Okay – we are going to polish off this meme before the end of the month I swear! A declaration leads us to the next question in the 30 Days of Books list:
Day 28 – Favorite Title
I thought we weren’t supposed to judge books by their covers, or perhaps their catchy titles, but here goes. I’ll give you two in fact:
Sex Lives of Cannibals by J. Maarten Troost
The Sex Lives of Cannibals by J. Maarten Troost. I’ve posted about this before and before. Troost’s stranger-in-a-strange-land of an intellectual-but-useless Westerner living on a Pacific atoll is probably the funniest book that I’ve read. Period.
To Fetch A Thief by Spencer Quinn
To Fetch A Thief by Spencer Quinn is the third installment of the Chet and Bernie mystery series. Like the Indiana Jones franchise, the third is better than the second, but not as good as the first, but the title is pretty perfect for a dog-detective book.
Sort of an odd question really because it’s not about content. Any well-wrought titles that I’m missing?
I shouldn’t show my hand in case I ever steal this meme from you, but my favorite book title I’ve ever heard was for a math book we recently ordered at the library: Here’s Looking at Euclid.
I want a picture of the cover of that book!
The reason I chose “Lamb: The Gospel According to Biff, Christ’s Childhood Pal” was title alone.
MT — I heard about that book — was it any good?
It’s cute, light comedy. I’d hoped for something either more biting or intellectual but it’s pretty straightforward and still some chuckles. You’re not going to be moved by it but I don’t regret reading it at all. It’s no Pratchett…
To chime in, uninvited… Christopher Moore’s writing (which is always fun) takes a sudden upturn in quality with his book “The Stupidest Angel” and particularly with “A Dirty Job” (and really kind of continues from there). I highly recommend those for fun books with a little more narrative integrity than his earlier works.
Chime in Byronic — you’re always invited… :)
I remember hearing about the book “The Stupidest Angel” but never picked it up. Thanks for the tip!
“The Effects Of A Novel Disulfide On The Native And Denatured Stets Of Cytochrome C” of course …
*States …. but then again, you should know
GOM — YES! I knew I had some fans out there!
Well, one fan.
I’ve heard about “The Sex Lives of Cannibals” but never thought of picking it up. I’ll put that next on my list of summer reads (though that’s gotten awfully long, no thanks to you, Steve!). The cover on “To Fetch a Thief” is funny and surreal.
I don’t really pay that much attention to titles except to write them down before I head for the library, but I burst out laughing at a Barnes and Noble in New York when I saw this title: Surviving Your Stupid, Stupid Decision to Go to Grad School. Not that I regret it, but I suspect many an unemployed PhD is wandering around right now, thinking along those lines. :D
I really recommend “Sex Lives” — I didn’t want to like the guy or the book, but I couldn’t help myself from laughing aloud throughout.