There is a fabulous and funny blog out there called Better Book Titles, by Dan Wilbur, a comedian and writer – he says:
This blog is for people who do not have thousands of hours to read book reviews or blurbs or first sentences. I will cut through all the cryptic crap, and give you the meat of the story in one condensed image. Now you can read the greatest literary works of all time in mere seconds!
A new Better Book Title will be posted every weekday. Every Friday a reader’s submission will be posted. Redesign and titles by Dan Wilbur unless credited otherwise. Please use proper credits when reprinting.
It is well-worth your time to sort through the posts [you can also search for an author – go to bottom of page and click on “Archives” and a search screen will appear at the top of the page] – as expected, the Brontes are quite funny and spot-on:
[Charlotte Bronte – Jane Eyre]
as is Thomas Hardy’s The Mayor of Casterbridge:
Here is one of my laugh-out-loud favorites:
[Roald Dahl – James and the Giant Peach]
and this:
[Norton Anthology of English Literature ]
and who can resist this by Virginia Woolf?
[ Virginia Woolf – The Waves ]
But what of Jane Austen? – well, she has only one title represented, and this a reader submission [ by Henry Schenker ] last November:
[ Jane Austen – Mansfield Park ]
…which we can all appreciate! But surely Mr. Wilbur can come up with something for Austen’s other titles! – is it perhaps that he just can’t bring himself to read her books? – at any rate, what might you submit for an Austen “better book title”?? – put on your thinking caps and comment below!
All images from the Better Book Titles website, which you must visit – check out all the Shakespeare…
You can follow Mr. Wilbur on twitter: http://twitter.com/#!/betterbooktitle
Jane Austen in Vermont 