Hey guys, it's Olivia here from Olivia's Catastrophe. Today I'm here to have a
little bit of a discussion with you
about how much titles matter when it
comes to choosing books. So I was in the
book shop with my friends the other day
and I was just picking out books that I'd
read because I like to do that. Or books
I own and need to read because I like to
do that.
My other friend was picking out books
that they were recommending to me and
then my other friend who was also there
was picking out books with pretty cool
titles. And the titles were what were
convincing her that she should give
these books a go. And that was a shock to
me because not many people see a title
and then think: hmm, that's interesting. But then again I feel like titles matter
more than we give them credit for
because when we are in bookshops it's
not often the cover that we get to see
first. Very few books are facing cover
out. But mostly what you see is their
spine and their title. And if you don't
know a book beforehand,
I guess the title can matter quite a lot.
So I was thinking back to my own shelves
and thinking: were there any books that I
decided to pick up just because of the
title? And there's one that really stands
out to me. It was title love.
I heard the title and I had to get it.
Haven't read it yet, but that is My Heart
and Other Black Holes by Jasmine Warga.
As soon as I heard that title I knew I wanted to read that book and I just I had to
have it. And I have it but I should
really read it. However, there are some
titles, I guess, that put me off. There's
the titles that are one-word titles that
don't really bring anything to the
forefront, don't make me very interested
just sort of hearing the title. It's not
that it turns me off but it makes me
less interested. I'm not oblivious to the
title trends that have been going around
a lot. We've got a lot of noun and noun. Serpent and Dove, for example. There was a
time when City of... was trending. City of
Bones, city of this, city of that that. Everybody's
got a city, okay. And there were also the
crows and the birds Serpent and Dove,
again, Six of Crows, again. An Enchantment
of Ravens, again. All these birds on
covers. So we've got lots of birds, we've
got lots of noun of non, Children of
Blood and Bone, etc. So I do see these trends
going around but actually these trends
don't help the books that much because
the titles get all the same to me and
blend together. And I'm less likely to
pick it up. It's when we get a title that
stands out whatever reason that really
intrigues me. For example when Divergent
wasn't popular, that was when I read it
and I picked it up because I'd never heard
of the word divergent before. And there it
was, smack bam on a book spine. And I
needed to read it to find out what it
meant. Thinking about titles, it made me
realise that my favourite kinds of titles
are the ones where I don't even know the
meaning of the title. So my relationship
with the title is less something that
makes me buy a book, but mostly something that
makes me think this book thought
carefully about its title as I'm reading.
So for example... I should've thought of an
example before I started this video... Oh I
have a good example! So this one is a bit
my own fault because I've been hearing
the words Game of Thrones everywhere...
and if you hear loads of words again and
again you start to disassociate it's
true meaning from those words and think
about only the meaning that's been
assigned to it. When I heard A Game of Thrones
I just thought about this TV show. For
example, let's take the film Happy Feet. I
guess you know it's about a dancing
penguin. So when you hear the title Happy
Feet you don't think about toes that are
happy, you think about penguins. So you
kind of disassociated the meaning of the
title and have given it to something else. So
that's what happened with me and A Game
of Thrones. And then I read the book and
oh my goodness, I absolutely love the
book. But I think towards the end there
was a moment where it truly felt like
everybody was playing a game, and they
were just vying to get the throne. The
fact that everybody was competing for
the throne and how it was strategic game
planning and war planning and everything...
and I was like oh my gosh! A game of Thrones is actually a game of
thrones. So when I have that Oh My Goodness! moment and everything clicks and I
understand why the title was chosen as
the title, I feel like my mind gets blown
a little bit. And it makes me appreciate
the book all the more. That's the kind of
title that I like. There are some titles
that I just wouldn't have picked up that
book unless I knew the author or knew the theme. but I feel like titles don't matter that
much in buying a book. if you've got an
amazing title that is unique and stands
out it is going to encourage people to
buy your book. And it's gonna be pretty
cool. For example, The Hate U Give. THUG. What a genius title! It works so well and
was actually one of the reasons I was
interested in this book. But if you're
gonna have a title that's like every
single title out there: Serpent and Dove,
Heart of Flame, Crown of Feathers -- you're
gonna need to have something else in
that book that either is that either is an Oh Snap! moment for the title or
something else about your book that's
unique to attract me, because titles
won't matter that much. So I would say
titles matter 50/50 but let me know in
the comment section down below how much
you think titles matter in which books
you choose. And have you ever had title
love at first reading? Because I would
love to know about some pretty cool
titles. Give this video a thumbs up if
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And I'll see you in the next one. Goodbye!
