By Daniel Rigney
Need an idea for a book project? Read on.
Think about writing a book that takes its title from Shakespeare, as Faulkner did in The Sound and the Fury. There must be at least ten other potential titles hiding in that single soliloquy from “Macbeth”: To-morrow, and to-morrow, and to-morrow,
Creeps in this petty pace from day to day,
To the last syllable of recorded time;
And all our yesterdays have lighted fools
The way to dusty death, etc.
I’m seeing several classy titles here already, with blurbs in the style of The New York Times bestseller lists:
Tomorrow and Tomorrow and Tomorrow (musings on the future of the “Today” show)
Petty Pace (racecar driver Richard Petty tells all)
Syllables of Time (the last poems of Emily Dickinson)
Yesteryears (a brief history of nostalgia through the ages)
Lighted Fools (the sad story of royal jesters burned at the stake)
Dusty Death (revenge of the dust bunnies)
Out, Out! (an umpire remembers)
Brief Candle (the tragic misadventures of a young chandler)
Walking Shadow (stealthy detective fears she's being followed)
Poor Player (a tale of lost wages in Las Vegas)
Strutting and Fretting (backstage with the Rolling Stones)
Heard No More (a remembrance of Marcel Marceau)
A Tale Told By an Idiot (Ann Coulter’s next book on liberalism)
Signifying Nothing (a liberal’s response to Ann Coulter).
Take what you can use. They’re free as far as I know.
Happy writing!
P.S.: A visit to the website of a well-known bookseller reveals that nearly all of these titles, or their variants, are already in use – most of them several times, by several authors. “Brief Candle(s)” alone has been borrowed from the Bard more than twenty times, most notably by Aldous Huxley.
http://open.salon.com/blog/danagram
Need an idea for a book project? Read on.
Think about writing a book that takes its title from Shakespeare, as Faulkner did in The Sound and the Fury. There must be at least ten other potential titles hiding in that single soliloquy from “Macbeth”: To-morrow, and to-morrow, and to-morrow,
Creeps in this petty pace from day to day,
To the last syllable of recorded time;
And all our yesterdays have lighted fools
The way to dusty death, etc.
I’m seeing several classy titles here already, with blurbs in the style of The New York Times bestseller lists:
Tomorrow and Tomorrow and Tomorrow (musings on the future of the “Today” show)
Petty Pace (racecar driver Richard Petty tells all)
Syllables of Time (the last poems of Emily Dickinson)
Yesteryears (a brief history of nostalgia through the ages)
Lighted Fools (the sad story of royal jesters burned at the stake)
Dusty Death (revenge of the dust bunnies)
Out, Out! (an umpire remembers)
Brief Candle (the tragic misadventures of a young chandler)
Walking Shadow (stealthy detective fears she's being followed)
Poor Player (a tale of lost wages in Las Vegas)
Strutting and Fretting (backstage with the Rolling Stones)
Heard No More (a remembrance of Marcel Marceau)
A Tale Told By an Idiot (Ann Coulter’s next book on liberalism)
Signifying Nothing (a liberal’s response to Ann Coulter).
Take what you can use. They’re free as far as I know.
Happy writing!
P.S.: A visit to the website of a well-known bookseller reveals that nearly all of these titles, or their variants, are already in use – most of them several times, by several authors. “Brief Candle(s)” alone has been borrowed from the Bard more than twenty times, most notably by Aldous Huxley.
http://open.salon.com/blog/danagram
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