Books Whose Titles Don’t Entice Me

Top Ten Tuesday

Hello and welcome to Top Ten Tuesday! Every week, we talk about books! Top Ten Tuesday is hosted by That Artsy Reader Girl! Today we’re supposed to talk about books we’d give other titles to. I have a hard enough time coming up with titles to my own books, so I’ll just come up with lists of books whose titles don’t entice me. That doesn’t mean they’re not good books! Authors don’t always get to pick the titles to their own books. Anyway, here’s my list.

Pumpkinheads cover

I don’t really care for the title Pumpkinheads. Nevertheless, I loved the book. I’m glad I read the synopsis to this book, because otherwise I might not have picked it up. I guess you can’t always judge a book by its title!

Guernsey Literary and Potato Peel Society

Last week, several people mentioned that they thought The Guernsey Literary and Potato Peel Pie Society was an extraordinary book title. It just shows you how people’s tastes are different. Don’t throw tomatoes at me, but the title seems like a snore to me. I’m sure it’s a delightful book, and I might read it someday. The title doesn’t grab me though.

Salt to the Sea cover

Salt to the Sea is another one of those titles that makes me say… “I don’t know.” The description sounds really interesting though, and I liked Ruta Sepetys’s Fountains of Silence. At least when a book has a title I’m not so crazy about, other bloggers can tell whether a book is worth checking out.

Die Bestimmung

The Divergent titles in German are pretty darn boring. It means something like “The Determination.” Yawn. On the other hand, Veronica Roth’s book Carve the Mark has a really awesome title in Spanish–Las Marcas de la Muerte— The Marks of Death. I like that one.

Strange the Dreamer Cover

You can’t judge a book by its title. I wasn’t a really big fan of the title Strange the Dreamer when I first heard of it. That being said, I loved the book. In fact, all the books I was ‘meh’ on the title on this week’s list ended up being great books. That being said, this title has grown on me since it makes sense.

Echo North is another one of those books whose title sounds “meh.” The book sounds really interesting though.

An Affair of Poisons cover

An Affair of Poisons seems like it might be an old-fashioned kind of book. Again, the plot sounds interesting, but just going by the superficial aspects of this book, I might skip over it.

Blood Water Paint cover

The title Blood Water Paint doesn’t sound that interesting either. I’ve seen the book before, but the uninteresting title has made my mind skip over it. Nevertheless, now that I’m looking at the synopsis, it looks interesting.

A List of Cages cover

I’ve heard a lot of good things about A List of Cages. It sounds really good too. The title doesn’t really grab me though.

Stain cover

The tile Stain makes me not want to read it? This is another book that sounds interesting though.

They say you can’t judge a book by its cover. You can’t judge a book by its title either. Or its movie. I haven’t read all of these, but the ones I have read were good.

What books would you give different titles to? Are there some books that you adore but don’t care for the title? Next week is a Halloween freebie. I don’t really celebrate Halloween, but I have read a few paranormal, fall, or scary-ish stories lately, so I’ll probably do something along those lines.

20 comments

  1. Yeah, “Pumpkinheads” definitely makes me assume it’s about a pair of thick-headed numpties. Your comments are the only reason I have just now, for the first time since hearing about this book months ago, bothered to read the synopsis. (still not my thing because graphic novel, but if it were a regular novel I would invest in that plot)

    And honestly, Affair of Poisons (which I’ve not heard of) got my attention right away and I clicked through to find out more about it.

    1. Gross is a good word for it. I would say maybe the publisher came up with that title, but from reading the synopsis I think that’s what people call the MC, so even if it wasn’t the author’s choice, it probably didn’t come out of thin air.

  2. The Guernsey title is so long and I feel like I never get it right, I’m always leaving words out! I really liked the book, but yeah, that title is not very good! I get that it makes sense for the story, but it’s a mouthful.

    1. When I was looking it up on Amazon to get a picture of the cover, I think I got the words wrong. Titles can be difficult to come up with sometimes!

    1. If there hadn’t been so much love for that book, I might not have tried it! But don’t let the title put you off too long. It’s a good book.

  3. Yeah The Guernsey Literary and Potato Peel Pie Society is way too long of a title! I really enjoyed the film though, so I reckon I’ll probably read the book.

    1. I hear a lot of good things about it. With all the books competing to be read though, the title does make a big difference.

    1. Interesting take. It makes me think of Ghandi’s walk in India to go make salt when the British people made it illegal. I don’t think that’s what the author was going for, LOL. I guess everybody takes different experiences into interpreting meaning out of titles though.

  4. I was very put off by The Guernsey title as well until I read it. It was a five star read for me, but I still tend to shorten the name. 😉 And I’ve read A List of Cages. I enjoyed the book, but I still don’t love the title. Great list!

    Here’s my TTT!

  5. Oh, I 1000% agree with your take on the The Guernsey Literary and Potato Peel Pie Society — I’ve never been turned off a book and a movie so fast than by this title.

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