Inspired by the list of book and album titles Robyn O’Neil shared in the June 24th episode of her podcast Me Reading Stuff (her list included an uncanny number of titles I’d have chosen), here are some favorites of my own. I brainstormed the list the old fashioned way, with pencil and paper, only consulting the web afterward to be sure of a few names. I could have done this for hours! Also, like Robyn, I’m only including things I’ve read/heard.
Books (and a Play or Two)
Not as many books of poetry as I expected…but with poetry I have a hard time discerning if I like like the titles themselves or am influenced by how much I like the poems!
- Heart of Darkness (Joseph Conrad)
- The Lone Ranger and Tonto Fistfight in Heaven (Sherman Alexie)
- The Lathe of Heaven (Ursula K. LeGuin)
- Their Eyes Were Watching God (Zora Neale Hurston)
- Play It as It Lays (Joan Didion)
- Flow My Tears, the Policeman Said (Philip K. Dick – so many good titles by Philip)
- There Are More Beautiful Things Than Beyoncé (Morgan Parker)
- The Left Hand of Darkness (Ursula K. LeGuin)
- The Crying of Lot 49 (Thomas Pynchon)
- Amusing Ourselves to Death (Neal Postman)
- The Elegance of the Hedgehog (Muriel Barberry)
- An Arsonist’s Guide to Writers’ Homes in New England (Brock Clarke)
- The Curious Incident of the Dog in the Night-Time (Mark Haddon)
- Extremely Loud and Incredibly Close (Jonathan Safran Foer)
- Special Topics in Calamity Physics (Marisha Pessl)
- The Man Who Mistook His Wife for a Hat (Oliver Sacks)
- Swamplandia! (Karen Russell)
- Hard-Boiled Wonderland and the End of the World (Haruki Murakami)
- American Sonnets for My Past and Future Assassin (Terrance Hayes)
- The Gone-Away World (Nick Harkaway)
- Everything I Never Told You (Celeste Ng)
- Night Sky with Exit Wounds (Ocean Vuong)
- No One Belongs Here More Than You (Miranda July)
- Long Dark Tea Time of the Soul (Douglas Adams)
- A Streetcar Named Desire (Tennessee Williams)
- Autobiography of Red (Anne Carson)
- The Girl with Curious Hair (David Foster Wallace)
- If on a Winter’s Night a Traveler (Italo Calvino)
- The Body in Pain: The Making and Unmaking of the World (Elaine Scarry)
- A Confederacy of Dunces (John Kennedy Toole)
- I Know Why the Caged Bird Sings (Kaya Angelou)
- No Country for Old Men (Cormac McCarthy)
- Every Love Story Is a Ghost Story (D.T. Max)
- I Have No Mouth and I Must Scream (Harlan Ellison)
- The Grapes of Wrath (John Steinbeck)
- A Circle is a Compass and a Balloon Both (Ben Greenman)
- Pale Fire (Vladimir Nabokov)
- In Dreams Begin Responsibilities (Delmore Schwartz)
- Gravity’s Rainbow (Thomas Pynchon)
- Heart Like A Window, Mouth Like A Cliff (Sara Borjas)
- Bright Dead Things (Ada Limón)
- Everything That Rises Must Converge (Flannery O’Connor)
Albums
Like poetry, I find titles of albums harder to separate from those I just really love or were essential to me at one time for their music…I don’t know if Appetite for Destruction or Are You Experienced? are great titles on their own or because the music mean(s)(t) so much to me.
- Lift Your Skinny Fists Like Antennas to Heaven (Godspeed You! Black Emperor)
- Vivadixiesubmarinetransmissionplot (Sparklehorse)
- Swordfishtrombones (Tom Waits)
- Pork Soda (Primus)
- A Saucerful of Secrets (Pink Floyd)
- Yoshimi Battles the Pink Robots (The Flaming Lips)
- OK Computer (Radiohead)
- Here Come the Warm Jets (Eno)
- Stories From the City, Stories From the Sea (PJ Harvey)
- Brilliant Corners (Thelonious Monk)
- Rust Never Sleeps (Neil Young)
