of English Womanhood' conjures up all sorts of images and just sounds lovely.

    Reply
  • March 23, 2010 at 10:20 pm
    Permalink

    West with the Night – Markham
    Screwtape Letters – Lewis
    Jonathan Strange and Mr. Norrell – Clarke
    The Deathly Hallows – Rowling
    Very fun post–thanks!

    Reply
  • March 23, 2010 at 11:28 pm
    Permalink

    The Brontes Went to Woolworths, although it took me ages to find a cheap second-hand copy and then when I read it, I didn't enjoy it all that much … they were such an irritating family. Not the Brontes, the family in the book, whose name I'll probably remember as soon as I press send.

    Reply
  • March 24, 2010 at 12:09 am
    Permalink

    Having thought briefly about it, I'm going to plump for 'Goodnight Mister Tom'.

    Reply
  • March 24, 2010 at 10:52 pm
    Permalink

    Two titles I came across recently that stopped me in my tracks are Hallucinating Foucault by Patricia Duncker and Flowers Stained With Moonlight by Catherine Shaw. Beautiful.

    Reply
  • March 24, 2010 at 10:59 pm
    Permalink

    I bought Hallucinating Foucault because of its title! It was quite good… I always meant to blog about it, but somehow never got around to it.

    Reply
  • March 24, 2010 at 11:04 pm
    Permalink

    It doesn't make you actually hallucinate Foucault does it? That would be my reason for leaving it on the shelf…

    Reply
  • March 25, 2010 at 9:46 pm
    Permalink

    Like Claire, One Hundred Years of Solitude (I liked all of yours!); Woman on the Edge of Time by Marge Piercy; The Left Hand of Darkness by Ursula le Guin (all about people who combine both sexes, on another planet); The Night the Bed Fell on Father by James Thurber (short story, very funny); I Capture the Castle by Dodie Smith; Bats in the Belfry (all about Siamese Cats); The House at Pooh Corner (this is shading into my favourite books so I will stop now!)
    Also am aiming to read Howard's End is on the Landing for the title.

    Reply
  • March 25, 2010 at 9:47 pm
    Permalink

    Sorry another one: Agatha Raisin and the Quiche of Death by MC Beaton.

    Reply
  • March 27, 2010 at 4:58 am
    Permalink

    I used to work in the Rare Book Room at Bryn Mawr College, and I came across a set of books called "Salad for the Solitary" (1854) and "Salad for the Social" (1856). I love the idea of preparing your salads based on personality preferences for introversion or extroversion!

    (P.S.: This is my first post, but I've been enjoying your blog for a while now)

    Reply

Leave a Reply to Jennifer Dee Cancel reply

Your email address will not be published. Required fields are marked *

%d bloggers like this: