Best Book Titles?

 

 

 

Nothing complicated about today’s post. I recently featured a book with a wonderful title: Brother of the More Famous Jack by Barbara Trapido. I got to thinking about what makes a great title, and of course which books have them. So I’m making a list of mine, and inviting in your ideas.

As with so many lists, this one would be quite different a year ago or a year from now: many of these books are ones which have recently been featured, mentioned or discussed on the blog or in the comments. Actually, it would probably be a different list next week.

They are not in order, just a collection of ones I like. I don’t think you can love the title of a book if you don’t love the book (YMMV) but today we are looking at the titles, with only a glance at the content….

 

1 Love in a Cold Climate by Nancy Mitford is all over the blog, and I wrote about it for the Guardian, and so familiar that it’s easy to forget what a clever title it is (like the Capote title at no. 8)

 

2 For Esme with Love and Squalor by JD Salinger – he was always good on titles and this short story was one of his best, as well as having the best title.

 

3 The Old Wives’ Tale by Arnold Bennett – even better because the book starts with some very young women. He is showing you how they will get to be old wives one day, but how great to call it that. People are quite snooty about Bennett – ‘so middlebrow’ – but I think he deserves to be rediscovered. He wrote about women much more pleasingly than most of his male contemporaries.  

4 Sam Patch - Ballad of a Jumping Man by William Getz, published 1987. This came up when we were discussing bears in books (an endlessly fascinating topic, we found). I liked the book very much and it’s a shame that the author seems to have done little else. But it’s the title that really grabs me.

Dancing Bears, and where to find them has more bears than you could shake a stick at, but to find the comment you need this post

Stage Door Enquiries - theatrical mystery and prop guns from Derek Smith

-where the listing of bear books began. And the featured book there is another wonderful title, from Derek Smith

5 Come to Paddington Fair

Enticing and intriguing and not as nice as it sounds.

 

6 Darkness Falls From the Air by Nigel Balchin. See the post for discussion of this title

 

7 The Voyage of the Dawn Treader by CS Lewis.  I said back in 2012:  the third of the Narnia books, and the one with the best title.

 

8 Breakfast at Tiffany’s by Truman Capote.  I said recently:

There is an absolutely splendid idea floating round the internet that potential future archaeologists will find a distinctive blue Tiffany's box, and eventually conclude that it must be from a 20th century breakfast cafe.

The phrase has entered the language to such a degree that it can be hard to remember what a great, perfect title it is.

9 We Have Always Lived in the Castle by Shirley Jackson. Indescribably creepy and enticing, so compelling. You want to read it but you almost don’t want to know…

And ending up where we began:

10 Brother of the More Famous Jack by Barbara Trapido

Now add yours below