Book Titles—Trends and Formulas, Brilliance and Duh – Our final List based on Things

Is There A Novel Title In Your Junk Drawer?

Repeating from a previous post: What utilitarian role does a book title provide? I would contend there are four that I look for in my own titles:

1. Grab the Reader—choose more like Demon Copperhead than What My Orthodontist Told Me.

2. Portend the Major Theme—if your book is about spies, then choose by global conflict and not by thing (Tinker, Tailor, Soldier, Spy rather than Peanuts and Eggcups).

3. Deliver the Book’s Aesthetic—if you’re writing a book about punk music and sexual exploitation (think, Visit from the Goon Squad), then don’t pick Joyce Carol Oates’ voice. If you are writing an historical fiction (War and Peace), then pick big and sweeping.

4. Cleverly Foreshadow the Ending—my current project has a working title The Forging of Benjamin Phereson. Maybe not so clever.

Let us search the recent winning titles of the Booker, the Pulitzer, and the New York Times Bestsellers (ranked by time on the list) on for those that utilize THINGS.

The Promise, Damon Galgut

Telephone, Percival Everett

The Trees, Percival Everett

Demon Copperhead, Barbara Kingsolver

Flesh, David Szalay

Flashlight, Susan Choi

And here’s a bonus: Some Classic Novels that utilize THINGS:

The Scarlet Letter — Nathaniel Hawthorne (1850).

The Golden Bowl — Henry James (1904).

The Turn of the Screw — Henry James (1898).

The Picture of Dorian Gray — Oscar Wilde (1890).

The Bell Jar — Sylvia Plath (1963).

The Tin Drum — Günter Grass (1959).

Cat's Cradle — Kurt Vonnegut (1963).

Player Piano — Kurt Vonnegut (1952). [Yes I think 2 Vonneguts are reasonable]

The Goldfinch — Donna Tartt (2013).

Your rabbit hole for today — Let me know in the comments below which novels in this category resonated with you, and for the books you’ve read, which titles really supported the books themselves.