Better Book Titles: The Blog that Makes it Easier to Judge a Book by Its Cover

Have you ever browsed a bookstore, picked up a book, read the title...and still had no idea what in the world the book might be about? Comedian Dan Wilbur is hoping that you have. His new blog, Better Book Titles, gives books, both classic and newly-published in all genres, a more "literal" title-to humorous effect.

Obscurely-titled classics receive a more telling description. Virgil's The Aenid becomes Daddy Issues and a Bad Break-Up Found Rome. Plato's Symposium is less-than-subtly titled, Horny, Drunk Guys Invent Philosophy. And Virginia Woolf's classic Mrs. Dalloway is more clearly labeled A Quaint Afternoon Panic Attack.

Newer titles are also a target. 2006's most buzzed about self-help book The Secret is retitled (you guessed it) The Scam. David Foster Wallace's Infinite Jest is curmudgeonly retitled Too Long. (To be fair, many books deserve that title.)

Even the Dictionary gets the Better Book Title treatment-although my commitment to keeping my own writing PG-rated prevents me from reprinting it here. (One caveat about the site: Language is used freely for comic value. The site is Not Safe For Work.)

Followers on Twitter or Tumblr are treated to one new title and redesigned cover each weekday, with a reader's submission posted each Friday.

Sure, some book lovers may balk at the idea of a comedian poking fun at their beloved favorites, but you have to admit... certain readers would be more likely to pick up Satan, Naked Woman, and Talking Demon Cats rather than The Master and Margarita. (Though I can personally attest that Bulgakov's novel is an excellent book, under either title.)

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Image by Dan Wilbur, BetterBookTitles.com