Literary Titles for Favorite Genre Books

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Hello again, blogosphere pals! I'm back from my little hiatus with query materials, new pages for Book #2 in my space opera series and some awesome beta feedback.

What have you guys been up to?


The flurry of new books being released this fall also got me thinking about titles, and it struck me as funny how vastly different literary and genre titles are in style and tone. This isn't really a shocking news flash, of course, but I'd never stopped to think about it before.

As a genre gal myself, I'm drawn to those kinds of titles--punchy, intuitive, action-oriented. Whereas, literary titles often are more subtle, thought-provoking and beautiful in sort of a you-won't-understand-this-until-you-read-me kind of way.

It made me wonder what some of our favorite genre books might be called if they were accidentally stocked on the literary shelves:

Dragons in Winter - Game of Thrones
The Secret Keeper's Godson - Harry Potter
When Faces Lit the Sky - Hunger Games
Of Oceans Born - Percy Jackson
Love's Undying Thirst - Twilight

Okay, I had way too much fun with that!

What literary titles would you give your favorite genre books? I'd love to hear 'em!

14 comments:

  1. Hey, those are some good titles. And I think I've just been outed as a genre wannabe with literary leanings. :)

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  2. Oh wow you have a talent for this! My favorite was Of Ocean's Born. :-D

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  3. Those are fabulous titles! I don't know if I could manage to think of some for mine. I have trouble coming up for titles as it is! *LOL*

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  4. Very cool titles! I really like When Faces Lit the Sky. I haven't really thought about what genre titles would have been called if they were more literary.

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  5. Would they get more respect with those titles? Sadly, probably yes.

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  6. Great titles and a fun exercise. I wanted to think of one for Divergent and came up with The Fear Landscape. It could work. Congrats on your great feedback! :)

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  7. Oh gosh, you did much better than I could.... I sat here, looking at my bookshelf and couldn't think of any good ones, but here's a couple :)

    Send In The Clown - IT by Stephen King

    Depth Of An Ocean - The Hunt For Red October by Tom Clancy

    To Stand For One - Twelve Angry Men by Reginald Rose

    :)

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  8. OOOO I love Dragons in Winter!!! Those are such great titles. I can't think of any good ones right now off the top of my head, but this will be a fun exercise for later!

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  9. Loved those titles. How about:
    Twined in Darkness for Harry Potter

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  10. LG - Haha, that's awesome!

    Misha - Thanks. It was fun coming up with the examples.

    Christine - I'd say so far, so good on your titles. :)

    Cherie - Thanks! Yeah, that one had kind of a haunting ethereal feel.

    Alex - I think it's all about the reader audience and what they'd gravitate toward.

    Michael - Ooh, that's a good one! I wanted to do a title for Divergent, but I actually haven't read it yet. *hangs head*

    Mark - Haha, those are great!!

    Julie - Yay! I liked that one too.

    Leslie - Ooh, I love it. Good one!

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  11. How about, Combat School in Space - Ender's Game.

    That was really awesome, and I never really thought of it that way before. Kudos for pointing that out. :)

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  12. Nicole - these are really cute! ;-) BTW - you won the drawing on my blog. Let me know what type of post you want or what topic you'd like me to cover.

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  13. David - Love that one for Ender's Game!

    Sylvia - Fantastic! I'll send ya an email. :)

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