Tuesday, October 18, 2011

Top Ten Most Successful Book Titles/Covers

It's another Tuesday which means another Top Ten list, hosted by The Broke and The Bookish. This week they ask what are the top 10 book covers or book titles that made you want to pick up that book?

I make a lot of my reading selections based on a good cover or an intriguing cover. It's my favorite part of going to a bookstore and it's the part that shopping online can't replace. I've never been able to browse books online like I can at a bookstore. These are books either I've read or want to read largely based on their cover and/or title. I put all the titles at the bottom of the post because trying to get it to format nicely in text was making me want to throw things.

1. Why Do Men Have Nipples? by Mark Leyner and Billy Goldberg - I actually have the other 2 books in, what I guess you could call a series, Why Do Mean Fall Asleep After Sex and Let's Play Doctor but those don't have the same intrigue as that first book. And if you're curious, guys have nipples cos they start out as ladies while in the womb.

2. Shakespeare and Modern Culture by Marjorie Garber - Shakespeare in the title and bright colors. How could I not be drawn in?

3. An Exaltation of Larks by James Lipton - It's a "classic collection of collective nouns" with things like "a gaggle of geese," "a rash of dermatologists," or maybe "a panic of paranoids".  And it's by James "Inside the Actors Studio" Lipton.

4. Full Frontal Feminism by Jessica Valenti - I'm amazingly immature so seeing "full frontal" makes me giggle. And then "feminism" makes me want to pick it up.

5. Extremely Loud & Incredibly Close by Jonathan Safran Foer - Ultimately I read this because of some great reviews but it had been on my radar because that cover just stands out.

6. Pride and Prejudice and Zombies by Jane Austen and Seth Grahame-Smith - This is a book title and cover that makes you pause. It worked for me. I picked it up when the person in front of me in line decided last minute she didn't want it. Her loss, my gain.

7. You Suck: A Love Story by Christopher Moore - Now I'm a big fan of the guy but before I had read any of his stuff I saw this book sitting on one of the tables. The bright cover and the title got me to check him out and I'm so happy that I did.

8. The Corrections by Jonathan Franzen - Before I knew anything about Franzen this book caught my eye. I actually think if I never ended up finding out more about the guy I would have read this by now. I will get to it. Eventually.

9. The Omnivore's Dilemma by Michael Pollan - Omnivores are having a dilemma? But I am an omnivore. And bam, just like that, I am now interested in a book despite the fact that the cover is one I'd normally walk right by.

10. How I Became A Famous Novelist by Steve Hely - It's such a simple cover, but it stands out. It's the type of book I would normally pick up off of those tables they have scattered about a bookstore. I haven't picked this one up yet, but I plan on it.

*Fair warning, I'm writing this while watching the Sunday's episode of The Walking Dead. So if I inexplicably start typing "shoot it in the face, shootitintheface!!!!" it's because I'm so sucked into the show that I've starting typing what I'm yelling and also that I forgot how the backspace button works.*