Favourite Book Titles (What?)

Not to sound pretentious, but I do like judging books by titles. It’s fun and I’m a name and wordplay geek – or, as I like to be called – a creative.

Most of the books mentioned here can be taken as recommendations* but mainly, the purpose of this post is just silly fun.

• Uprooted

A one-word title!

This is a great case of a powerful one-word title. It perfectly captures the story and setting of the book. Uprooted is a story of a town that is slowly being swallowed by a haunted, malicious forest at its edge. And if anyone does ever come back they are never the same. The forest is trying to uproot them.

The atmosphere is pretty much captured in the word: a forest, destruction, and malice. It is very cool.

*The writing was great, the story idea cool, as I said. But, the second half veers in a direction I didn’t expect or like. That’s personal preference of course, but I enjoyed the author’s work enough to check out her other book, Spinning Silver – and I loved it!

• All the Light We Cannot See

This is an amazing title. The story is set in World War II – I know, I know. World War 2 historical fiction is practically overflowing, and I’m not sure the trend is even hot anymore. I felt the same way when picking this up but it was a good decision!

The title captures the tone of the story perfectly (and not just because it’s long, lol), but also it is so poetic and melancholy. Just like the story itself. All the Light We Cannot See talks about the losses that the war caused, in human causalities, science, but also in other things that we don’t realize: such as the connections that were made, emerging talent, and so much humanity left unnoticed.

One of the protagonists is a blind girl so the title makes literal sense, too. This adult book is quite heavy and somewhat graphic. I enjoyed it, in a it-broke-my-heart kind of way. Recommended.

• The Ocean at the End of the Lane

Several reasons of how the title nails the story:

• Perfectly capturing the whimsical feeling. It is an adult story, quite sad but whimsical too. It features a young protagonist.
• The plot follows a boy befriending a girl who lives at the end of the lane. Her house has a pond which she calls her “ocean.”
• “Lane” and “ocean.” It is a mix of urban with something fantastical. The setting is definitely real world but the girl still has reasons to call her pond an ocean.

I don’t want to say much more. The book is amazing and you should read it. It also almost made me cry an ocean (not really but you should still read it).

• The Name of the Wind

No pun intended. The book-internet is probably long tired of overenthusiastic Kingkiller fans. But today I’ll just be talking about why I love the name of the book, in regards to the series too.

The Name of the Wind – why I love its title:

• This book sets off the series with the protagonist seeking the name of the wind. If you know its name, you can sort of control and bend it to your will. I love elemental magic but this is more than just the basic elements here. There’s other materials, too. Pretty cool stuff.
• Names – of anything, anyone are very important in this series. It is such a cool concept and definitely my favourite of the entire magic system, which is multifaceted actually. This is a university setting where they learn different arts of “nature” and my favourite is always the naming class.
• No good reason I just love names in general and this series makes it important part of the larger story.

I definitely recommend. The naming element also reminds of The Inheritance Cycle by Christopher Paolini. I didn’t love the series but I quite like the magic system. If you love dragons, you could check it out.

• A Darker Shade of Magic

*Popular series, pretty fun but it was just the first book for me. The later books . . . not so much.

• Getting the obvious out of the way: the title clearly explains the main plot. Four Londons, each with a different level of magical ability and access. And that is how the Londons are (informally) named as well: White, Grey, Black, Red. I’d explain more but the title is probably a spoiler, and the book does a good job letting you dip your toes first, before diving straight into the worldbuilding.
• Personal preference: I love magic being the central part of the story and the word is right there in the title, so it pulls me right in.
• The title is also poetic in a way, and hints at the kind of story you’ll be getting out of this series.

So, this was fun! Would love to do more of silly Saturday content like this. Do you have favourite titles? Is it weird to have any? Let me know!