›

Inspiring Titles

jrwjrw Shipmate
in Heaven
Has anyone ever found the title of a book (or anything really) more inspiring than the book (or whatever) itself? Here are some Christian book titles that I found inspiring. I haven't actually read the books (perhaps I assumed - rightly or wrongly - that they wouldn't live up to their titles) so I can't comment on whether or not they are actually any good:

No Well Worn Paths by Terry Virgo
Your God is Too small by JB Phillips
The Badly Behaved Bible by Nick Page

They don't necessarily have to be Christian titles. 🙂

Comments

  • FirenzeFirenze Shipmate, Host Emeritus
    The late Stewart Parker wrote a play with the unlivable-up-to title: The Kamikaze Ground Crew Reunion Dinner.
  • RockyRogerRockyRoger Shipmate
    When I were a lad, we had a large set of encyclopedias bought by my father before the war. One volume was called, 'Fun to Hug'.
    Very disappointing read.
  • stetsonstetson Shipmate
    edited January 17
    Not sure if it exactly fits the category, but right now I'm reading The Executioner's Song by Norman Mailer, about the murderer Gary Gilmore. I originally thought the title was kind of odd, since Gilmore was put to death by firing squad.

    Turns out, Mailer was just recycling the title of one of his poems published in the mid-1960s, long before Gilmore had commited the murders that got him executed.
  • stetsonstetson Shipmate
    RockyRoger wrote: »
    When I were a lad, we had a large set of encyclopedias bought by my father before the war. One volume was called, 'Fun to Hug'.
    Very disappointing read.

    Shortly after the faux-art porn flick Caligula came out, Funk And Wagnalls released a new volume of encyclopedias, sold by installment in grocery stores. The third book began with "CALIG", as the first article was about said statesman.

    Not sure if that was just coincidence, or if they were deliberately pandering to the horny-kid market. I'm sure they knew about the movie, though, and could probably have found a way to make "California" the first entry in that volume.
  • HedgehogHedgehog Shipmate
    I am just finishing a pulp novel (one of The Shadow stories by "Maxwell Grant") that bears the title The Museum Murders. Which sounds great except for the awkward fact that the story is about attempted theft of museum treasures and does not contain any murders (although there have been one or two attempted murders).
  • stetsonstetson Shipmate
    Hedgehog wrote: »
    I am just finishing a pulp novel (one of The Shadow stories by "Maxwell Grant") that bears the title The Museum Murders. Which sounds great except for the awkward fact that the story is about attempted theft of museum treasures and does not contain any murders (although there have been one or two attempted murders).

    I've never read it, but my understanding is that
    The Murders In The Rue Morgue by Edgar Allan Poe
    involves deaths that turn out not to be murders.
  • Stercus TauriStercus Tauri Shipmate
    I am sure I've mentioned it here before, but there was/is a book called, "What Every Bride Should Know". It must have been published a hundred or so years ago, and we found an old copy on a shelf in my wife's grandparents' manse in Montana when we visited in the 1980s. It was a cookery book.
  • ChastMastrChastMastr Shipmate
    RockyRoger wrote: »
    When I were a lad, we had a large set of encyclopedias bought by my father before the war. One volume was called, 'Fun to Hug'.
    Very disappointing read.

    Well, did you try to hug the volume? Maybe it would have been fun…
  • ChastMastrChastMastr Shipmate
    stetson wrote: »
    Not sure if it exactly fits the category, but right now I'm reading The Executioner's Song by Norman Mailer, about the murderer Gary Gilmore. I originally thought the title was kind of odd, since Gilmore was put to death by firing squad.

    Turns out, Mailer was just recycling the title of one of his poems published in the mid-1960s, long before Gilmore had commited the murders that got him executed.

    I was this many years old when I realized that the 1990s X-Men crossover event, “The X-Cutioner’s Song,” * was a reference to this.

    :open_mouth:

    * https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/X-Cutioner's_Song
  • ChastMastrChastMastr Shipmate
    stetson wrote: »
    Hedgehog wrote: »
    I am just finishing a pulp novel (one of The Shadow stories by "Maxwell Grant") that bears the title The Museum Murders. Which sounds great except for the awkward fact that the story is about attempted theft of museum treasures and does not contain any murders (although there have been one or two attempted murders).

    I've never read it, but my understanding is that
    The Murders In The Rue Morgue by Edgar Allan Poe
    involves deaths that turn out not to be murders.

    I’m sure that many writers have tried to
    ape

    the style of that famous book.

    :wink:

    PS:
    Ook.
  • KendelKendel Shipmate
    I found The Badass Librarians of Timbuktu an enticing title. So much so that I read the blurb and ended up buying and even reading it -- the first ebook I bought for my first ereader.
    I thought it was well worth the title.
    stetson wrote: »
    I've never read it, but my understanding is that
    The Murders In The Rue Morgue by Edgar Allan Poe
    involves deaths that turn out not to be murders.
    It all depends on how one defines "murder," I suppose.
    Poe's detective stories are great. Read 'em all. He made great use of the unexpected, showing how narrowly we often think.
  • DafydDafyd Hell Host
    jrw wrote: »
    Your God is Too small by JB Phillips
    I have read that one, as a teenager, and it was definitely worth reading then.

  • jrwjrw Shipmate
    Dafyd wrote: »
    jrw wrote: »
    Your God is Too small by JB Phillips
    I have read that one, as a teenager, and it was definitely worth reading then.
    I'll have to check it out. 🙂
  • Ex_OrganistEx_Organist Shipmate
    Dafyd wrote: »
    jrw wrote: »
    Your God is Too small by JB Phillips
    I have read that one, as a teenager, and it was definitely worth reading then.

    I too read it in my teens and was impressed. Re-reading it 60 years later I was less impressed.
  • agingjbagingjb Shipmate
    Ex_Organist wrote: »
    Dafyd wrote: »
    jrw wrote: »
    Your God is Too small by JB Phillips
    I have read that one, as a teenager, and it was definitely worth reading then.

    I too read it in my teens and was impressed. Re-reading it 60 years later I was less impressed.

    Yes, that was exactly my experience. Pity.

  • stetsonstetson Shipmate
    Kendel wrote: »
    It all depends on how one defines "murder," I suppose.

    Well, again, not having read the story myself, I think the killings would not fit the legal definition of murder, for obvious reasons. And probably not the moral one, either, since it seems unlikely the killer
    would understand the concept of ending someone's life.
  • TrudyTrudy Shipmate, Host Emeritus
    Stercus Tauri wrote: »
    I am sure I've mentioned it here before, but there was/is a book called, "What Every Bride Should Know". It must have been published a hundred or so years ago, and we found an old copy on a shelf in my wife's grandparents' manse in Montana when we visited in the 1980s. It was a cookery book.

    A similarly misleading title (and inspiring, though not in the way the author intended) caused great interest among the girls my age in church when we were about 12 or 13 and found a dusty copy of a book in the church library, published around 1890-1900, with the title "How to Win Young Men."

    We took it from the library and had great fun showing the cover to people, but of course the inside was all about evangelism - "winning" young men in a rather different way from the one that interested us.
  • ChastMastrChastMastr Shipmate
    Humorous but true: I was genuinely disappointed years ago when I found out that Of Human Bondage wasn’t.
  • MarthaMartha Shipmate
    I bought Hell and Damnation: A Sinner's Guide to Eternal Torment by Marq de Villiers because it was such a fantastic title. It's actually a pretty interesting look at how the idea of hell has developed.
  • TwangistTwangist Shipmate
    Dafyd wrote: »
    jrw wrote: »
    Your God is Too small by JB Phillips
    I have read that one, as a teenager, and it was definitely worth reading then.

    Likewise
  • TwangistTwangist Shipmate
    Terry Virgo's book from the OP is interesting (if you are into recent uk evangelical history) and probably his best book.
  • RockyRogerRockyRoger Shipmate
    ChastMastr wrote: »
    Humorous but true: I was genuinely disappointed years ago when I found out that Of Human Bondage wasn’t.

    Have a look for, 'Scouts in Bondage'.

    https://www.amazon.co.uk/Scouts-Bondage-Other-Books-Innocent/dp/1845131967/ref=sr_1_1?crid=19QHQHVSCBJYL&dib=eyJ2IjoiMSJ9.Z_GYepL5PQ4aBYxM36oDSEdh9Lsxz5cDPt8XsUTrAAb93QzOTjKvrbl_8M53dq5bZ5yfALMZcjZoPjTE4ofbh_34yq-2_Zots7-uyERMnqHmWDi_4Rt5Vb45_xv_wFKD1KGhLsngYh08WLkffojKrnWIJX8TUTEGn7HrHL6wiGYShaaxn5zCmRUyOlq4lvA44d0syrX0E9GQ7uKHCnxSwc3gA1SrqrsTh7yryZbTawDEabt4Qdo76LCZeEOkPZib_GW2XNNnj-b6tjsfUKkLNG493yg8C9c04nXCO3zLMrnlq_ILmGeVPZETdoxXFeQ9.7cXUEUxHZU1bY2yOZOvYP7B87mxoF0SRO4T2x9YYWC8&dib_tag=se&keywords=Scouts+in+Bondage&nsdOptOutParam=true&qid=1737278132&s=books&sprefix=scouts+in+bondage,stripbooks,65&sr=1-1

    You will be most entertained.
  • HarryCHHarryCH Shipmate
    As a college freshman, I bought a copy of "Sex and the College Girl". liked it; it gave me an idea of what the competition was up to.
  • HuiaHuia Shipmate
    @HarryCH - this reminds me of when Mum gave my older brother and I each a (sex appropriate) book about adolescent development) and was shocked when we swapped books.

    At my suggestion. I still think it was a good idea.
  • Cheery GardenerCheery Gardener Shipmate
    That is hysterical @Huia! And yes, probably a very good idea!
  • RockyRogerRockyRoger Shipmate
    edited January 28
    My sisters and I also shared books. Do try to beg, borrow or steel 'Knowledge for the Growing Boy' by Sid G. Hedges (Pilgrim Press, 1954). An inspiring read. But at least I learned (by a process of hints in the text) what the 'Sin against the Holy Ghost' might be.
    A book as wonderful in retrospect as 'Protein Wisdom'. I'll try and find a copy for my thirteen year old grandson.
Sign In or Register to comment.