Best book title

What is your favourite book title? Mine is definitivly "The unbearably lightness of being"

Captain Underpants and the big, bad battle of the Bionic Booger Boy, part 1 : the night of the nasty nostril nuggets

Two great titles, just okay books:

Another Bullshit Night in Suck City by Nick Flynn

There's a Slight Chance I Might Be Going to Hell: A Novel of Sewer Pipes, Pageant Queens, and Big Trouble, by Laurie Notaro

"The Incomprehensible Demoraliazation of a Societal Idiot."

by Dowrong Shagnasty

Maybe not the best, but arresting:

We Wish to Inform You That Tomorrow We Will Be Killed with Our Families by Philip Gourevitch

From when I was looking for something else:

The curse of the cheese pyramid

and the stinky cheese man

The long dark tea-time of the soul

and I'm gonig to include the pride of chanur which is 4 different usages of the word pride in relation to the content of the book. I was impressed. And it's a great read anyway.

Paddy Whacked by T. J. English, a book about the irish-american mob.

Salt: A world History great book, about salt.

appropriate for LTers: Lost in a Good Book, and the epitome of subtlety: A Staggering Work of Heartbreaking Genius

Life : a user's manual, a puzzling (or maybe, puzzled) look at apartment life in Paris.

I recently picked up a book in an airport in large part because of the title: Him, Her, Him Again, The End of Him.

I recently came across the title Pussy, King of the Pirates which amused me greatly (along with the hot pink skull and crossbones on the cover).

On Bullshit, by Harry G. Frankfurt, a succinctly titled serious essay.

What's Wrong with my Snake, for clarity.

And the iconic title The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy can hardly be beaten.

I've always thought Nabokov had a talent for titles. Two of my favorites are Bend Sinister and Ada, or Ardour.

There's a new diet book coming out soon called "From Pig to Stick". I also like First Among Sequels by Jasper Fforde. Snappy title with a decent pun.

and one not to buy: "Cooking with Pooh"... Disney wasn't thinking straight...

which of course always reminds me of The Twilight Zone...

Do I have to pick one? I can think of lots of great titles:

How can I be a Detective if I have to Babysit? and How Come the Best Clues are Always in the Garbage, by Linda Bailey.

The Werewolf Problem in Central Russia and Other Stories and Life of Insects, by Victor Pelevin

Who the Hell is Wanda Fuca?, by GM Ford

The Evolution of Man, or How I Ate My Father, by Roy Lewis

No One Thinks of Greenland, by John Griesemer

Size 12 is Not Fat, by Meg Cabot

I also love most of Alexander McCall Smith's titles. Especially Portuguese Irregular Verbs and The Finer Points of Sausage Dogs.

For more serious sounding titles, I really like some of Wayne Johnston's: The Navigator of New York, The Colony of Unrequited Dreams and The Custodian of Paradise.

I could go on . . .

>20 TeacherDad:, Oh no!!! That's soo bad. Ewww. How did that make it by the editors? It reminds me of this public service campaign here in Connecticut that always makes my son and husband laugh hysterically: It's a recycling program with a mascot called Philip D Bag. For some reason, the name D-bag just makes them giggle.

>22 ToReadToNap: Heh, because it stands for douche bag.

Because it's bitter and because it's my Heart, My Heart Laid Bare and I lock my door upon myself, all by Joyce Carol Oates.

#1, Farko - The Unbearable Lightness of Being is an excellent title & excellent book!

I've always liked

Jeanette Winterson's coming of age / coming out novel - Oranges are not the only fruit.

and, for the precise description of what the book is about (and because of the obscurity of what people choose to study) - The Syntactic Preferences of Adolf Hitler in His Declaration of War on Poland

25> I hate text message abbreviations, so laugh out loud.

Robert

Some of the best titles for books are children's books. My favorites are:
The Stinky Cheese Man and other Fairly Stupid Tales
The Day I Swapped My Dad for Two Goldfish
Alexander and the Horrible, Terrible, No Good, Very Bad Day

Spider Robinson's Lady Slings the Booze is wondrous.

If on a winter's night a traveller by Italo Calvino

Another well-titled Italo Calvino work is The nonexistent knight and The cloven viscount.

All of Louise Rennison's titles.

Bleachy-Haired Honky Bitch, by Hollis Gillespie

Confessions of a Recovering Slut, and Other Love Stories, also by Hollis Gillespie

Absalom, Absalom!, by Faulkner-- doesn't that just sound desolate?

If I Forget Thee, Jerusalem (his publishers made him call it The Wild Palms the first go-'round), by Faulkner

Stop Dressing Your Six-Year-Old Like A Skank, by Ceilia Rivenbark

LOL. Celia Rivenbark has a few good titles!

A Short History of Everything in which (touchstone is wrong!) Ken Wilbur does explain everything.

Not for the faint of heart.

I quite like fantasy titles, though not necessarily the genre.

Like,

The Shadow Rising
and
The Voyage of the Dawn Treader.

And (non-fantasy this time) one day I'll read The Old Curiosity Shop just on the strength of the title alone.

This semester I have to read The Democracy Owners' Manual: a practical guide to changing the world I REALLY like this title! It is so hopeful and powerful!

I've always liked Raymond Chandler's book titles (and the books themselves,of course)

The Big Sleep
The Long Goodbye
Farewell, My Lovely

It's a short-story collection named after one of the stories, but . . .

The Nine Billion Names of God

Some of these are hilarious! I liked #20 about Disney's Pooh (lol!)

I would have to say:

The Golden Penis by Jacklyn Jo Harlow
Love in the Time of Cholera
Through a Glass Darkly
Dancing Shoes and Honky Tonk Blues
Trick My Truck But Don't Mess With My Heart by LuAnn McLane (don't know why it's not recognizing it!)
You Slay Me
Fire Me Up

How about Every Other Inch A Lady? A really funny memoir by Beatrice Lillie.

A Study in Scarlet - blood splatter analyses before there was such a thing

An Old Friend of the Family - a family with big problems calls on an elderly man who knew their Great Aunt, Mina Harker.

Finding Maubee - looking up an old friend who is a murder suspect

There was a murder mystery "written" by Gypsey Rose Lee but the exact title escapes me at the moment.

non-fiction

Up Front and Back Home Bill Mauldin's look at life on the lines during World War Two and of how the veterans adjusted to being home.

I'll second reading_fox's mention of The Long Dark Tea-Time of the Soul - possibly my absolute favorite title.

A couple others:
The Hollow Chocolate Bunnies of the Apocalypse
(I bought this book solely for the title - it cheers me up to see it, even if I never get around to reading the book)

and

Some Haystacks Don't Even Have Any Needle

A Great Big Ugly Man Came Up and Tied His Horse to Me by Wallace Tripp, one of my lads' favourite books when they were wee
How to Shit in the Woods which is exactly what it's about
#21, yes, the Alexander McCall Smith titles, especially The Finer Points of Sausage Dogs
I'll third The Long Lost Teatime of the Soul - what a glorious title
The Night of the Mary Kay Commandos by Berke Breathed
By Grand Central Station I Sat Down and Wept by Elizabeth Smart

touchstones aren't loading

My favorite is still Gun, With Occasional Music by Jonathan Lethem.

LOL! Our scoutmaster had all of us read How to shit in the woods before we were allowed to go on our big week-long hikes or camping trips. It's really a good book for primitive camping. I hadn't thought of that book in years. Thanks for the refresh tiffin.

I am in the process of reading Small Mediums at Large, which is not only a great title, but a very readable memoir.

Steal this book by Abbie Hoffman

How about Don't Eat This Book by Morgan Spurlock?

Winner of the National Book Award by Jincy Willett

Stop Dressing Your Six Year Old Like a Skank by Celia Rivenbark

Loved the title, but the book wasn't as good as it sounds.

Winner of the National Book Award by Jincy Willett (#48)

:)

Sometimes, the most creative book titles are the least "creative".

Hhhmmm I thought it was A Heartbreaking Work of Staggering Genius or is there a parody?

my two favourites are:

At home with the Marquis de Sade
and
Yeast: A problem

both of them make me giggle

When I was 10 or 11, I saw my older, married sister reading Chocolate Days, Popsicle Weeks by Edward Hannibal. I wanted to read it, too, until my mother told me it was NOT for children. Well, then why would they give it such a delicious title???

Decades later, I finally looked up the book. The author is well-regarded, and there's a single copy in the entire consortium of my suburban library system. I'll eventually request it through inter-library loan and see for myself! :)

Skeletor's Flower of Power

For a fictional book, I'll go with Hamster Huey and the Gooey Kablooey (From Calvin & Hobbes; this is Calvin's favorite book)

Here are a few more (please excuse any repeats) . . .

The Salmon of Doubt, Douglas Adams
A Cure for Death by Lightening, Gail Anderson-Dargatz
The Buddha of Suburbia, Hanif Kureishi
By the River Piedra I Sat Down and Wept, Paulo Coelho
The Sailor That Fell From Grace With the Sea, Yukio Mishima
Why You Should Read Kafka Before You Waste Your Life, James Hawes

Oops! Edited to fix typo. Thanks, rdurick!

(The Sailor Who Fell from Grace with the Sea)

I always loved Erma Bombeck titles:

Motherhood, the Second-Oldest Profession
When You Look Like Your Passport Photo it's Time to go Home
Family - the Ties the Bind...and Gag!

I also love How Green Was My Valley by Richard Llewellyn. The title is a glimpse of the beautiful, musical language of the book.

One of the first books I read after moving to Melbourne was He Died With a Felafel In His Hand , and it is entertaining for anyone who remembers flatting/share-housing.

I Was Told There'd Be Cake
An Arsonist's Guide to Writers Homes in New England

I heard that the second book is awful, so I haven't bothered reading it, but I do love the title.

>18 Sutpen:, If we're talking Nabokov, Invitation to a Beheading is a pretty good title.

Let's not overlook the current non-fiction bestseller, When You Are Engulfed in Flames

Kids books have the best titles:
From the Mixed-up Files of Mrs. Basil E. Frankweiler
The Missing Persons League
The Westing Game

ETA: The House With a Clock in its Walls

It isn't just the title; some authors might consider using a nom de plume: Journey Towards Nothingness by sudhakar dikshit

Hollow Chocolate Bunnies of the Apocolypse is by far one of the best titles I've ever seen.

Up there:
Skipping towards Gomorrah
Have a Nice Doomsday
Black Belt Librarians

#66 - Hollow Chocolate Bunnies of the Apocolypse is by far one of the best titles I've ever seen.

And the sequel is The Toyminator...

Lots of great titles here! And here's another one that I like: The Sad Truth About Happiness.

Odd title awards are out at thebookseller.com. First place this year to If You Want Closure in Your Relationship Start with Your Legs.

>70 Larxol:-not only a great title, but also great advice. LOL Gee, what on earth does one need to buy the book for.

There are only three times a title alone has compelled me to read a book:

What Do You Say to a Naked Elf?
Angus, Thongs and Full Frontal Snogging
and
Gods Behaving Badly

I really enjoyed each of those three books.

Here are a couple that I really enjoyed reading: Pissing in the Snow and other Ozark Folk Tales and a more mundane title but equally hilarious: Good Dirt.

A Short History of Tractors in Ukrainian

If only it were nonfiction.

It Can't Always be Caviar; the fabulously daring adventures and exquisite cooking recipes of the involuntary secret agent, Thomas Lieven by Mario Simmel

(will only touchstone on a partial title).

I love that title!

The Effects of Gamma Rays on Man in the Moon Marigolds by Paul Zindel

Like a Lampshade in a Whorehouse by Phyllis Diller

Drunk, Divorced and Covered in Cat Hair by Laurie Perry

>60 jfetting: - I was Told There'd be Cake - I just finished this book. It's fantastic, and a really great title!

I'm a big fan of witty titles, so I also like I Hope They Serve Beer in Hell, What's that Job and How the Hell do I Get It?, The Day I Ate Everything I Wanted and Not Quite What I Was Planning - which is also a great idea for a book!

No Touch Monkey! by Ayun Halliday.

I'm OK, You're Not So Hot by Dolph Sharp

Motherhood is Not for Wimps by Elizabeth Soutter Schwarzer

Get Out of My Life, but First Could You Drive Me & Cheryl to the Mall by Anthony E. Wolf

So Long, and Thanks for All the Fish by the incomparable Douglas Adams

ETA

Many of Chris Moore's titles, including Island of the Sequined Love Nun, The Lust Lizard of Melancholy Cove, Lamb, the Gospel According to Biff, Christ's Childhood Friend

ETA fixed Touchstones

The Curious Incident of the Dog in the Night-Time by Mark Haddon.

Hunger by Knut Hamsun

1984 by George Orwell.

I have always been taken by:

They Shoot Horses, Don't They? by Horace McCoy (read 9 Apr 1952)

Another one I like:

Right Hand Glove Uplifted: A Biography of Archbishop Michael Heiss, by Sister M. Mileta Ludwig, F.S.P.A. (read 30 Jan 1983)

I, too, liked the title The Curious Incident of the Dog in the Night Time.

And Saint Maybe by Anne Tyler; she has several good ones, including The Accidental Tourist and Breathing Lessons

Let the Northern Lights Erase your Name -- too bad the book wasn't as good as the title.

But, my all time favourite title: No Matter How Much you Promise to Cook and Pay the Rent You Blew it 'cauze Bill Bailey ain't Never Coming Home Again. The touchstone isn't working, but it's a real book and is in my LT library.

Joe Bennett's can be quite funny:-
Bedside Lovers (and other goats)
Fun Run and Other Oxymorons
Love, Death, Washing-up, Etc

Also Julian Clary's autobiography, abit cheeky ;-) A Young Man's Passage

All Shall Be Well; and All Shall Be Well; and All Manner of Things Shall Be Well by Tod Wodicka. I haven't read it, but it's gotten decent reviews, and I'm completely charmed by the title. :-)

Sewer, Gas & Electric: The Public Works Trilogy by Matt Ruff

The Brief and Frightening Reign of Phil by George Saunders. A quick fun read.

and An Ice Cream War, which I bought because of the title.

Nebraska's own Roger Welsch has a couple doozies (and funny to read, too):

Outhouses
Old Tractors and the Men who Love Them
It's Not the End of the World, But You Can See It from There
Forty Acres and a Fool

PS: He used to do bits on Charles Kuralt's Sunday Morning - and once ran for the County Weed Board on the pro-weed ticket.

I know there are more recent threads on this topic, but I can't find them. So, I'll read and enjoy these posts and add a great one:

Diagonally-Parked in a Parallel Universe

Cheesemonger: A Life on the Wedge

found in the library of new member @AmericanCheese

Flattened Fauna -- It's a field guide for road-kill identification. Each silhouette includes a 4-1.2" road stripe for scale comparison.

Ah yes! And also needed in every naturalist's kit is a copy of The Stray Shopping Carts of Eastern North America : a guide to field identification.

"My cow comes to haunt me : European explorers, travellers and novelists constructing textual selves and imagining the unthinkable in lands and islands beyond the sea from Christopher Columbus to Alexander von Humboldt"

Doesn't seem to be listed on LT (yet...)

Penetrating Wagner's Ring by J L Digaetani

It Was on Fire When I Lay Down on It by Robert Fulghum

Welding with Children by Tim Gautreaux

Both great reads.

>97 Crypto-Willobie:, the best ones are the entirely-too-serious, seriously-trying-to-help-you titles. "Wildlife Contraception" sounds like it sincerely wants to help you help those poor critters. For some weird reason, that one is lacking an LT entry. Huh. But Do-It-Yourself Coffins has one!

>97 Crypto-Willobie: My library system has a surprising number of those titles. Ordering several.

Did you see the comment at the bottom:

"How to Disappear Completely should have been written by Anonymous"

>99 2wonderY: Ah, didn';t notice...

I guess some titles have come and gone from that listing based on actual availability, but fortunately LT has a longer memory for classics like the Radiation Cookery Book. Can't find "The Wit & Wisdom of Adolf Hitler", though. Isn't that ironic.

Golden Years My Ass: Adventures in Geriatric Indignity
Dancing with Jesus: Featuring a Host of Miraculous Moves
How Not to be a Dick: An Everyday Etiquette Guide
Does God Ever Speak Through Cats?
Bedtime Stories for Children You Hate
Raising Unicorns: Your Step-by-Step Guide to Raising and Running a Successful and Magical Unicorn Farm

>103 2wonderY: Love it!

The Bad-Ass Librarians of Timbuktu is a great title, but unfortunately, the book is really more about Islamic terrorists.

Deer Hunting with Jesus is another favourite title.

I vote for

They Shoot Horses, Don't They? posted earlier by Schmerguls

>102 Cecrow: Love, love, love the unicorn title. And I want that book!

Absolutely compelling book titles include (while trying to avoid mentioning favorites already noted by others):

1001 Arabian Nights
A Confederacy of Dunces
The Sisters Brothers
The Oldest Living Confederate Widow Tells All
Our Kind of Traitor
From Here to Eternity
Up the Down Staircase
"Surely you're joking, Mr. Feynman!"
A Brief History of Time
The River That Flows Uphill
A Distant Mirror:The Calamitous 14th Century
The Education of H*Y*M*A*N K*A*P*L*A*N
Cold Comfort Farm
Three Men in a Boat (To Say Nothing of the Dog)
Please Don't Eat the Daisies
On the Beach
All the President's Men
A Conspiracy of Paper
Fried Green Tomatoes at the Whistle Stop Cafe and The All-Girl Filling Station's Last Reunion (both great books!)
The Man Who Mistook His Wife for a Hat
People Die
Natural Flights of the Human Mind
The Art of Becoming Homeless
We Are All Completely Beside Ourselves: A Novel
Hotel on the Corner of Bitter and Sweet
Death of a Cozy Writer

and who could resist pulling from the bookshelf a volume titled, "The Storyteller of Marrakesh"?

>109 2wonderY: And a fantastic cover, to boot.

.

A candidate for worst:

One title that grabbed my attention is: No Matter How Much You Promise to Cook or Pay the Rent You Blew it Cauze Bill Bailey Ain't Never Coming Home Again.

One title that doesn't exist: Making Marriage Work by King Henry VIII. Abebooks sent me a book mark with this fake book on it, and the slogan "If ABE doesn't have it, it doesn't exist".

Last year I was having fun telling people, I was in the midst of reading "Sodom and Gomorrah and The Lies of Locke Lamora." Especially fun when spoken quickly enough to sound like one title.

One I've always liked is They Tore Out My Heart and Stomped that Sucker Flat.
Another would be The Social History of the Machine Gun

>116 alco261: Lewis Grizzard used to have the best titles! One of my favorites was Shoot Low, Boys - They're Ridin' Shetland Ponies.