When my mind goes completely blank while sitting at the computer - which happens quite often these days - I’ve taken to firing up the Random Book Title Generator. I was never much good at dreaming up titles, and this would have come in handy 25 years ago when I was still a writer.
It might also have prompted me think up some decent plots. For instance, glancing at the Generator just now, it produced The Silken Man, Cold Search, The Silent Year, Servants in the Night, The Snake’s Bride and The Heat of the Word. (Mind you, it also threw up The Luscious Birth, The Misty’s Destiny and Door in the Woman.)
But no matter how many titles you asked the Generator to produce, it would never, ever come up with anything to compare with this splendid selection of real titles of real books:
Glorious.
ReplyDeleteSunday, June 5, 2011 - 05:17 PM
We used to have a family game to come up with the dullest book title of all time. I won once with "A short history of the cardboard box". My father never saw the point of the game, as all books fascinated him.
ReplyDeleteHe once found himself on a train opposite a respectable looking chap reading a book entitled "Lesser known Aspects of Etruscan Pottery" and attempted to engage him in conversation about a shared enthusiasm. He was disappointed to find that his fellow traveller was not the expert he supposed, a discovery explained when a magazine called Fiesta fell out of the book's covers as the chap got up to go to the loo.
My father's reaction was to wonder why any one would find the magazine more interesting than the book. I suspect he would have been on the Amazon web page looking for at least four of your titles by now. Great post, Scott.
Sunday, June 5, 2011 - 08:35 PM
Given the prevailing antipathy for “posh” people, I’d imagine anyone wanting to read “Lesser Known Aspects of Etruscan Pottery” in public nowadays would be safer hiding it inside a copy of Fiesta (or whatever it’s modern equivalent is).
ReplyDeleteI don’t want to embarrass you, but I have an abiding memory of your father as one of the most charming Old School English gentlemen it has ever been my pleasure to meet.
Tuesday, June 7, 2011 - 10:08 PM