Irresistible and Almost Ominous Book Titles

One of the best reasons to read a book is just because you like the title.  I've compiled here a list of book titles that intrigue me and make me want to read more even if I have no idea what the book is about.

Remembrance of Things Past

By Marcel Proust.  This is actually a series of about six books and the more modern translation of the title is In Search of Lost Time.  I read the first two installments, Swann's Way and Within a Budding Grove, and both were tragically sleep inducing though obviously works of genius... not as horrible as Ulysses or anything, but they'll never be found snooping around my list of favorite reads.

Bastard Out of Carolina

By Dorothy Allison.  Never read it but I did see the movie and it was both compelling and difficult to stomach in the same way The Color Purple just terrifies you as you stare into the face of humanity and wish like hell you could look away.

A Confederacy of Dunces

By John Kennedy Toole.  I think I'm automatically fascinated with titles that deprecate their own characters as bastards and dunces.  This author left his manuscript in a box under his bed where it was found and published only after he'd already killed himself.  Of course it proceeded to win a Pulitzer Prize.

Stranger in a Strange Land

By Robert Heinlein.  Haven't read this Sci-fi landmark yet, but I will... currently bidding $80 on EbAY for a leather bound copy published by Easton Press.  Only four hours to go.

A Lesson Before Dying

By Ernest J. Gaines.  Haven't read it and have no idea what it's about, but I know I will read it someday.... Notice how none of the books on this list so far contain less than four words in the title.

Love in the Time of Cholera

By Gabriel Garcia Marquez.  Haven't read this one yet, but it did win a Nobel Prize.

Their Eyes Were Watcing God

By Zora Neale Hurston.  I would have read this one just for the title but in actuality it was featured in a book discussion group I regularly participate in.  And I enjoyed it.

The Once and Future King

By T.H. White.  Addressing the Arthurian legend but not as enjoyable for me as Jack Whyte's effort... or Mary Stewart's or Marion Zimmer Bradley's, but still my favorite title for this immensely important and sophisticated story. 

East of Eden

By John Steinbeck.  He also blows me away with another title, Winter of Our Discontent.

The Moon and Sixpence

By W. Somerset Maugham.  Haven't read this one and am not positive that I ever will... though I loved Of Human Bondage by the same author.  But the haunting title is irresistibly provocative...so someday perhaps.