I’m currently reading that book! The first 50 pages took me over a year to get through but now I’m halfway through and can’t wait to find out where the story goes.
The german book title for "Convenience Store Woman" is "Die Ladenhüterin" which means simultaneously "Woman who protects the store" and "Product that does never get bought and therefore sits in the store forever". I think that's brilliant.
Wow, thank you so much for this story, I always wondered why they translated it like this and I didn’t that’s what you call products that don’t get bought. 😅
My personal favorite is "I'm Glad My Mom Died". I saw this at the store and bought it just from the title. I wanted to know how the author would justify this title. And oh boy, justify she did. "The Palace of Illusions", "The Kind Worth Killing", "On Earth We're Briefly Gorgeous" & "Tomorrow, and Tomorrow, and Tomorrow" are few favorites too.
One of my favorite book titles ever is a short story collection called “the trees grew because I bled there “, there is something about this sentence that’s just so beautiful and kinda scary too , which is exactly what this book offers .
I made a list of titles that Jack mentioned: 1. Build Your House Around My Body 2:01 2. No One is Talking About This 2:17 3. Something Wicked This Way Comes 2:44 4. The Unbearable Lightness of Being 2:59 5. The Curious Incident of The Dog in the Night-time 3:32 6. The Perks of Being a Wallflower 3:34 7. All the Lovers in the Night 3:36 8. Breast and Eggs 3:40 9. Tender is the Night 4:03 10. A Moveable Feast 4:13 11. Things We Say in the Dark 4:46 12. Eats, Shoots & Leaves 5:01 13. Me Talk Pretty One Day 7:32 14. The Subtle Art of Not Giving a Fuck 7:35 15. I Know Why the Caged Bird Sings 7:43 16. How to Kill your Family 8:08 17. Send Nudes 8:16 18. Everyone in This Room will Someday be Dead 8:44 19. Someone Who Will Love You in All Your Damaged Glory 9:06 20. Before the Coffee Gets Cold 9:20 21. Much Ado About Nothing 9:51 22. I’m Glad My Mom Died 10:03 23. I want to Die but I Want to Eat Tteokbokki 10:57 24. I Fear My Pain Interest You 11:00 25. Through The Billboard Promised Land Without Ever Stopping 11:09 26. South of The Border, West of The Sun 11:37 27. Hard-Boiled Wonderland and The End of The World 12:08 28. The Illicit Happiness of Other People 12:22 29. My Dark Vanessa 12:28
You should do this with book covers too! A good cover will always get me. They say don't judge a book by its cover, but I think if the author/publisher has good taste on a cover, I know they'll have good taste in writing. It's worked for me every time.
Another thing though, we go into reading these unique titles with certain expectations. I usually think that such brilliant titles would lead to an equally brilliant plot and writing. But nothing disappoints more than when the amazingness of the title doesn't translate to the story.
Oh wow!! I haven’t gotten to the end of the video but I’m reading the comments and I’m so surprised he didn’t mention it!! That’s definitely one of my favorite titles ever.
I really like « Crying in H Mart ». It’s what the story is about (grief, family, food, being Korean-American) and it’s quite graphical, you can picture someone crying in H-Mart.
A Swedish author, Amanda Svensson, had a book translated to english that is called: A System So Magnificent It Is Blinding When it came out in swedish I instantly reacted to the title, I think it’s beautiful. It is also longlisted for the International Booker Prize this year 😊
I absolutely love The Importance of Being Earnest, the title perfectly describes the direction of the story, its moral lesson and references a character(s) so elegantly!
My favourite without a doubt is "Turtles all the way down", just at first look you are very intrigued by it and want to know more and when u actually learn about the title It gives you a lot of meaning and all the metaphors in the book which are actually connected to this title are just brilliant. My second would be "Beautiful world, where are you?" I remember just have great expectations for this as a title so beautiful really asks you the question of how beautiful is the books actually.
My favorites: -On Earth We’re Briefly Gorgeous -At Night All Blood is Black -If We Were Villains -The Collected Regrets of Clover -The World Keeps Ending, and The World Goes On
my personal favourite title is "Been Down So Long It Looks Like Up to Me", it's a 1960s novel written by a guy who died in a motorcycle crash a few days after it was published and one of the most undeservedly unknown novels ever. it's just a clever title and a reference to a blues song.
Such a cool video idea, I love long book titles! Some of my favorites are “when breath becomes air” by Paul Kalanithi, “their eyes were watching god” by Zora Neale Hurston, “human acts” by Han Kang (I know this one’s rather simple, but it’s just so perfectly chosen for the content of the book. The Korean original title 소년이 온다 is also really cool), “night sky with exit wounds” by Ocean Vuong (like could a poetry book have a more gorgeous title?) and the German title for Michaela DePrince’s “taking flight”: Ich kam mit dem Wüstenwind, which translates as ‘I came with the desert wind’ and I just think that’s a stunning title for a memoir^^
My all time favorite book title is: "When Death Takes Something From You Give It Back" By Naja Marie Aidt. Not "let it go" but "give it back" I love that so much. It is also my favorite book, though I have never managed to read it to the end as my eyes will overflow every 5 pages.
That book is wonderful! It’s about a mother’s tragic loss of her son, how she copes - or does not cope with the grief, and how she finds herself being unable to write (she’s a quite established Danish writer)
Here are a few of my favorite titles you didn’t mention: I know you’re not a fan for some inexplicable reason, but Douglas Adams’ “So Long, and Thanks for All the Fish” and “Dirk Gently’s Holistic Detective Agency”; Anne Tyler’s “Dinner at the Homesick Restaurant”; Becky Albertalli’s “The Upside of Unrequited”; Gabriel García Márquez’s “Love in the Time of Cholera”; Christopher Bram’s “Lives of the Circus Animals”; David Leavitt’s “The Lost Language of Cranes”; and of course J.D. Salinger’s “Raise High the Roof Beam, Carpenters and Seymour: An Introduction.”
- Do Androids Dream of Electric Sheep? - How to Marry Keanu Reeves in 90 Days (the title was so ridiculous, I had to buy it immediately) 😂😂 - One Hundred Years of Solitude - And Then There Were None - The Importance of Being Earnest - Pride and Prejudice
Some of my favorites are: -All The Light We Cannot See -Perks Of Being A Wallflower -The Fault In Our Stars -A Thousand Splendid Suns -Heart Of Darkness
I absolutely adore the title “Lie With Me”. It’s one of those titles that have even more meaning after reading the book. I love how it depicts both the act of lying as in omitting, keeping a secret (of their relationship) but also the romantic sense of lying down, being together with. Another title that also makes me swoon is “Alone with you in the ether” it’s such a poetic title and fits the story SO well
Jack’s book recs are always so good! Also I think these book title sounds really good though I haven’t read them yet - Cleopatra and Frankstein , You made a fool of death with your beauty, and the language of rose which apparently is not your typical beauty and the beast retelling ❤
A favourite of mine, but also one of my favourite titles (especially for a short story collection), is "What we talk about when we talk about love" by Raymond Carver. Also, "The sense of an ending" by Julian Barnes ; "One hundred years of solitude" and "Chronicle of a death fortold" by Marquez; "Requiem for a dream" by Hubert Shelby Jr; "The man who mistook his wife for a hat"; "How high we go in the dark" ; "A thousand splendid suns" + "And the mountains echoed" by Hosseini. So may...
I feel like Tender is the night is the best one! It comes from a Keats poem -- I like book titles from poems. 'A thousand splendid suns' and 'Slouching towards Bethlehem' and 'things fall apart' are all from poems, (the last two from the same Yeats poem!).
As we move into the Spooky Month, I strongly recommend the horror novella "I Found a Circus Tent in the Woods Behind My House". The title pulled me in, the story kept me in. I'm hoping the sequel, I Found Puppets Living in My Apartment Walls, is just as good.
Eats shoots and leaves reminds me of a newspaper headline (I think): nut screws washers and bolts (a crazy man raped washing women and escaped vs. the obvious nouns for spares) Titles I like as well 1. Our endless numbered days 2. My family and other animals 3. The prizewinner of Defiance Ohio: how my mother raised 10 kids on 25 words or less
'Our Share Of Night' by Mariana Enríquez has stuck with me (especially in Spanish) mostly because of how it completely captures the whole book plot and its most important relationship (father and son). I also love 'Things We Lost in the Fire' though I haven't read it yet. Finally, 'On Earth We're Briefly Gorgeous' 👏
I love all of Kazuo Ishiguro’s, Khaled Hosseini’s and Ruth Ozeki’s book titles, they’re just next level when it comes to fiction! And also Joan Didion, Eve Babitz and Patti Smith when it comes to non-fiction!
Personal Favs: The Unbearable Lightness of Being, You Made a Fool of Death with Your Beauty, This Sjde of Paradise, You Feel it Just Below the Ribs, ans On Earth We're Briefly Gorgeous
Hey Jack! Wanted to let you know about the Philadelphia Bookstore Map, which was just released! It was a grassroots effort to create a map that shows all the bookstores in Philly--could be a fun video idea whenever you're in the US again!
Ocean Vuong has beautiful book titles, "Time is a Mother" is another great one of his. I love Akwaeke Emezi's "You Made a Fool of Death with Your Beauty" too.
Some of mine: The Hours, Call me by your name, Requiem for a dream, Letter to a Child Never Born, A Tree Grows in Brooklyn , Unf@*k Yourself, Where Angels Fear to Tread, The Phantom of the opera.
Mine are Not As Nature Intended - a book about factory farming Hold Kæft og Vær Smuk (transla: Shut Up and Be Beautiful) On Earth We're Briefly Gorgeous Extremely Loud and Incredibly Close
My list of favourite book titles would be: The Wisdom of Crowds Drive Your Plow Over the Bones of the Dead At Night All Blood is Black Tender is the Flesh The Bread the Devil Knead Human Acts A Ghost in the Throat Their Eyes Were Watching God Her Body and Other Parties Yellowface
I immediately thought of "A Tree Grows in Brooklyn," and although I'm not entirely sure why, but I think it's because it has such a hopefully sound to it... life growing in an inhospitable environment or something.
One that immediately comes to mind is Signs Preceding the End of the World (Señales que precederán al fin del mundo) by Yuri Herrera. East of Eden, from the Bible verse "And Cain went out from the presence of the Lord, and dwelt in the land of Nod, on the east of Eden." I'm not even religious but that title just hits me.
Ive got a funny story about How To Kill Your Family. Which is I dont have a book end thingy so I just use random objects to keep my books from family and I had subconsciously decided to put a picture of my brother next to How To Kill Your Family. My brother was not as amused as I was
The most beautiful title ever has to be ----Beautiful World, Where Are You------. Such a poetic, melancholic, mysterious title, so satisfying to say and pronounce, and the right amount of syllables (7). I do LOVE a title with a sentence or at least quite a lot of words that flows beautifully when pronounced. Also gorgeous titles: Tomorrow, and Tomorrow, and Tomorrow A Tale for the Time Being Cold Enough for Snow Tropical Night Falling When We Were Friends In the Shadow of the Mountain Everything I Never Told You The Summer of Songbirds Go As A River The Moon Represents My Heart By the way "I'm glad My Mom Died" is for me a big NO. Really doesn't make me want to read the book as it sounds simply so trashy for the sake of getting people's attention, there is a fine line between mystery or being provocative and being trashy as hell.
I think my top 2 book titles (I did buy these solely based on the title) are 'If Nobody Speaks of Remarkable Things' by Jon McGregor and 'On Earth We're Briefly Gorgeous' by Ocean Vuong
Haven't read them but love the titles: "You made a fool of death with your beauty" & "On earth we're briefly gorgeous" Also like: "In my dreams I hold a knife"
my favourite is "Eu receberia as piores notícias dos seus lindos lábios", which translates to "I'd receive the worst news from your beautiful lips". but I'm not good at translating into english, so it just sounds like a panic at the disco song. "The Unbearable Lightness of Being" is also gorgeous in portuguese, it's "A Insustentável Leveza do Ser"
'A Thousand Splendid Suns' by K. Hosseini, 'The God of Small Things' by Arundhati Roy, 'All the light we cannot see", 'On Earth We are briefly gorgeous"
Some of my favorite book titles! - I Keep My Exoskeletons to Myself - A Confederacy of Dunces - A Supposedly Fun Thing I’ll Never Do Again - Wishful Drinking - I Feel Bad About My Neck - How Not To Drown In A Glass of Water - Love, Dishonor, Marry, Die, Cherish, Perish
Some of my favorite titles: - "How Much of These Hills is Gold" by C Pam Zhang - "Mostly Dead Things" by Kristen Arnett - "Why Fish Don't Exist" by Lulu Miller - "Before You Suffocate Your Own Fool Self" by Danielle Evans - "No Matter the Wreckage" poetry collection by Sarah Kay I also thought of "Someone Who Will Love You in All Your Damaged Glory" immediately when I saw this video title haha
Here are a few of my faves titles (in no particular order)! i love the way they roll off the tongue and produce such striking imagery! 1. Beauty is a Wound by Eka Kurniawan (novel) 2. Her Body and Other Parties by Carmen Maria Machado (short story collection) 3. Why Be Happy When You Could be Normal by Jeanette Winterson (memoir) 4. Don’t Let Me Be Lonely by Claudia Rankine (hybrid-genre CNF) 5. A Pig Was Once Killed in our Garage by Martin Villanueva (CNF by a local writer from my country) 6. A Dream of Women by Lakambini Sitoy (short story by a local writer from my country as well) 7. The Woman Destroyed by Simone de Beauvoir (short story collection) 8. The Night is Darkening Around Me by Emily Brontë (poem title also used by a penguin classics EB collection)
some books I love the titles of are: on earth we're briefly gorgeous (duh) tomorrow, and tomorrow, and tomorrow and then there were none turtles all the way down sharks in the time of saviors this is how you lose the time war
I'm not a huge fan of titles that are taken from lines or poems of another authors' work. As you said, you sometimes buy a book based on the title alone, perhaps assuming the writer is quite the wordsmith to have come up with said title and that the content of the book will be of equal value. But that's not always the case, because the author didn't actually write it in the first place. I think authors should come up with their own title.
Books I haven’t read yet but I’m dying to because of the title: Milk Blood Heat by Dantiel Moniz This Is How You Lose the Time War by Amal El-Mohtar Recursion (because I’m a CS major and this is a key term) by Blake Crouch Night Sky with Exit Wounds by Ocean Vuong At Night All Blood is Black by David Diop
a recent favorite for me is "The Long Way to a Small Angry Planet" not only is it memorable, but it's also just such a perfect title for the story. but my all time favorite title is probably "The Ocean at the End of the Lane" it's so intriguing and again, a perfect title for the story.
Jack (since it seems like you haven't actually read Pale Fire yet), a Vanessa is a type of butterfly - that's what Nabokov was referring to (he was a major collector of butterflies).
"When Breath Becomes Air" is a beautiful title and coincidentally my favourite book of all time. I talk about and think about this book CONSTANTLY, I could swear people hate me for it.
Mine right now is: Your Guide to Not Getting Murdered in a Quaint English Village by Maureen Johnson & Jay Cooper. It was a book I didn't know I needed and I am glad to have found it.
Never clicked on a thumbnail so fast in my life! Lets be honest, the vibes of a good title can be just a good of a hook as the cover. The last book I bought based on the title alone was “Everyone in this room will someday be dead” by Emily Austin (right on top of my TBR).
The title (and book) that always stuck with me is “The Life and Loves of a She-Devil” ❤️ I also love “A system so magnificent it is blinding” and “The artificial silk girl”
You're such a joy to listen to Jack, been watching you since 2017 (since your studytube days lol), and your evolution in personality + content has been incredible to see. Booktube King fr ❤
"John Dies at the End", "An Autobiography of An Ex-Coloured Man", "Memoirs of a Dutiful Daughter", and "Do Androids Dream of Electric Sheep?" are all books that I bought either by title alone or the title had great sway in the decision, and I've enjoyed each of them in their own way. They fall less in the category of the beautiful and introspective titles in the video and comments, but they still created intrigue and unanswered questions in my mind about the book that I wanted to solve by reading. Definitley recommend these to anyone reading this comment
I am beyond excited to hear you talk more about the Unbearable Lightness of Being! And what perfect timing- I fell in love with it two years ago, and just decided to do a reread, I have about 20 pages left! Also didn’t know about Milan Kundera’s passing, what odd timing.
Love the idea of doing a whole video on book titles! I'm currently writing a novel and I titled it "We Fell From Sky With Grace". It's about religious trauma and the experience of going through a faith crisis so it felt very fitting to me
so my favorite titles are "I Have the Right to Destroy Myself" by Kim Youngha (its also one of the best books I've ever read and i just keep coming back to it) "Sanatorium Under the Sign of the Hourglass" by Bruno Schulz (if you'd like to read a book by a Polish author i highly recommend this one!!) and "Grief is the Thing with Feathers" by Max Porter (haven't read it yet but sounds promising)
One of my favourites is translated title. The Secret History be Donna Tart in finnish is Jumalat juhlivat öisin which is Gods Celebrate at Nights. In english that doesn't sound so good but in finnish I find it really beautiful and actually better title than original.
I bought a book solely on the title, not knowing anything else. It was "Attack of the unsinkable rubber ducks". Turns out it's about psychics being a scam, twas good 😅
1:59 build your house around my body 2:10 no one is talking about this 2:42 something wicked this way comes 2:47 the unbearable lightness of being 3:18 the curious incident of the dog in the nighttime 3:34 the perks of being a wallflower i give up lol too much work
let me help you out here hehe 3:37 all the lovers in the night 3:40 breasts and eggs 3:59 tender is the night 4:09 a moveable feast 4:40 things we say in the dark 4:54 eats, shoots & leaves 6:09 surfshark vpn ad 7:26 me talk pretty one day 7:34 the subtle art of not giving a f*ck 7:45 i know why the caged bird signs and yees, if someone wants to carry on, the floor is yours :D
So there's a book that for years I saw on the shelves and thought the author's name was part of the title and I thought it was such a great title until I realized it was a separate title and name and now it's just an average title and a bad cover design for not more clearly differentiating the two. Anyway it is "Everything Leads to You" by Nina LaCour, which I read as "Everything Leads to You, Nina LaCour" which would have been a great title.
“A Single Thread of Moonlight” by Laura Wood “The Seven Husbands of Evelyn Hugo” by Taylor Jenkins Reid “This Side of Paradise” and “The Beautiful and the Damned” by F Scott Fitzgerald “Save Me the Waltz” by Zelda Fitzgerald “Loveless” by Alice Oseman and “Pride and Prejudice” by Jane Austen (these ones aren’t necessarily the type of title that makes you need to pick up the book, but ones that holds so much irony when you read them)
A few monikers to captivate your fancy Jack are - 1. 𝓞𝓷 𝓔𝓪𝓻𝓽𝓱 𝓦𝓮'𝓻𝓮 𝓑𝓻𝓲𝓮𝓯𝓵𝔂 𝓖𝓸𝓻𝓰𝓮𝓸𝓾𝓼 by Ocean Vuong, 2. 𝓣𝓪𝓴𝓮 𝓜𝓮 𝔀𝓲𝓽𝓱 𝓨𝓸𝓾 𝓦𝓱𝓮𝓷 𝓨𝓸𝓾 𝓖𝓸 by Jennifer Niven and David Levithan, 3. 𝓣𝓱𝓮 𝓕𝓪𝓾𝓵𝓽 𝓲𝓷 𝓞𝓾𝓻 𝓢𝓽𝓪𝓻𝓼 by John Green, 4. 𝓐𝓵𝓵 𝓣𝓱𝓲𝓼 𝓣𝓲𝓶𝓮 by Rachel Lippincot, 5. 𝓚𝓷𝓸𝔀 𝓜𝔂 𝓝𝓪𝓶𝓮 by Chanel Miller, 6. 𝓝𝓮𝓿𝓮𝓻 𝓛𝓮𝓽 𝓜𝓮 𝓖𝓸 by Kazuo Ishiguro, and 7. 𝓣𝓱𝓲𝓷𝓰𝓼 𝓕𝓪𝓵𝓵 𝓐𝓹𝓪𝓻𝓽 by Chinua Achebe to name a few.
The wilder the book title, the more I’m interested. P.S. ‘The Travelling Cat Chronicles’, ‘One, Two, Buckle My Shoe’ and ‘The Final Girl Support Group’ are my Top 3.
I Keep My Exoskeletons to Myself, by Marisa Crane. I haven't read it yet but I want to based on that title alone. When Women Were Dragons, by Kelly Barnhill. I'm currently reading this one and just love that title
"One Hundred Names for Love" by Diane Ackerman, "Behind the Scenes at the Museum" by Kate Atkinson, "4 3 2 1" by Paul Auster, "Behind the Beautiful Forevers" by Katherine Boo, "A Gloom Is Cast Upon the Ancient Steps" by Alexander Chudakov, "Love and Other Consolation Prizes" by Jamie Ford, "A Sting in the Tale" by Dave Goulson, "We Wish to Inform You that Tomorrow We Will Be Killed with Our Families" by Philip Gourevitch, "Bring up the Bodies" by Hilary Mantel, "The Hand that First Held Mine" by Maggie O'Farrell, "Drive Your Plow over the Bones of the Dead" by Olga Tokarczuk, and "The Warmth of Other Suns" by Isabel Wilkerson.
"On Earth We're Briefly Gorgeous" always stuck with me. Profound and beautiful. I think of both the title and the book itself often.
I’m currently reading that book! The first 50 pages took me over a year to get through but now I’m halfway through and can’t wait to find out where the story goes.
I was waiting for this one. this book inspired my first tattoo.
Agree
OmG yesss how did he not mention it
And “night sky with exit wounds” like whot!!!!!!!
I read that book only bcoz of the title, also the fact that its not just a title but actually taken from the text of the book 💯
The german book title for "Convenience Store Woman" is "Die Ladenhüterin" which means simultaneously "Woman who protects the store" and "Product that does never get bought and therefore sits in the store forever". I think that's brilliant.
It is indeed! :o Thanks for sharing!
Wow, thank you so much for this story, I always wondered why they translated it like this and I didn’t that’s what you call products that don’t get bought. 😅
I would listen to an hour-long lecture about how that word came to have both those meanings. Absolutely fascinating!
My personal favorite is "I'm Glad My Mom Died". I saw this at the store and bought it just from the title. I wanted to know how the author would justify this title. And oh boy, justify she did.
"The Palace of Illusions", "The Kind Worth Killing", "On Earth We're Briefly Gorgeous" & "Tomorrow, and Tomorrow, and Tomorrow" are few favorites too.
came here to comment this.
YES, and I love when the book title doesn’t make any sense until you read a certain part of the book
Are u indian? Asking because u mentioned The Palace Of Illusions (I love that book 😭)
@@junainahrahman4156 Yupp. Also a fan of anything Chitra Banerjee writes!
@@nezukochan86have u read before we visit the goddess?
One of my favorite book titles ever is a short story collection called “the trees grew because I bled there “, there is something about this sentence that’s just so beautiful and kinda scary too , which is exactly what this book offers .
Yesss, came to the comments to make sure this one was here, one of the best!
“I Love You But I’ve Chosen Darkness” always has me in amazement and Claire’s writing is just too good.
I made a list of titles that Jack mentioned:
1. Build Your House Around My Body 2:01
2. No One is Talking About This 2:17
3. Something Wicked This Way Comes 2:44
4. The Unbearable Lightness of Being 2:59
5. The Curious Incident of The Dog in the Night-time 3:32
6. The Perks of Being a Wallflower 3:34
7. All the Lovers in the Night 3:36
8. Breast and Eggs 3:40
9. Tender is the Night 4:03
10. A Moveable Feast 4:13
11. Things We Say in the Dark 4:46
12. Eats, Shoots & Leaves 5:01
13. Me Talk Pretty One Day 7:32
14. The Subtle Art of Not Giving a Fuck 7:35
15. I Know Why the Caged Bird Sings 7:43
16. How to Kill your Family 8:08
17. Send Nudes 8:16
18. Everyone in This Room will Someday be Dead 8:44
19. Someone Who Will Love You in All Your Damaged Glory 9:06
20. Before the Coffee Gets Cold 9:20
21. Much Ado About Nothing 9:51
22. I’m Glad My Mom Died 10:03
23. I want to Die but I Want to Eat Tteokbokki 10:57
24. I Fear My Pain Interest You 11:00
25. Through The Billboard Promised Land Without Ever Stopping 11:09
26. South of The Border, West of The Sun 11:37
27. Hard-Boiled Wonderland and The End of The World 12:08
28. The Illicit Happiness of Other People 12:22
29. My Dark Vanessa 12:28
"On earth we're briefly gorgeous" is a really pretty title and captures the beautiful story so well
I was surprised that title wasn’t on this list
@@niki7120 me too
You should do this with book covers too! A good cover will always get me. They say don't judge a book by its cover, but I think if the author/publisher has good taste on a cover, I know they'll have good taste in writing. It's worked for me every time.
I'm Glad My Mom Died by Jenette McCurdy is so deadpan and raw especially within its context. It definitely strikes a chord.
fave title has to be.. a thousand splendid suns.. because it’s just such a mouthful to say.. AND IT SOUNDS BEAUTIFUL !!!!
Read this at mid-July and it's safe to say that it ruined my sanity in the best possible way 😭🤍
Another thing though, we go into reading these unique titles with certain expectations. I usually think that such brilliant titles would lead to an equally brilliant plot and writing. But nothing disappoints more than when the amazingness of the title doesn't translate to the story.
I agree with you love 💕
Yesss very well said 👏
Jack, I can't believe you didn't put 'ALONE WITH YOU IN THE ETHER' into your list !!! 😭😭
Oh wow!! I haven’t gotten to the end of the video but I’m reading the comments and I’m so surprised he didn’t mention it!! That’s definitely one of my favorite titles ever.
We appreciate your recommendations, Jack. They mean a lot to us.
"Everyone brave is forgiven" by Chris Cleave is such a heartbreaking and beautiful title
I really like « Crying in H Mart ». It’s what the story is about (grief, family, food, being Korean-American) and it’s quite graphical, you can picture someone crying in H-Mart.
A Swedish author, Amanda Svensson, had a book translated to english that is called:
A System So Magnificent It Is Blinding
When it came out in swedish I instantly reacted to the title, I think it’s beautiful. It is also longlisted for the International Booker Prize this year 😊
“On earth we’re briefly gorgeous” will always be my favourite!!
I absolutely love The Importance of Being Earnest, the title perfectly describes the direction of the story, its moral lesson and references a character(s) so elegantly!
My favourite without a doubt is "Turtles all the way down", just at first look you are very intrigued by it and want to know more and when u actually learn about the title It gives you a lot of meaning and all the metaphors in the book which are actually connected to this title are just brilliant. My second would be "Beautiful world, where are you?" I remember just have great expectations for this as a title so beautiful really asks you the question of how beautiful is the books actually.
My favorites:
-On Earth We’re Briefly Gorgeous
-At Night All Blood is Black
-If We Were Villains
-The Collected Regrets of Clover
-The World Keeps Ending, and The World Goes On
my personal favourite title is "Been Down So Long It Looks Like Up to Me", it's a 1960s novel written by a guy who died in a motorcycle crash a few days after it was published and one of the most undeservedly unknown novels ever. it's just a clever title and a reference to a blues song.
Such a cool video idea, I love long book titles! Some of my favorites are “when breath becomes air” by Paul Kalanithi, “their eyes were watching god” by Zora Neale Hurston, “human acts” by Han Kang (I know this one’s rather simple, but it’s just so perfectly chosen for the content of the book. The Korean original title 소년이 온다 is also really cool), “night sky with exit wounds” by Ocean Vuong (like could a poetry book have a more gorgeous title?) and the German title for Michaela DePrince’s “taking flight”: Ich kam mit dem Wüstenwind, which translates as ‘I came with the desert wind’ and I just think that’s a stunning title for a memoir^^
Their Eyes Were Watching God is my favourite title. I’m not religious so I find it very interesting this title in particular made such a mark on me!
The uni-verse is truly a genius title Jack! We're so proud of it too😭💓
“All The Bright Places” is one that really sticks with me. Such a poignant and heartbreaking book that still manages to hold onto hope.
YES. I typically hate romance novels, but this book was just so tragically gorgeous and has stuck with me for years.
I haven't read that many books in English but I love The Secret History's title in Finnish which is The gods celebrate at night.
My all time favorite book title is: "When Death Takes Something From You Give It Back" By Naja Marie Aidt. Not "let it go" but "give it back" I love that so much. It is also my favorite book, though I have never managed to read it to the end as my eyes will overflow every 5 pages.
That sounds sooo good! What is it about?
That book is wonderful! It’s about a mother’s tragic loss of her son, how she copes - or does not cope with the grief, and how she finds herself being unable to write (she’s a quite established Danish writer)
@@sibraxx ooh, I’m gonna add it to my tbr, it sounds like something I would love😍
Here are a few of my favorite titles you didn’t mention: I know you’re not a fan for some inexplicable reason, but Douglas Adams’ “So Long, and Thanks for All the Fish” and “Dirk Gently’s Holistic Detective Agency”; Anne Tyler’s “Dinner at the Homesick Restaurant”; Becky Albertalli’s “The Upside of Unrequited”; Gabriel García Márquez’s “Love in the Time of Cholera”; Christopher Bram’s “Lives of the Circus Animals”; David Leavitt’s “The Lost Language of Cranes”; and of course J.D. Salinger’s “Raise High the Roof Beam, Carpenters and Seymour: An Introduction.”
A book on my ever-growing TBR list, but "All Our Yesterdays" by Natalia Ginzburg. Fully bought it for the title and cover alone.
"the tiny things we know to be small" is one of my absolute favourites
- Do Androids Dream of Electric Sheep?
- How to Marry Keanu Reeves in 90 Days (the title was so ridiculous, I had to buy it immediately) 😂😂
- One Hundred Years of Solitude
- And Then There Were None
- The Importance of Being Earnest
- Pride and Prejudice
Some of my favorites are:
-All The Light We Cannot See
-Perks Of Being A Wallflower
-The Fault In Our Stars
-A Thousand Splendid Suns
-Heart Of Darkness
I absolutely adore the title “Lie With Me”. It’s one of those titles that have even more meaning after reading the book. I love how it depicts both the act of lying as in omitting, keeping a secret (of their relationship) but also the romantic sense of lying down, being together with.
Another title that also makes me swoon is “Alone with you in the ether” it’s such a poetic title and fits the story SO well
Jack’s book recs are always so good! Also I think these book title sounds really good though I haven’t read them yet - Cleopatra and Frankstein , You made a fool of death with your beauty, and the language of rose which apparently is not your typical beauty and the beast retelling ❤
Jack’s videos never fail to make me smile:)
A favourite of mine, but also one of my favourite titles (especially for a short story collection), is "What we talk about when we talk about love" by Raymond Carver. Also, "The sense of an ending" by Julian Barnes ; "One hundred years of solitude" and "Chronicle of a death fortold" by Marquez; "Requiem for a dream" by Hubert Shelby Jr; "The man who mistook his wife for a hat"; "How high we go in the dark" ; "A thousand splendid suns" + "And the mountains echoed" by Hosseini. So may...
I feel like Tender is the night is the best one! It comes from a Keats poem -- I like book titles from poems. 'A thousand splendid suns' and 'Slouching towards Bethlehem' and 'things fall apart' are all from poems, (the last two from the same Yeats poem!).
As we move into the Spooky Month, I strongly recommend the horror novella "I Found a Circus Tent in the Woods Behind My House".
The title pulled me in, the story kept me in. I'm hoping the sequel, I Found Puppets Living in My Apartment Walls, is just as good.
Eats shoots and leaves reminds me of a newspaper headline (I think): nut screws washers and bolts (a crazy man raped washing women and escaped vs. the obvious nouns for spares)
Titles I like as well
1. Our endless numbered days
2. My family and other animals
3. The prizewinner of Defiance Ohio: how my mother raised 10 kids on 25 words or less
'Our Share Of Night' by Mariana Enríquez has stuck with me (especially in Spanish) mostly because of how it completely captures the whole book plot and its most important relationship (father and son). I also love 'Things We Lost in the Fire' though I haven't read it yet. Finally, 'On Earth We're Briefly Gorgeous' 👏
I love all of Kazuo Ishiguro’s, Khaled Hosseini’s and Ruth Ozeki’s book titles, they’re just next level when it comes to fiction! And also Joan Didion, Eve Babitz and Patti Smith when it comes to non-fiction!
Personal Favs: The Unbearable Lightness of Being, You Made a Fool of Death with Your Beauty, This Sjde of Paradise, You Feel it Just Below the Ribs, ans On Earth We're Briefly Gorgeous
Hey Jack! Wanted to let you know about the Philadelphia Bookstore Map, which was just released! It was a grassroots effort to create a map that shows all the bookstores in Philly--could be a fun video idea whenever you're in the US again!
Ocean Vuong has beautiful book titles, "Time is a Mother" is another great one of his. I love Akwaeke Emezi's "You Made a Fool of Death with Your Beauty" too.
Some of mine: The Hours, Call me by your name, Requiem for a dream, Letter to a Child Never Born, A Tree Grows in Brooklyn , Unf@*k Yourself, Where Angels Fear to Tread, The Phantom of the opera.
Mine are
Not As Nature Intended - a book about factory farming
Hold Kæft og Vær Smuk (transla: Shut Up and Be Beautiful)
On Earth We're Briefly Gorgeous
Extremely Loud and Incredibly Close
"Diary of a void" and "on earth we're briefly gorgeous" are probably my favs
My list of favourite book titles would be:
The Wisdom of Crowds
Drive Your Plow Over the Bones of the Dead
At Night All Blood is Black
Tender is the Flesh
The Bread the Devil Knead
Human Acts
A Ghost in the Throat
Their Eyes Were Watching God
Her Body and Other Parties
Yellowface
IM GLAD U LIKE UR OWN TITLE BECAUSE (i bloody love it and) IT GOT ME THROUGH WRITING MY PERSONAL STATEMENT I CANNOT THANK YOU ENOUGH
I immediately thought of "A Tree Grows in Brooklyn," and although I'm not entirely sure why, but I think it's because it has such a hopefully sound to it... life growing in an inhospitable environment or something.
One that immediately comes to mind is Signs Preceding the End of the World (Señales que precederán al fin del mundo) by Yuri Herrera.
East of Eden, from the Bible verse "And Cain went out from the presence of the Lord, and dwelt in the land of Nod, on the east of Eden." I'm not even religious but that title just hits me.
Ive got a funny story about How To Kill Your Family. Which is I dont have a book end thingy so I just use random objects to keep my books from family and I had subconsciously decided to put a picture of my brother next to How To Kill Your Family. My brother was not as amused as I was
The most beautiful title ever has to be ----Beautiful World, Where Are You------. Such a poetic, melancholic, mysterious title, so satisfying to say and pronounce, and the right amount of syllables (7). I do LOVE a title with a sentence or at least quite a lot of words that flows beautifully when pronounced.
Also gorgeous titles:
Tomorrow, and Tomorrow, and Tomorrow
A Tale for the Time Being
Cold Enough for Snow
Tropical Night Falling
When We Were Friends
In the Shadow of the Mountain
Everything I Never Told You
The Summer of Songbirds
Go As A River
The Moon Represents My Heart
By the way "I'm glad My Mom Died" is for me a big NO. Really doesn't make me want to read the book as it sounds simply so trashy for the sake of getting people's attention, there is a fine line between mystery or being provocative and being trashy as hell.
I think my top 2 book titles (I did buy these solely based on the title) are 'If Nobody Speaks of Remarkable Things' by Jon McGregor and 'On Earth We're Briefly Gorgeous' by Ocean Vuong
"When I Sing, Mountains Dance" by Irene Solà is my current favourite!
Haven't read them but love the titles: "You made a fool of death with your beauty" & "On earth we're briefly gorgeous"
Also like: "In my dreams I hold a knife"
God of small things is wonderful. I have loved it for many years
my favourite is "Eu receberia as piores notícias dos seus lindos lábios", which translates to "I'd receive the worst news from your beautiful lips". but I'm not good at translating into english, so it just sounds like a panic at the disco song. "The Unbearable Lightness of Being" is also gorgeous in portuguese, it's "A Insustentável Leveza do Ser"
'A Thousand Splendid Suns' by K. Hosseini, 'The God of Small Things' by Arundhati Roy, 'All the light we cannot see", 'On Earth We are briefly gorgeous"
Some of my favorite book titles!
- I Keep My Exoskeletons to Myself
- A Confederacy of Dunces
- A Supposedly Fun Thing I’ll Never Do Again
- Wishful Drinking
- I Feel Bad About My Neck
- How Not To Drown In A Glass of Water
- Love, Dishonor, Marry, Die, Cherish, Perish
Some of my favorite titles:
- "How Much of These Hills is Gold" by C Pam Zhang
- "Mostly Dead Things" by Kristen Arnett
- "Why Fish Don't Exist" by Lulu Miller
- "Before You Suffocate Your Own Fool Self" by Danielle Evans
- "No Matter the Wreckage" poetry collection by Sarah Kay
I also thought of "Someone Who Will Love You in All Your Damaged Glory" immediately when I saw this video title haha
Here are a few of my faves titles (in no particular order)! i love the way they roll off the tongue and produce such striking imagery!
1. Beauty is a Wound by Eka Kurniawan (novel)
2. Her Body and Other Parties by Carmen Maria Machado (short story collection)
3. Why Be Happy When You Could be Normal by Jeanette Winterson (memoir)
4. Don’t Let Me Be Lonely by Claudia Rankine (hybrid-genre CNF)
5. A Pig Was Once Killed in our Garage by Martin Villanueva (CNF by a local writer from my country)
6. A Dream of Women by Lakambini Sitoy (short story by a local writer from my country as well)
7. The Woman Destroyed by Simone de Beauvoir (short story collection)
8. The Night is Darkening Around Me by Emily Brontë (poem title also used by a penguin classics EB collection)
On my phone the words in the heading cuts off TITLES to just the first three letters… So it was shocking to see!
Fuccboi by Sean Thor Conroe 🔥🫡🔥🔥
some books I love the titles of are:
on earth we're briefly gorgeous (duh)
tomorrow, and tomorrow, and tomorrow
and then there were none
turtles all the way down
sharks in the time of saviors
this is how you lose the time war
I'm not a huge fan of titles that are taken from lines or poems of another authors' work. As you said, you sometimes buy a book based on the title alone, perhaps assuming the writer is quite the wordsmith to have come up with said title and that the content of the book will be of equal value. But that's not always the case, because the author didn't actually write it in the first place. I think authors should come up with their own title.
I agree. It is kind of like "Hey, I know Shakespeare! Do you?? Do you see my _reference_??"
Books I haven’t read yet but I’m dying to because of the title:
Milk Blood Heat by Dantiel Moniz
This Is How You Lose the Time War by Amal El-Mohtar
Recursion (because I’m a CS major and this is a key term) by Blake Crouch
Night Sky with Exit Wounds by Ocean Vuong
At Night All Blood is Black by David Diop
I recently picked up something just seeing the title and the gorgeous cover - "I have the right to destroy myself".
In that same vein: I fear my pain interests you
Tim Key’s book about being alone during lockdown “He Used Thought as a Wife” is one of my favorite book titles.
So many good ones! ❤
a recent favorite for me is "The Long Way to a Small Angry Planet" not only is it memorable, but it's also just such a perfect title for the story. but my all time favorite title is probably "The Ocean at the End of the Lane" it's so intriguing and again, a perfect title for the story.
What is your opinion on Ocean Vuong's "On Earth We're Briefly Gorgeous" (the title)?
night sky with exit wounds by ocean vuong
Jack (since it seems like you haven't actually read Pale Fire yet), a Vanessa is a type of butterfly - that's what Nabokov was referring to (he was a major collector of butterflies).
I haven't read it yet but Do androids dream of electric sheep? Has been tickling my brain for years!
"When Breath Becomes Air" is a beautiful title and coincidentally my favourite book of all time. I talk about and think about this book CONSTANTLY, I could swear people hate me for it.
Mine right now is: Your Guide to Not Getting Murdered in a Quaint English Village by Maureen Johnson & Jay Cooper. It was a book I didn't know I needed and I am glad to have found it.
Never clicked on a thumbnail so fast in my life!
Lets be honest, the vibes of a good title can be just a good of a hook as the cover.
The last book I bought based on the title alone was “Everyone in this room will someday be dead” by Emily Austin (right on top of my TBR).
The title (and book) that always stuck with me is “The Life and Loves of a She-Devil” ❤️ I also love “A system so magnificent it is blinding” and “The artificial silk girl”
I think my favourite and the one Jack probably missed would be ‘On Earth we’re Briefly Gorgeous’.
You're such a joy to listen to Jack, been watching you since 2017 (since your studytube days lol), and your evolution in personality + content has been incredible to see. Booktube King fr ❤
"John Dies at the End", "An Autobiography of An Ex-Coloured Man", "Memoirs of a Dutiful Daughter", and "Do Androids Dream of Electric Sheep?" are all books that I bought either by title alone or the title had great sway in the decision, and I've enjoyed each of them in their own way. They fall less in the category of the beautiful and introspective titles in the video and comments, but they still created intrigue and unanswered questions in my mind about the book that I wanted to solve by reading. Definitley recommend these to anyone reading this comment
i think “on earth we’re briefly gorgeous” is a stunning title
Something Wicked This Way Comes comes from a line in Shakespeare's Macbeth, one of my favorite plays 💙
Exactly. No wonder it tastes delicious on the tongue, as Jack said, but that has nothing to do with Bradbury.
I am beyond excited to hear you talk more about the Unbearable Lightness of Being! And what perfect timing- I fell in love with it two years ago, and just decided to do a reread, I have about 20 pages left! Also didn’t know about Milan Kundera’s passing, what odd timing.
Love the idea of doing a whole video on book titles! I'm currently writing a novel and I titled it "We Fell From Sky With Grace". It's about religious trauma and the experience of going through a faith crisis so it felt very fitting to me
It's a very beautiful title!
@@Melissa-sx9vh Thank you!
so my favorite titles are "I Have the Right to Destroy Myself" by Kim Youngha (its also one of the best books I've ever read and i just keep coming back to it) "Sanatorium Under the Sign of the Hourglass" by Bruno Schulz (if you'd like to read a book by a Polish author i highly recommend this one!!) and "Grief is the Thing with Feathers" by Max Porter (haven't read it yet but sounds promising)
one of my favourite books and titles is “drive your pole over the bones of the dead”. it’s so pretty and wonderful
One of my favourites is translated title. The Secret History be Donna Tart in finnish is Jumalat juhlivat öisin which is Gods Celebrate at Nights. In english that doesn't sound so good but in finnish I find it really beautiful and actually better title than original.
I read a lot of non fiction and memoir so one of my favorite titles is "The Media Relations Department of Hezbollah Wishes You A Happy Birthday"
'Me being me is exactly as insane as you being you' is one of my faves, and I also really love 'Solutions and other Problems'
I bought a book solely on the title, not knowing anything else. It was "Attack of the unsinkable rubber ducks". Turns out it's about psychics being a scam, twas good 😅
1:59 build your house around my body
2:10 no one is talking about this
2:42 something wicked this way comes
2:47 the unbearable lightness of being
3:18 the curious incident of the dog in the nighttime
3:34 the perks of being a wallflower
i give up lol too much work
let me help you out here hehe
3:37 all the lovers in the night
3:40 breasts and eggs
3:59 tender is the night
4:09 a moveable feast
4:40 things we say in the dark
4:54 eats, shoots & leaves
6:09 surfshark vpn ad
7:26 me talk pretty one day
7:34 the subtle art of not giving a f*ck
7:45 i know why the caged bird signs
and yees, if someone wants to carry on, the floor is yours :D
It’s ok. I do this too.
So there's a book that for years I saw on the shelves and thought the author's name was part of the title and I thought it was such a great title until I realized it was a separate title and name and now it's just an average title and a bad cover design for not more clearly differentiating the two. Anyway it is "Everything Leads to You" by Nina LaCour, which I read as "Everything Leads to You, Nina LaCour" which would have been a great title.
For a long time I thought Hellbent by Leigh Bardugo was called Hell Bentleigh and the author was just Bardugo 😂
@@meikusje it really does need to be more clear sometimes.... I'm a book designer, someone hire me please 😭
😅
“A Single Thread of Moonlight” by Laura Wood
“The Seven Husbands of Evelyn Hugo” by Taylor Jenkins Reid
“This Side of Paradise” and “The Beautiful and the Damned” by F Scott Fitzgerald
“Save Me the Waltz” by Zelda Fitzgerald
“Loveless” by Alice Oseman and “Pride and Prejudice” by Jane Austen
(these ones aren’t necessarily the type of title that makes you need to pick up the book, but ones that holds so much irony when you read them)
“no longer human” by osamu dazai, or “the sailor who fell from grace with the sea” by yukio mishima
A few monikers to captivate your fancy Jack are -
1. 𝓞𝓷 𝓔𝓪𝓻𝓽𝓱 𝓦𝓮'𝓻𝓮 𝓑𝓻𝓲𝓮𝓯𝓵𝔂 𝓖𝓸𝓻𝓰𝓮𝓸𝓾𝓼 by Ocean Vuong,
2. 𝓣𝓪𝓴𝓮 𝓜𝓮 𝔀𝓲𝓽𝓱 𝓨𝓸𝓾 𝓦𝓱𝓮𝓷 𝓨𝓸𝓾 𝓖𝓸 by Jennifer Niven and David Levithan,
3. 𝓣𝓱𝓮 𝓕𝓪𝓾𝓵𝓽 𝓲𝓷 𝓞𝓾𝓻 𝓢𝓽𝓪𝓻𝓼 by John Green,
4. 𝓐𝓵𝓵 𝓣𝓱𝓲𝓼 𝓣𝓲𝓶𝓮 by Rachel Lippincot,
5. 𝓚𝓷𝓸𝔀 𝓜𝔂 𝓝𝓪𝓶𝓮 by Chanel Miller,
6. 𝓝𝓮𝓿𝓮𝓻 𝓛𝓮𝓽 𝓜𝓮 𝓖𝓸 by Kazuo Ishiguro, and
7. 𝓣𝓱𝓲𝓷𝓰𝓼 𝓕𝓪𝓵𝓵 𝓐𝓹𝓪𝓻𝓽 by Chinua Achebe to name a few.
The wilder the book title, the more I’m interested.
P.S. ‘The Travelling Cat Chronicles’, ‘One, Two, Buckle My Shoe’ and ‘The Final Girl Support Group’ are my Top 3.
I Keep My Exoskeletons to Myself, by Marisa Crane. I haven't read it yet but I want to based on that title alone.
When Women Were Dragons, by Kelly Barnhill. I'm currently reading this one and just love that title
One of my favorites is Everyday the way home gets longer and longer, by Fredrik Backman. Its grabs your attention and perfectly describes the book
"One Hundred Names for Love" by Diane Ackerman, "Behind the Scenes at the Museum" by Kate Atkinson, "4 3 2 1" by Paul Auster, "Behind the Beautiful Forevers" by Katherine Boo, "A Gloom Is Cast Upon the Ancient Steps" by Alexander Chudakov, "Love and Other Consolation Prizes" by Jamie Ford, "A Sting in the Tale" by Dave Goulson, "We Wish to Inform You that Tomorrow We Will Be Killed with Our Families" by Philip Gourevitch, "Bring up the Bodies" by Hilary Mantel, "The Hand that First Held Mine" by Maggie O'Farrell, "Drive Your Plow over the Bones of the Dead" by Olga Tokarczuk, and "The Warmth of Other Suns" by Isabel Wilkerson.