the road is a metaphor
July 27, 2017 11:28 AM   Subscribe

Accurately Titled Novels [single link facebook album, visible without logging in]
posted by phunniemee (21 comments total) 17 users marked this as a favorite
 
These are all perfect and it made me really miss my old bookstore job.
posted by Atom Eyes at 11:51 AM on July 27, 2017 [2 favorites]


At first, I was disappointed, because I thought they'd be snarking real novels that I'd actually read or at least read about. "Infinitely Long by David Foster Wallace" and that sort of thing.

Then I sort of got into the rhythm and thought it was pretty amusing.

And then I realized they were actually snarking real novels that I'd actually read, or at least read about. It's just slightly harder to guess which ones without context clues or a one-to-one snark to novel relationship.
posted by jacquilynne at 12:22 PM on July 27, 2017 [1 favorite]


For me, it went from "Which novel is this mocking?" to "Wait, I can think of like 20 titles this describes" to realizing this was likely the point. And made me realize suddenly why I've been reluctant to pick up anything new lately from authors I don't already trust.
posted by Aya Hirano on the Astral Plane at 12:25 PM on July 27, 2017 [16 favorites]


On point. Somebody get the aloe vera.
posted by sandettie light vessel automatic at 12:35 PM on July 27, 2017 [2 favorites]


And then I realized they were actually snarking real novels that I'd actually read, or at least read about. It's just slightly harder to guess which ones without context clues or a one-to-one snark to novel relationship.

All of them. Every goddamn one.

Except they missed That Wargame I Played In College, But In Space, And With Inexplicable Royalism.
posted by Etrigan at 12:43 PM on July 27, 2017 [17 favorites]


Around the World
On What Used To Be A Motorcycle
by C.C. Debt
with recipes

posted by carsonb at 12:45 PM on July 27, 2017 [5 favorites]


Exploding Job
A Biblical Allegory of Crystallizing Ageism
by F.R.M. Legrate
"Hard fought narrative and a godly attention to torturous detail." - His dead professor

posted by carsonb at 12:51 PM on July 27, 2017 [4 favorites]


Horrible Things I Did To Other People While I Was On Drugs
And my whimsical musings in retrospect
by Chad Edgelord

posted by Aya Hirano on the Astral Plane at 12:59 PM on July 27, 2017 [31 favorites]


I'm In Prison But My Soul Is Free
posted by Billiken at 1:22 PM on July 27, 2017



Horrible Things I Did To Other People While I Was On Drugs

aka Fuck But I Was Cool Until Things Caught Up
posted by philip-random at 1:42 PM on July 27, 2017 [3 favorites]


The Quirky People one got me, there was one of those I tried to read last year and it made me so angry. And yet people I liked kept saying "Isn't it good?" The rest of these mostly annoy, but something about that cliche fills me with rage. I'm sure a good therapist could help me figure out why.
posted by emjaybee at 2:21 PM on July 27, 2017 [6 favorites]


The Quirky People, is that the one about people who can't finish their colonoscopy? Or is that The Kinky People? I was really into that book, then suddenly it was over. Such probing insights.
posted by Oyéah at 2:25 PM on July 27, 2017 [1 favorite]


Destined to be a major molten picture.
posted by Oyéah at 2:33 PM on July 27, 2017 [1 favorite]


I'm stumped on more than half of these, but I somehow doubt The Protagonist is a Struggling Writer is actually Fred Exley's Pages From a Cold Island. But if you want a trilogy on depression and self-doubt, I would find it hard to beat poor Mr. Exley's.
posted by morspin at 2:44 PM on July 27, 2017


The Better Book Titles tumblr is chock-full of these. Some hit, some miss, but man is it a great place to waste some time that will elicit laughs.

Frex: Harry Potter & the Goblet of Fire is "Two Guys, One Cup," but I think my favorite (at the moment) is for Stephen King's It: "Insane Clown Posse".
posted by tzikeh at 3:39 PM on July 27, 2017 [2 favorites]


The Quirky People one got me [...] I'm sure a good therapist could help me figure out why.

Quoting myself from an old thread:

>>> quirky is the uptight, acceptable form of WEIRD. quirky means you can keep your day job, stay off the no-fly list, and be seen with fifty yards of playgrounds.

WEIRD requires serious commitment and sacrifice. Or as Daevid Allen once put it:

"It will cost you everything you've got. The risks are multiple. Society's going to take you for a fool if they find out. You'll have to forget success. You'll have to learn to be seen as a long shot, a dead loss, a zero. And the fact is, you may never find out why you're doing it. You might simply blow all your fuses and burn out your circuits and go trudging through bad visions for the rest of you wasted life. But then. Maybe. You may just see where we're headed."

All hail the WEIRD. >>>
posted by philip-random at 4:49 PM on July 27, 2017 [5 favorites]


Crop Circles
My life in Iowa is not boring; in five anecdotes
by Guy Persson

I Just Really Like Robots
Book Seven of the Confederation Saga
by Onthe Spektrim
posted by traveler_ at 7:46 PM on July 27, 2017


Oh man the Better Book Titles one is really fun, too - I especially liked Mice Have No Boundaries. So true! They do not.
posted by Caxton1476 at 7:27 AM on July 28, 2017 [1 favorite]


The author name "Toby MFA " made me laugh much more than it should have.
posted by MCMikeNamara at 8:08 AM on July 28, 2017 [1 favorite]


AKA Grownups are boring, go read some kids' books instead!
posted by rabbitrabbit at 8:50 AM on July 28, 2017


go read some kids' books instead!

I always make sure to when I'm in the Children's Library. There were two that tickled me last time:
The Stupids Die by Harry Allard
and
Millions of Cats by Wanda Gag
posted by carsonb at 10:41 AM on July 28, 2017


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