What Makes You Pull a Book Off the Shelf?

When you haven’t heard of it – when only the spine is showing – what makes you pull a book off the shelf? I can see my grade school classroom bookshelves, and year after year certain titles that I hated and never picked: Little House in the Big Woods was one. It sounded babyish, boring, too serious (I know, I was wrong: years later I heard my mother reading it to my younger siblings and then read, and loved, the whole series).



Now I still see some patterns in titles I like – they’re intriguing and make me wonder. They make me want to read the book and then they deliver what they promise: The Hobbit, Homecoming, Tom’s Midnight Garden, The Return of the Twelves.

Lots of current YA titles seem to be trying WAY too hard to get attention. They sound fake. Maybe I’d Tell You I Love You But Then I’d Have to Kill You is a great book; but I’ll never read it. I like titles (and books) that seem natural. Astronauts Handbookthe title combined with Meghan’s art: intriguing and natural.When my mother heard the title of my book that's out now, she said "Hmmmmm...." in a tone her daughters know all too well -- some of my artist sisters never show her ANYTHING for that reason!

Good titles also seem inevitable, even though I know lots aren’t: Gone With the Wind was first called Tomorrow Is Another Day; The Great Gatsby something like The High-Bouncing Lover. Come to think of it I like that better! What’s a NEW title that seems inevitable? Stargirl? Firegirl? Or am I just prejudiced because I love their covers?

This one is harder to define, but good titles also have a kind of ring to them….though not a FORCED ring (like all those double alliteration titles – I bet most slush piles are full of titles like Debbie the Dust Bunny). Estelle and Lucy, Olvina Flies, The Pig of the Pig, ….these all just SOUND (I’m talking about the sounds of the words) good -- good but not forced, and they fit. If, say, I saw Olvina Flies and pulled it off the shelf, I’d be surprised that Olvina was a chicken; but the name fits her, too. Perfect.

But maybe I’m just prejudiced – after all I’d heard of that one. What kinds of titles (or is it not the title, but something like the color?) do you actually pull off the shelf?
Libby
PS I know I already posted today, but that was more of a PSA--and I missed a lot of Saturdays while I was finishing my book! I had so much fun taking pictures (if you click this one you can read all the titles)that next week I'll post just pictures: what's on the shelves at Bank Square Books in Mystic, CT.... would it be interesting to pick a letter and all take pictures of that shelf at our local bookstore?