Top Ten Tuesday is hosted by The Broke & The Bookish.

As a writer, the title almost always come last for me, and can be as hard to dream up with as the poem or story its attached to. As with a cover, a title can suck you in and make you pick up a book you may otherwise have passed by. A title is a big deal.

Or is it?

On the one hand, I love that Italo Calvino quote about book titles (from If on a Winter's Night a Traveler): “The moment that counts most for me is the one that precedes reading. At times a title is enough to kindle in me the desire for a book that perhaps does not exist.”

On the other, what's in a name? A rose by any other name and all that.

Here are some titles that have sucked me in over the years. Some are strange and unexpected, playing with syntax. Some are deceptively simple, but deeply mysterious. Some are surprising because they tell you exactly what's going to happen (or do they?).

Are any of your favorite titles on this list?

As it turns out, several of these are also some of my all-time favorite books. What are yours? Do you pick up and read books based solely on the title? Let me know!

Thanks again to The Broke & The Bookish for another Top Ten Tuesday.

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