Each weekend NYTimes book blog Schott’s Vocab hosts a contest. Ben Schott’s contests usually have something to do with making up new words. One entry I gave in months ago for the prompt “A new euphemism for dying” (e.g., kicked the can, bought the farm) was “Blue-screened.” There are no prizes for the contest, it’s just fun for word geeks.
This past weekend the prompt was “Alternative Book Titles,” based on the blog BetterBookTitles.com. After the weekend is over, Schott posts a few highlights from the entries. Mr. Schoot chose my two Dr. Seuss alternative book titles to highlight today:
“Green Eggs and Ham” – “Eating Habits of The Human Toddler.”
“The Cat in The Hat” – “This Is Why We Can’t Have Anything Nice.”
Fun!
Anyway, this alternative book title exercise would be a fun game to play with friends. I’m thinking about constructing a question around it to use for book club discussion, e.g., If you could rename this book to warn people what it’s really about, what would you name it? It would make a fun wrap-up question. You’d definitely get to the bottom of people’s true opinion of the book.
-Christine Cavalier
Check it out.
Here are the links for things mentioned above: (I’m not hypertexting anymore. I can’t stand to read it and I don’t see the value in pointing a reader away from the post whilst in the midst of reading the post).
The Schott’s Vocab blog: http://schott.blogs.nytimes.com/
The better book titles highlighted entries: http://schott.blogs.nytimes.com/2010/10/11/jane-austen-no-romance-without-finance/
Better Book Titles: http://betterbooktitles.com/