TITLING

    It is surely the case that using "Titillating" in the title, rather than "Titling" would have resulted in an increase in readership, but my subject today actually is TITLES. Those things found atop books and stories, not the types of titles relating to property.  The reason I am tackling titles is that I have been thinking about the even more complicated subject of SUBTITLES, about which I have been collecting a lot of information. Subtitles are those often long things found immediately after titles. You will be intrigued to learn about what I have found about the subject of "subtitles", when I figure out what it is about them that needs to be conveyed. Until then I will say a bit about titles since it will allow me to do something quickly during the nice weather and provide you with at least one post during the month of August.

Unusual Titles

   The one pictured above provides a good example of a rather odd title and, although it was written over a decade ago, it certainly covers a topic that is now timely. There are typically more carts seen on the way to the supermarket these days then there are inside the store. Here is what it is about: 
"In The Stray Shopping Carts of Eastern North America author Julian Montague has created an elaborate classification system of abandoned shopping carts, accompanied by photographic documentation of actual stray cart sightings. These sightings include bucolically littered locations such as the Niagara River Gorge (where many a cart has been pushed to its untimely death) and mundane settings that look suspiciously like a suburb near you." [Canadian content]

  Here are some more unusual titles:
An Arsonist’s Guide To Writers’ Homes In New England – Brock Clarke

What To Say When You Talk To Yourself – Shad Helmstetter

Truncheons: Their Romance and Reality – Erland Fenn

Fancy Coffins To Make Yourself – Dale L Power

The Art of Faking Exhibition Poultry – George Ryley Scott

Penetrating Wagner's Ring – John L DiGaetani (editor)

Reusing Old Graves – Douglas Davies and Alastair Shaw

The Joy of Uncircumcising – Jim Bigelow

Fart Proudly: Writings of Benjamin Franklin You Never Read In School – Carl Japikse

If you are intrigued by titles such as those, you will find more in the Wikipedia entry for the Bookseller/Diagram Prize For Oddest Titles of the Year. Apparently the award is not always given annually and one has to be on the lookout for titles deliberately contrived to be odd and bizarre. 

   One author who is good at writing such titles is David Sedaris, to wit: "Me Talk Pretty One Day;" "Let's Explore Diabetes With Owls;" "Dress Your Family In Corduroy and Denim;" "When You Are Engulfed in Flames" and " Squirrel Seeks Chipmunk: A Modest Bestiary." He has been accused of constructing titles that are "wilfully obtuse."

The Bonus: 

   Creating a title is not easy and, judging from some new titles, many authors do not worry much about them. I may have much more to say about this when I present to you my analysis of subtitles. If you think you would be good at titling, this bonus will provide you with an opportunity to create some. 

   Perhaps, like me, you have seen some titles which you thought could be improved, or at least be more clearly related to the prose beneath the cover.  If that is the case, proceed to Better Book Titles and submit some. The website is presented by the comedian, Dan Wilbur, and you will find it amusing, as well as edifying. For an example of a title improvement, consider Sarah Palin's America as a replacement for The Handmaid's Tale [more Canadian content] or see the illustrations below:

or

Sources: 

  Apart from the Wikipedia entry for the Bookseller/Diagram Prize For Oddest Titles of the Year, see this article: "Oddest Book Titles of All Time..." Catherine Scott, The Telegram, Feb. 22, 2013. 

   For a piece about Better Book Titles see: "What If Book Titles Actually Described What's Actually Inside?", David Barnett, The Guardian, April 30, 2011.

One of the substitute titles mentioned is one that could replace many titles currently being published: White People Ruin Everything (as a better title for Howard Zinn's, A People's History of the United States.)