Now All We Need Is a Title : Famous Book Titles and How They Got That Way, by André Bernard

This is a quick read, only about 126 pages long, but lots of fun. It covers authors from Emily Bronte to Raymond Chandler to Peter Benchley to Ernest Hemingway.

Though it's hard to think of a 'classic' title as anything but perfect, there are a few here that would have been better with the original idea: "The Village Virus" instead of "Main Street" (Sinclair Lewis) and "The Man That Was a Thing" instead of "Life Among the Lowly" (subtitle for "Uncle Tom's Cabin") and "The File on India Bridge" instead of "Mrs. Bridge" (Evan Connell).

On the other hand, the clunkers are far outweighed by the good decisions: Would you rather read "Martin Chuzzlewit" or "Martin Sweetlewag"? "Trimalchio in West Egg" or "The Great Gatsby"? "Pumphrey" or "Babbit"?

It's just kind of interesting to know the thought process and discussions that occur between author and editor on the subject of titles. It's also fun to know where some of the more obscure titles came from.