The word sixpence above reminds me of W.Somerset Maugham's novel inspired by the life of Gauguin: The Moon and Sixpence. A simple title, but intriguing and poetic. Does it actually mean anything? I do not remember the phrase occurring anywhere in the text, but it's a long time since I read it.

I can't think of any book which I chose not to read solely because of the title; how would I remember it? While browsing, I often pick up a book because the title is intriguing, such as "The Memory Keeper's Daughter" by Kim Edwards which I am reading now. Perhaps the bookcover art has as much influence as the title when I am considering an unknown book. A hot pink jacket or bodice-ripper picture will send me running, as will a bloody knife, leaving a slim chance that I'll open the book to see if it interests me.

In the category of "books renamed for the American audience" is the originally titled "The Surgeon From Crowthorne" by Simon Winchester. This non-fiction book about the making of the OED was retitled for the Americans as "The Professor and the Madman."

I'm aware of several "renaming across the Atlantic" books.

Flowers for Mrs Harris by Paul Gallico is, I think, a lovely title. Mrs 'Arris goes to Paris, on the other hand, is 'orrible. In fact, all four Mrs Harris books are renamed to "Mrs 'Arris" in the US.

Another Gallico book, Jennie, became The Abandoned. Why?

Stan Barstow's book A Raging Calm became The Hidden Part in the US. That just seems like a title change for the hell of it.

But the most tricky title change I'm aware of is Julian Barnes' book Talking it Over. It has a chapter in it, called Love, etc.. When the book was translated into French, for some reason the book was renamed Love, etc.. That's literal, by the way; a French translation with an English title. But it gets worse. A few years later, Julian Barnes wrote a sequel to Talking it Over, which was called Love, etc.. The French translation of that book is called Dix ans apres (Ten Years After). So - pay attention at the back there! - we have a French book called Love, etc, and an English book called Love, etc, both by Julian Barnes - but they are not the same book.

Clare Dudman's debut novel was titled Wegener's Jigsaw in the UK and One Day the Ice Will Reveal All Its Dead in the US. I actually think that the UK title was the better one -- a simple and accurate description of what the book is about. However, the US title gives one a sense of the author's poetic prose. The book was a fictional biography of the life of Alfred Wegener and I also found it to be a very loving tribute to both him and his wife, Else. It was one of my favorite reads from last year.

Another book I have that has an interesting title (I picked it up because of the title, in fact) is Light Can Be Both Wave and Particle: A Book of Stories by Ellen Gilchrist.

Some of you know that one of my favorite authors is Alain Fournier, whose solitary work "Le Grande Meaulnes" was written before his untimely death in WW I. I read the original in French, but then learned that there are 2 English translations of the title, namely "The Lost Domain" and "The Wanderer." I prefer "The Lost Domain" as it is evocative of the story itself, but I have never known if one title is American and the other British, or vice-versa.

Just off the top of my head, two titles come to mind that I like very much: poet Annie Doak Dillard's "Teaching a Stone to Talk" and "A Pilgrim at Tinker Creek."

I happen to find the title of Zafon's novel, "The Shadow of the Wind" intriguing, almost magical....

Finally, in high school Spanish lit. class, we read a work whose wonderful title has long stayed with me: "The Trees Die Standing." I don't even recall the name of the author....

I like a lot of James Lee Burke's titles, e.g.

Heaven's Prisoners
Last Car to Elysian Fields
The Neon Rain
To the Bright and Shining Sun
Black Cherry Blues
The Lost Get-Back Boogie
A Stained White Radiance
Purple Cane Road
In the Electric Mist with the Confererate Dead

Actually, I like all his titles and his books, but I prefer the Dave Robicheaux series.

Ah! Thanks to all of you for jogging my old brain cells.

Dido, I wish I had your memory for poetry. I bet more book titles have been purloined from lines of poems -- many that I have no idea about. I'm not even sure I've ever read the Dowson poem in its entirety. Does anyone know if Margaret Mitchell ever acknowledged that Dowson was her original source...that she read and internalized his phrase?

I love all the nuggets mentioned so far!

Musicmom, I didn't know Pride and Prejudice was originally First Impressions. Well, that title does fit; but it's just not as memorable somehow, and I don't think it's all about familiarity.

Brenda, Hitler's editor was canny. I wonder if the original unwieldy title would have sunk the book into obscurity -- probably not, but the world would have been much better off if it had.

Georgia, I've observed that science fiction novels often have very intriguing titles -- The Left Hand of Darkness is one that enticed me, too. Unfortunately, though, to me, the contents of sci-fi books seldom live up to their title potential, which is probably more my fault than that of the title givers.

Martin, lawd, what a convolution in the naming and renaming of Barnes' books! Before your instruction, if I had run across Dix ans apres, I would've thought it was a biography of Alvin Lee & Co. The renaming of Gallico's and Barstow's novels for American readers doesn't make much sense, in my mind, either...except, I have to admit Mrs 'Arris Goes to Paris is more memorable to me than Flowers for Mrs Harris -- sometimes, I need all the help I can get to remember titles and I'm afraid that Flowers is just too generic.

Speaking of generic: Single-word titles give me fits, unless the word is a particularly distinctive one as is, say, The Quidcunx (I usually don't count the as a word), and when the title is a person's name, I'm likely to confuse it with some other name. I can remember Jane Eyre and Anna Karenina, but I searched for years for a book by Dee Wells titled Jane because I couldn't recall either the author's name or the title -- it's a good book and I like the character Jane, but, as a title, the name is too easily forgotten, in my opinion. Martin, I would have the same problem with Jennie, though I understand the Jennie in the book is a cat; isn't she?

Okay, I'll give an example of a title that annoyed me so much that for the longest time I refused to read the book: A Heartbreaking Work of Staggering Genius. After reading a part of this piece of work, I hate the title even more!

Edit: I just caught your post, Carolyn. The one that jumps out at me is In the Electric Mist with the Confederate Dead -- now, that brings on an odd combination of images!

I just stumbled upon this today. I'm reading Tamarind Woman by Anita Rau Badami for a book club. The book was titled Tamarind Mem outside the US. Here is what Badami had to say about the title change made by her US publisher:

Badami's U.S. publisher retitled her first book from Tamarind Mem--"mem" being short for "memsahib," or woman of the house. "I was told, 'Either you go with Tamarind Woman or the other option, Sweet and Sour Woman.' It sounded like Chinese take-out to me."

Sweet and Sour Woman, yeeee!

I have to make a correction to my post just previous to this one: Charles Palliser's title is The Quincunx. I wish I could say that "Quidcunx" was a typo, but it wasn't, and neither was it a brain cramp. See, I told you I have trouble with single-word titles. :-)

How about George Orwell?
- Keep the Aspdistra Flying
- Down and Out in Paris and London
- The Road to Wigan Pier
- Coming Up For Air

And I just always liked the title Atlas Shrugged by Ayn Rand.

And for a bad title nomination: The Economic and Social History of Medieval Europe by Henri Pirenne which was actually a good book with the title that sounds as if it should belong to a long dry dissertation.

PAM

I always liked Farenheit 451 - its genius. I love the symbolism of the book and the title is unusal enough to be memorable.

Mary, for the longest time I didn't connect the title The Wanderer with Le Grand Meaulnes: I thought they were different books. I saw the immediate connection of The Lost Domain to LGM, so I think that's the better title for an English translation. I, too, wonder which was intended for the U.S.

Chewie, you've reminded me that I like titles with numbers included because they are easier to remember, though that seems rather strange because I can't recall numbers alone (such as my own telephone #). 84, Charing Cross Road and 92 in the Shade are excellent titles, I think. Of course, there's Nineteen Eight-Four -- Orwell again.

PAM, Orwell's titles are very distinct, aren't they? See, I've never been quite sure whether the titles themselves are so good or Orwell's stories made them memorable. Heh! I like Atlas Shrugged, the title, a lot. The Fountainhead is not bad either -- the title, not the contents, I want to stress, because Ms Rand and I have never seen eye to eye.:-)

Talk about a great lifter of titles from other sources: John Steinbeck. The Grapes of Wrath, East of Eden and The Winter of Our Discontent -- he liked his Bible and Shakespeare. It's funny, too, that many people will attribute these phrases to Steinbeck, first.

Somebody recounted how Catch-22 got its title (more numbers!), but I can't recall which other number was originally intended. Catch-22 and Peyton Place are a couple that went from book titles to everyday phrases. Now, that's something! What are some other examples of that?

Here are some more titles I find poetic: "Lie Down in Darkness" by Wm. Styron (which is from another writer's "Urn Burial.") Also Lillian Hellman's autobiography "Pentimento". (if my art history serves me correctly, this is a term to do with painting; the undercoat scene is revealed when a top coat is scrapped away....)
And, for some reason, Faulkner's "Light in August" resonates with me.

I was in the music store the other day and here's a title that really resonanted with me: How to Play Piano Despite Years of Lessons.

Twobigdogs, I loved Sixpence House and one day would like to go through it again and list all the books he referenced that sounded so intriguing.

If I come across a book with a title such as Our Molly Down a Liverpool Alley or Brave Etty Entwhistle I know they are not for me. They usually deal with poor but honest girls who bring up about ten little brothers and sisters while fighting off the amorous attentions of the local 'toff' before marrying a worthy but dull neighbour. The works of Catherine Cookson and Helen Forrester come to mind.
I also have to admit always being rather wary of some US books written by females with more names than might be considered strictly necessary. I'm sure this is because I am just used to UK writers with boring but safe names like 'Michael Roberts' 'Jane Smith' or 'Jim Brown'.
On the other hand didn't super-rich person Paris Hilton remark while in London recently, how 'weird' she found the names of many British people?

Frieda there must be hundreds of books using lines from poety as their titles . .. if only I could think of them.
All that comes to mind now is Summer's Lease by John Mortimer The Darling Buds of May HE Bates, For Whom the Bell Tolls Hemingway, No Man is an Island Thomas Merton.
As you say the Bible is another great source for titles .. . The Salt of the Earth, Eat, Drink and be Merry Greater Love Than This. . . The Spirit is Willing all used numerous times by various authors.

Re books that change titles are they head 'State Side' Bill Bryson's book Down Under had to be changed as did Captain Corelli's Mandolin and The Madness of George III. Why? Do titles change when they travel East from the US?

Vee, The Sun Also Rises was known as Fiesta in the UK when I was there in the 1970s. Is it still? I'm sure there have been others, but a west-to-east change doesn't seem as common as the opposite. I don't know why, except that American publishers like to finagle with titles...they claim that certain titles just will not sell to American readers. That may be true in some cases, such as Agatha Christie's Ten Little N***ers, which was changed first to Ten Little Indians and eventually to And Then There Were None.

I just remembered that John Gunther's Death Be Not Proud came from Donne's poem.

Mary, I would think your art training and poetry writing makes you more sensitive to "artistic" and "poetic" titles. I happen to like Pentimento, too -- "Old paint on canvas, as it ages, becomes transparent..."

Merry, forgive me, but I laughed at How to Play Piano Despite Years of Lessons since it's very true for me. I tend to put "bounce" into all my piano-playing, even the most solemn of hymns. Give me boogie-woogie so I can hop all over the keys. :-)

Vee, Ms Hilton is the epitome of ding-a-ling, I'm afraid; but I have to admit that I never knew a "Graham, Grahame, Graeme" until my first sojourn in Britain and I suddenly had to keep track of five persons with those various spellings. I never knew an American Mavis or Cecily, either. Of course, a lot has changed in the intervening decades.

Those of you who have been putting up with me for a while will know that change of title is a pet hate of mine. I know that it is sometimes necessary for cultural reasons, but often seems to be a whim of the publishers.

The Bill Bryson book that Vee mentioned above is sold here with the (in my opinion) boring title of Down Under. The title in the US, In a Sunburned Country, while being more interesting, is one recognised by most Aussies, but not to those in other countries. [Further sideline: why is the title spelt incorrectly? I know that is how US writers spell it, but with a direct quote, surely it should be taken in the original form? Oh dear, I think I am turning into a pedantic old f*rt] Check the link below for the original.
The German version is Frustuck mit Kangaroos (imagine the umlaut, I can't make it happen).

Another to do this is Tony Horwitz's book, either Into the Blue: Boldly Going Where Captain Cook has Gone Before in the UK and here, or Blue Latitudes: etc in the US. Why??? Are Commonwealth readers not expected to know what a latitude is??

Things like this are maddening for those of us working in book shops too - it is very hard to keep track of books and know that two are the same although they have different titles.

With regard to picking books of a shelf totally based on the title, I have done that at least once, with Anya Seton's Katherine. Who can resist a book with your own name in big letters, even if it is spelt differently? *VBG*

Here is a link that might be useful: Source of 'A Sunburnt Country'

I read "The Enchanted April" by Elizabeth Arnim, because of the title...obvious...

It's a story about four Englishwomen who rent a house together in Italy. Lovely story, I may read it again.

>Anya Seton's Katherine.

Have you read the followup to this novel?

"The Winthrop Woman" by Anya Seton

Just heard on the radio (would not have known otherwise) that the latest Sally Vickers book The Other Side of You is taken from one of the very many lines of T S Elliot's The Waste Land, who's opening line 'April is the cruellest month' is the title of a religious work by ???

Kath re Down Under I was not familiar with the McKellar poem and had thought the title was changed because it was felt Americans didn't know the expression 'down under'.
As for 'sunburned'/'sunburnt' (as you and I would say) perhaps in the US that is the word they use for what happens if you sit out in the hot sun.
I have noticed since being at RP that some grammar used in the US is not the same as 'wot we speak' esp with the use of the past tense. Someone wrote "yesterday I dig the garden'
when we would have said 'dug the garden'.
We say "he dived into the sea" the US say 'dove' . . .correct me if I'm wrong US RP'ers. I'm sure there are many more eg's.
Back to different titles The Madness of George III was changed to . . .King George because the US powers-that-be felt the US public would not understand the term 'III',
There are plenty of dumb people in the UK who don't understand book/play titles but maybe the publishers, PR people etc don't feel they need to cater for them. Possibly they reckon if some folk are so stupid that they cannot tell the difference between King George and George III they are not likely to see the play/film/read the book.

Hang on a minute - The Winthrop Woman is not a follow-up to Katharine.... (or have I read this wrong?)

The W.W. is set in USA in either late 17th century or early 18ath century.....

Katharine is set in England in the 1300s, at the time of Chaucer who was probably her brother-in-law.

Veer - As to the "Yesterday I dig the garden" - we would say "dug," as well (here in Virginia, I'm not going to speak for the rest of the country).

As to Sunburned vs Sunburnt - I've heard both used interchangably, but most often we say "I've been sunburned." When we look at someone else they've are "sunburnt."

merryworld,
You and I think alike! I underlined almost all of the titles in red. I've just loaned the book to a very reliable trustworthy fellow bibliophile (and best friend) but when I get it back in a week or two, I shall be happy to list all of them! Wouldn't it be fun to have an RP group trip to Hay-on-Wye? I think between all of us here, we could seriously whittle down their inventories!

PAM

Here's a book description I found of "The Winthrop Woman" while I was deciding whether to read it or not:

"First published in 1958 and set in the early 17th century, this bestselling novelÂand follow-up to KatherineÂfollows Elizabeth Winthrop, a courageous Puritan woman who finds herself at odds with her heritage and surroundings. A real historical figure, Elizabeth married into the family of Governor John Winthrop of the Massachusetts Bay Colony. In those times of hardship, famine, and Indian attacks, many believed that the only way to prosper was through the strong, bigoted, and theocratic government that John Winthrop favored. Defying the government and her family, Elizabeth befriends famous heretic Anne Hutchinson, challenges an army captain, and dares to love as her heart commanded. Through ElizabethÂs three marriages, struggles with her passionate beliefs, and countless rebellions, a powerful tale of fortitude, humiliation, and ultimate triumph shines through."

Perhaps 'follow-up' just means that AS wrote The Winthrop Woman after Katherine.

re Down Under I was not familiar with the McKellar poem and had thought the title was changed because it was felt Americans didn't know the expression 'down under'.
It's more likely the title was changed because "Down Under" is considered trite and is trotted out, unimaginatively, for every book written about Australia. "Kangaroo" is overused, too, in the U.S., for titles of Australian-setting books. One of the most stupid that I can think of is Kangaroo in the Kitchen by Ethel Sloan. Ms Sloan, in the early 1970s, was a corporate wife who followed her husband to Sydney. She should have stayed home, because she did nothing but whine about Australian ways being different from American: how Australian mums were repressed women; Australian schoolchildren were regimented; Australian men were lord-god-almighties in their beer-sotted minds; and gasp! the dangers of Australian wildlife, even in the city (funnel spiders, etc.), were enough to keep her from venturing into the countryside. I doubt this woman ever saw a kangaroo in Australia, yet this animal is the featured critter in her book's title!

As for the The Madness of George III being changed to The...King George: I figure it's a matter of euphony (to American ears), with the number designation sounding awkward in this instance. Also, to most Americans, George III is the important King George, the king of "taxation without representation" -- the other five British kings with that name being of minimal interest. Someone wrote "yesterday I dig the garden'I suspect a typo. Dug is what most Americans say, I venture. It's true that "dove" is often used as the past tense of dive in the U.S., in spite of constant correction from teachers, mothers, etc.

April, The Winthrop Woman is an all-time favorite of mine. Have you read Seton's The Mistletoe and the Sword, set in Roman Britain?

>April, The Winthrop Woman is an all-time favorite of mine. Have you read Seton's The Mistletoe and the Sword, set in Roman Britain?

Adding it to my "to read" list, thanks!

>Perhaps 'follow-up' just means that AS wrote The Winthrop Woman after Katherine.

It appears so.

I just looked at the inside of the dust jacket of the WW copy that I have. (I bought it no less than a dozen years ago at a used bookstore. It's a first edition, with a dust cover in pretty rough shape but the book itself is intact.) It mentions "Katherine", but not in the context that WW is a sequel.

Looks like I'll have to finally read it, and several others....my list is getting longer and longer! I was wondering if I should read "Katherine" first, but it looks like it's not necessary.

One of the reasons I bought it in the first place is because the title intrigued me.

Re Title changes across the pond - I believe that the US publishers changed the titles of all Agatha Christie novels which did not contain the word 'murder' or 'death'.

Now how about a title that should really put you off buying the book - I purchased Rat Scabies and the Holy Grail today at the Unconvention. I would usually avoid anything involving celebrities and yet more Rennes-le-Chateau, especially as the cover is not enticing at all either, but an hour's talk about their outings to Da Vinci Code country by Scabies and the author, Chris Dawes, changed my mind. If the book is anything like the lecture, then it should be a completely different angle on the whole story, with a fair amount of humour.

Pam,

I would love to go to Hay-on-Wye, and all the other wonderful places in the UK devoted to old books. Have you read the series on book hunting in Britain at Slate.com?

Martin, that's not true because people in America would be wondering how they missed The Madness of George and The Madness of George, Jr.. What can I say, but that King is not the first word that pops into the American mind when the name George appears. After all, we have plenty of our own famous Georges. Just imagine the confusion if GWB had sons instead of daughters.

Here is a link that might be useful: Book Hunting in Britain

Regarding "over the pond" misunderstandings, when I was in New York, there was a newsflash on TV 'Queens had a blackout.' I waited to hear that our Queen had fainted in public only to realise that it was a traffic report warning people in the Queens area that the traffic lights had gone out!
A bad title can indeed put me off though I should know better than to judge a book that way. One of my favourite childrens books was "Carrots at Orchard End" which was about a red-headed boy and not the vegetable as I had first thought. It was the only book that I have come across that suggested what you should do and where at the beginning of each chapter. As,eg, "Sit on the stairs and eat an apple." and that put one into the scene that followed.

Mary, my mother ranks My Cousin Rachel #2. She likes it better than Rebecca. I put Rachel at #4, just after Rebecca, mainly because the enigma of Rachel (I don't want to say too much) has periodically fevered my brain, but I always have to throw up my hands -- was she or wasn't she? Now, in a way, that open-endedness is part of the pleasure of reading Rachel, for me, and I know other people who love it for that reason, but I know an equal number who feel cheated and I also understand their attitude.

In case you are curious about which of DduM's books my mother ranks #1: it's The King's General. That's my #2. :-)

Here are some great titles where the content actually lived up to its name:

When the Emperor was Divine by Julie Otsuka, a short gem of a novel about a Japanese family sent to Utah during WWII

Walking Across Egypt and its sequel, Killer Diller by Clyde Edgerton about a little old lady who takes in a juvenile delinquent with hilarious results

And then some not-so-great novels (in my opinion) that had outstanding titles:

Audrey Hepburn's Neck by Alan Brown
The Dogs of Babel by Carolyn Parkhurst

And books on my to-be-read list because they have cool titles:

The Nimrod Flip Out by Etgar Keret
If Nobody Speaks of Remarkable Things by Jon McGregor

I almost forgot, I loved the title and book Lost Horizon by James Hilton.

Some books of science essays have great titles, too....Freeman Dyson's "Disturbing the Universe", and "Infinite in All Directions"; Stephen Jay Gould's "Eight Little Piggies", and "Bully for Brontosaurus"; Richard Feynman's "What do You Care What Other People Think?".(Actually, anything by Feynman is pretty funny, as well as thought-provoking.)

litlbit

>Walking Across Egypt and its sequel, Killer Diller by Clyde Edgerton about a little old lady who takes in a juvenile delinquent with hilarious results

I loved these two books...!! I've read all his other books as well, but none compare to these two...Great titles, great stories... remember when the old woman got stuck in the chair? I honestly thought I was going to wet my pants.

>Great titles, great stories... remember when the old woman got stuck in the chair? I honestly thought I was going to wet my pants. I loved that she made the dog catcher wash her dishes before helping her out of the chair. I think my favorite Clyde Edgerton book is Raney. I read it out loud to my husband on vacation and I thought we were both going to die laughing--especially when the kid gets the fish hook stuck in his nose.

Maybe the poster who said "I dig the garden," just really, really liked the garden. :)

Favorite titles (books and short stories)

Motherless Brooklyn Jonathan Lethem
I Have No Mouth and I Must Scream - Harlan Ellison
Singin' and Swingin' and Gettin' Merry Like Christmas - Maya Angelou
I Been In Sorrow's Kitchen and Licked Out All the Pots - Susan Straight
The Year of Magical Thinking - Didion
Saving Fish from Drowning - Amy Tan
To Your Scattered Bodies Go Philip Jose Farmer

Walking Across Egypt -- Apparently, I have been mistaken to think that this book was a travelogue, a la A Walk Across France and Walking the Bible.

Re Audrey Hepburn's Neck -- This intrigues and annoys me at the same time. I've always adored Audrey in her films and she seems to have been as worthy of admiration in real life -- and, yes, she had a beautiful neck -- but, really, to single out that portion of Audrey just seems bizarre and fetishistic. I haven't read the book so my interpretation may not fit, but then I'm not very anxious to read it to find out whether it does or not.

litlbit, I've always loved Stephen Jay Gould's titles: Hen's Teeth and Horse's Toes and The Panda's Thumb and The Flamingo's Smile. Yeah, who says nonfiction titles have to be dry? Feynman was always entertaining -- I enjoy listening to his lectures as well as reading them. And that reminds me of Ralph Leighton's tribute to Feynman: Tuva or Bust! Richard Feynman's Last Journey. The first time I saw that, I said to myself: Tuva? What's a Tuva? Then I read the flap and had to say: Tuva? Where's Tuva?

Vicki, looking at your list, I would assume that you are particularly fond of longer, more descriptive titles. Motherless Brooklyn is only two words, but they are are such an unusual combination (in my opinion, anyway) -- so I wonder if that is what intrigues. I confess that I abandoned the story after only a few chapters, but that title still piques my interest.

I'm now trying to think of titles that I didn't particularly like before I read the book, but afterwards I decided they were pretty good or excellent after all. Also, I've noticed that the better known a writer is, the less important the titles of his books seem to be -- many could give their books just about any dopey title and they would sell. I always thought that Stephen King's books have had inane titles.

A couple of amusing ones:

How to Kill Your Husband and Other Handy Household Hints, a recent release by Kathy Lette, who is married to Geoffrey Robertson (some UK readers may recognise his name)

And somewhat tasteless, but I think very clever and quite funny:

Humped Me, Dumped Me: Why You Were F***** And Chucked And How to Bounce Back
by Yasmin Brooks et al

Sarah-Canary - the Ellison and Farmer titles in your list were 2 of the titles that immediately came to my mind, although I was a bit disappointed in the Farmer book when I finally sat down to read it.

Two more:
The Doors of His Face, the Lamp of His Mouth, a Roger Zelazny anthology that I actually never read! I figured it could never live up to its title. I would stand in front of it at the book store, admiring the cover art and pondering what kind of story would go with a title like that. :)
In the Land of White Death, Valery Albanov's re-constituted diary of his journey across the ice and Arctic Ocean south to Siberia after abandoning his icebound ship.

cheryl

A Heartbreaking Work of Staggering Genius put me off, too, Frieda. I did take it off the shelf in the library one day out of curiosity, but only spent about 30 seconds looking inside and gave it up. I hated the title too much to give it a longer trial. That is the only title I can remember that kept me from reading a book, but I vaguely recall that over the years there may have been one or two suggesting cruelty to animals or something horrific happening to an animal that I couldn't bear to consider reading.
I recently read This Damn House by Margo Kaufman--an amusing title, at least, and a hilarious true story inside.

Frieda -- You're probably right about the longer, more descriptive titles. I think I'm also drawn to the rhythm of those titles. Some of them seem almost poetic.

I'm sorry you gave up on Motherless Brooklyn; it's actually one of my more favorite books. The main character really touched me and I found the depiction of his Tourette's very interesting. Plus, I can still remember a description of him eating a sub sandwich that had my mouth watering.

Cheryl -- I think Ellison has several good titles. He also wrote Repent Harlequin, Said the Ticktock Man."

I forgot another one of my favorites: Autobiography of an Involuntary Genius by Andrei Codrescu. I met him years ago at a post-poetry-reading party (say that three times quickly). He autographed my back. I think he does segments for NPR sometimes.

The Curious Incident of the Dog in the Night-Time is one of my favourite titles. OK, I know it's a quote from Sherlock Holmes, but even so...

A Tree Grows in Brooklyn is quite evocative. I know nothing of the book - can't even remember the author - but one of these days I'll read it.

Same goes for Fried Green Tomatoes at the Whistle-Stop Cafe.

David Mitchell has good titles. Ghostwritten, number9dream, Cloud Atlas and his new one, Black Swan Green.

An interesting site below on how various books came by their titles.

Here is a link that might be useful: Book Titlles

Vee, what an interesting article, thanks!

One book I read recently had a memorable title, To Hell With All That: Loving and Loathing our Inner Housewife by Caitlin Flanagan (a book to inspire discussion, btw).

I also love the title mentioned earlier, Audrey Hepburn's Neck. Frieda, you'd probably like it, I did. It's set in Japan and tells the story of a young man drawn to western ways and western women after seeing an Audrey Hepburn movie as a child, and who is also trying to figure out his parent's WWII experience and what it means to his generation.

Other titles that have stuck in my mind: Alas, Babylon by Pat Frank, To Reign in Hell by Stephen Brust, Fifty Acres and a Poodle by Jeanne Marie Laskas, War for the Oaks by Emma Bull, and one of my all-time favorite titles, The Jukebox Queen of Malta by Nicolas Rinaldi.

If I'd Killed Him When I Met Him by Sharyn Mccrumb brings to mind all sorts of possibilities. I think that's something else I look for in a title--what does it mean and what does it promise.

Sometimes a book's title is much better than the actual story. Christopher Moore, however, usually delivers. Some of his most fun titles are:
The Island of the Sequined Love Nun
The Lust Lizard of Melancholy Cover, and of course...Lamb: The Gospel According to Biff, Christ's Childhood Pal.

Liz's post on the May thread reminded me that I had the hardest time with remembering Levy's Small Island for a book club. I normally have an excellent memory - though not that of my younger days - and I simply could not remember either the title of the book or the author when I went to the book store. I must have checked the email 6 times before I finally wrote myself a note to take with me to the booksellers. Not a good title perhaps, but I loved the book.

My introduction to James Lee Burke was In the Electric Mist with a Confederate General at the library. How could I pass up such a title?

I'm embarrassed to admit, but my first Elizabeth Peter's novel, picked up purely for the title, was Naked at Lunch.

I agree that Zelazny had some excellent titles - the Short story A Rose for Ecclesiastes is a favorite.

How about Stone's titles? The Agony and the Ecstasy is good.

For Whom the Bell Tolls
Freeman Dyson's Disturbing the Universe
M.F.K. Fisher's book about cooking during WWII food rationing, How to Cook a Wolf
Midnight in the Garden of Good and Evil by Berendt

A good title is much more likely to pull me in than good cover art.

I hated to see this interesting thread die. Here are some more titles I like: "The Sheltering Sky" (so evocative of Bowles' vision of the desert and subtle irony, given the plot). "Darkness Visible" ( a work by Wm. Styron detailing his descent into depression). There are also several books and one poem entitled "Acquainted with the Night."

The book I'm now reading fits this thread: Tremain's "Music and Silence." I love the title, as it, like the novel, is about opposing forces: king and peasant, light and darkness, good and evil, beauty and ugliness, cold and heat, male and female -- the eternal yin-yang.

But another winner in my literary world, would have to be Laurie Lee's "As I Walked Out One Midsummer Morning." Such a call to youthful adventure and a challenge....