Titular (tee hee) Importance

We all know how you're not supposed to judge a book by its cover. But I think that's one of those rules you ignore out of a sense of self-preservation more than anything else. So what about titles? If you glance at something and it has a title that bores the pants off of you/does nothing in the pulse stirring department, does that mean you won't pick up that book even for a gander?

It would be worse if you were the kind of author who couldn't even begin a book until you selected its name. Says Maxim Jakubowski in his recent Guardian piece What's in a novel's name, "I'm not sure how important they are, but I can't even begin to write until I've settled on a title." I wonder if this is a widespread problem. Names in kidlit rarely strike me as particularly awful or bizarre. Pretentious titles are another matter entirely.

Thanks to Bookninja for the link.