Personal preference, I like book titles that gives me a basic idea of what the novel is about. In most cases, that, combined with the cover and blurb, will be enough to make me purchase (or not).
My favourites classics:
Crime and Punishment by Fyodor Dostoevsky
The Call of the Wild by Jack London
The Lion, the Witch and the Wardrobe by C. S. Lewis
All Quiet on the Western Front by Erich Maria Remarque
Frankenstein by Mary Shelley
Dracula by Bram Stoker
The Adventures of Huckleberry Finn by Mark Twain
Alice’s Adventures in Wonderland by Lewis Carroll
The Godfather by Mario Puzo
War and Peace by Leo Tolstoy
The Spy who came in from the Cold by John le Carré
The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy by Douglas Adams
Non-Fiction
Eats, Shoots & Leaves: The Zero Tolerance Approach to Punctuation by Lynne Truss
A Short History of nearly Everything by Bill Bryson
Magnificent Desolation by Buzz Aldrin
It Shouldn’t happen to a Vet by James Herriot
Years ago, the best title inspirations were taken from the Bible, Shakespeare, poetry, and other novels …
Brave New World by Aldous Huxley (Shakespeare, The Tempest)
In Cold Blood by Truman Capote (Shakespeare, Timon of Athens)
No Country for Old Men by Cormac McCarthy (W. B. Yates, Sailing to Byzantium)
The Curious Incident of the Dog in the Night-Time by Mark Haddon (Arthur Conan Doyle, Silver Blaze)
… but that trait seems to have disappeared now.
Modern day crime, I loved most of Dick Francis titles: Dead Cert, Odds Against, Bonecrack, Bolt, Whiphand, Field of Thirteen, 10lb Penalty, High Stakes… His
books did exactly what it said on the tin…
I also liked the Sue Grafton alphabet series. A is for Alibi, B is for Burglar etc. (Great reads, but I bought a lot of them just to have the full set!).
I have an aversion to titles that aim for a shock factor. Example: Go the F**k to Sleep by Adam Mansbach.
The latest book that stopped me was: The Man who Died Twice by Richard Osman. The cover did nothing for me, but the interesting title made me buy.
Hope that helps, Peter.
My favourites classics:
Crime and Punishment by Fyodor Dostoevsky
The Call of the Wild by Jack London
The Lion, the Witch and the Wardrobe by C. S. Lewis
All Quiet on the Western Front by Erich Maria Remarque
Frankenstein by Mary Shelley
Dracula by Bram Stoker
The Adventures of Huckleberry Finn by Mark Twain
Alice’s Adventures in Wonderland by Lewis Carroll
The Godfather by Mario Puzo
War and Peace by Leo Tolstoy
The Spy who came in from the Cold by John le Carré
The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy by Douglas Adams
Non-Fiction
Eats, Shoots & Leaves: The Zero Tolerance Approach to Punctuation by Lynne Truss
A Short History of nearly Everything by Bill Bryson
Magnificent Desolation by Buzz Aldrin
It Shouldn’t happen to a Vet by James Herriot
Years ago, the best title inspirations were taken from the Bible, Shakespeare, poetry, and other novels …
Brave New World by Aldous Huxley (Shakespeare, The Tempest)
In Cold Blood by Truman Capote (Shakespeare, Timon of Athens)
No Country for Old Men by Cormac McCarthy (W. B. Yates, Sailing to Byzantium)
The Curious Incident of the Dog in the Night-Time by Mark Haddon (Arthur Conan Doyle, Silver Blaze)
… but that trait seems to have disappeared now.
Modern day crime, I loved most of Dick Francis titles: Dead Cert, Odds Against, Bonecrack, Bolt, Whiphand, Field of Thirteen, 10lb Penalty, High Stakes… His
books did exactly what it said on the tin…
I also liked the Sue Grafton alphabet series. A is for Alibi, B is for Burglar etc. (Great reads, but I bought a lot of them just to have the full set!).
I have an aversion to titles that aim for a shock factor. Example: Go the F**k to Sleep by Adam Mansbach.
The latest book that stopped me was: The Man who Died Twice by Richard Osman. The cover did nothing for me, but the interesting title made me buy.
Hope that helps, Peter.