Comments on: Your Favorite Title

By: Paul Abbamondi

Paul Abbamondi — Fri, 31 Mar 2006 15:28:55 +0000

I always thought Stranger in a Strange Land was catchy. Other favorites include Perdido Street Station, Inkheart, Down and Out in the Magic Kingdom, and City of Saints and Madmen.

To me, this all stand out as unique and interesting titles.

By: Harry Connolly

Harry Connolly — Fri, 31 Mar 2006 15:47:19 +0000

We Were Out Of Our Minds With Joy.

By: Douglas

Douglas — Fri, 31 Mar 2006 16:41:08 +0000

The Book of Laughter and Forgetting
Cloud of Sparrows

By: Karl

Karl — Fri, 31 Mar 2006 17:18:54 +0000

All Heads Turn as the Hunt Goes By

By: Michael Canfield

Michael Canfield — Fri, 31 Mar 2006 22:00:39 +0000

Thunderball - From Russia, with Love - Live and Let Die, The Spy Who Love Me - Moonraker - Goldfinger, I like Ian Fleming’s titles a lot, though they are so well know they don’t sound like actual book titles any more …

By: John Joseph Adams

John Joseph Adams — Sat, 01 Apr 2006 02:41:17 +0000

I always liked The Silence of the Lambs, because it’s an interesting phrase, and then when you read the book/watch the movie, it makes itself very relevant.

I also really like The Stars My Destination (which happens to be my favorite novel). It’s another one where the phrase itself is intriguing, but then also has resonance with the story itself.

I could go on and on, but I’ll just do one more: The Long Loud Silence. There’s something creepily compelling about the contradiction implied in that phrase.

By: Terry Frost

Terry Frost — Sat, 01 Apr 2006 03:40:01 +0000

I always thought that Abbie Hoffman’s “Steal This Book” had a certain insouciance…

By: sGreer

sGreer — Sat, 01 Apr 2006 03:58:44 +0000

Some of the best SFF titles have already been mentioned, but on my shelf I have other titles that (in many cases) were the sole reason for picking up the book & reading it. Captains Courageous. After Many a Summer Dies the Swan (which was tough going considering I tackled that one at 15 yrs old). Sheila Levine is Dead & Living in New York. Woman on the Edge of Time — a great riff both on the phrase “on the edge of a breakdown” and the time-travelling in the story. Some titles just jump out at you, but then, I used to have time to read anything that caught my eye via title or cover. Now I actually read the teaser to make sure it’s worth the effort, but some titles can still make me pause.

(Btw, your suggestion about using document map in word is probably the best tip I’ve gotten in a long time. Putting H1 for chapters, and H2 for short scene descriptions, with doc-map on, means I can rearrange scenes without losing track of the big picture. Whew. It was too easy, without such a tracker, to accidentally paste in the wrong location, which is seriously grr-inducing.)

By: Jay Tomio

Jay Tomio — Sat, 01 Apr 2006 10:25:09 +0000

A couple of Moorcock titles come to mind, The ‘Warhound and the World’s Pain’ and ‘Behold the Man’. I also like the title of Will Self’s collection, ‘The Quantity Theory of Insanity’, Swanwick’s ‘Cigar-Box Faust: And Other Miniatures ‘, ‘Cocaine Nights’ by J.G Ballard, Maureen Mchugh’s ‘Mothers and Other Monsters’, - a couple of titles that haven’t come out yet that have caught my eye were A.A. Attanasios’s ‘Killing with the Edge of the Moon’ and Alan Deniro’s ‘Skinny Dipping In The Lake Of The Dead’.

By: baconfats

baconfats — Sat, 01 Apr 2006 14:11:15 +0000

Do Androids Dream of Electric Sheep?
The Mote in God’s Eye
Stars in My Pocket Like Grains of Sand
Man Plus

By: Tony

Tony — Sat, 01 Apr 2006 18:38:54 +0000

I liked Fountation’s Edge the moment I heard it, and the cover art by Michael Whelan was amazing too.

By: David Louis Edelman

David Louis Edelman — Sun, 02 Apr 2006 03:12:13 +0000

I believe the all-time prizewinner is for Philip Gourevitch’s collection of (true) stories about Rwandan genocide: “We Wish to Inform You That Tomorrow We Will Be Killed With Our Families.”

By: Capt. Xerox

Capt. Xerox — Sun, 02 Apr 2006 03:57:49 +0000

The Stars My Destination by Alfred Bester. Not only is it a great book, but the evocative title represents the dream of every science fiction reader.

By: Kelly Brown

Kelly Brown — Mon, 03 Apr 2006 00:26:01 +0000

The Empire of Ice Cream

I have no mouth but I must scream

Scanners live in Vain

By: Simon Owens

Simon Owens — Wed, 05 Apr 2006 02:00:08 +0000

Already mentioned: Do Androids Dream of Electric Sheep?

By: scribbling damselfly

scribbling damselfly — Wed, 19 Apr 2006 08:52:24 +0000

titles

A long time ago now, Tobias Buckell talked about coming up with titles. Titling a story is something I struggle with, most times. Some titles just arrive, and they’re perfect. Well, at least at the time. But by and large, I am always dissatisfied with…