Title is destiny: or, tell me about your favorite book titles

Discussion

I love a good book title.

I have to write titles of various types with relative frequency in my day job, and it's taught me to appreciate the art form of a great name. In my work, I like to joke that most titles are either (a) factual, or (b) cutesy, and I think this even holds true in a lot of cases for romance novels. For example:

  • Factual: A factual title is about what it says it's about. These are books like Morning Glory Milking Farm, Ice Planet Barbarians, The Matrimonial Advertisement, Hot Rabbi (heh), The Roommate.
  • Cutesy: Basically everything else. Jk. But all those HRs that are plays on modern titles or phrases like The Duke with the Dragon Tattoo, Do You Want to Start a Scandal, etc.), pun titles (like Tessa Bailey's Hot and Hammered series), etc.
  • You could probably add a third category for Formulaic, and a LOT of HR titles fall in here. Things like A ______ to Remember, anything involving Rogue/Ruin/Scandal/Wallflower.

I want to be clear that I'm not calling any of these titles out. Most titles don't really make me feel one way or the other. But a good title is worth appreciating. A good title makes you curious. It might tell you something about the book that you don't realize until you've read it. It might be smart or clever or sly or sweet. It might just be fun to say or stick in your mind like an earworm. Maybe you didn't even like the book that much, but damn, it had a good title.

I'd love to hear about your favorite book titles. What are they? What makes it fun, delightful, or great for you? On the flip side, any titles you wish you could change?

Make sure to use spoiler tags if necessary!

Posted Sep 18, 2021, 7:14 PM UTC

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