Getting Stuck In Book Titles
Sometimes what stays in the mind of the reader from a book is the name of the book. The reader first encounters the title of the book.
This act of naming, which is so important for both the writer and the reader, is troublesome. Salâh Birsel refers to this when he talks about ‘the titles of books are a whirlwind and they run away as soon as you think you have them’. It is not difficult to say that today’s writers have difficulties in this chase.
Recently published books have a shortage of titles. Authors are trying to get out of this deadlock by changing the names of previously published books or by starting from a famous author’s book. There are also books published under the same name, sometimes unaware of each other. The common name similarity in newly published books and borrowings from previously published books point to the shortage of names in today’s literature.
When asked about the secret of the Shakespeare badge on his collar, Spanish writer Javier Marías said, “Part of my reputation as a writer has come from him. I borrowed the name of my six or seven books from him.” says. Marías’ newly published English-language book “Thus Bad Begins” is also borrowed from Hamlet. In fact, the works of Shakespeare have inspired the books of many famous writers. Edith Wharton’s “The Glimpses of the Moon”, David Foster Wallace’s “Infinite Jest” novels and Agatha Christie’s many books… The name of Julian Barnes’ book “The Noise of Time” is Russian poet and essayist From the memoir of the same name by Osip Mandelstam. The last novel of Harper Lee, who passed away last week, “Go Set a Watchman” is mentioned in the Bible. Some critics especially ‘master’
MONEY BREAKING NAME SIMILARITY
After Stephen King’s novel “Joyland” (2013) hit the shelves, sales of Emily Schultz’s 2006 e-book of the same name increased. Because the readers think it’s King’s novel and buy Schultz’s book. The young writer earns a large amount of money because of this similarity. Many readers confused Paula Hawkins’s detective-thriller novel with the title “Girl on the Train” in Turkish with AJ Waines’ book titled “A Girl on the Train”. Reviews about the book on Amazon were mixed, with “I’m making more money than ever before.” said Waines’ novel reached 30 thousand sales figures.
The name, which is one of the cornerstones of the text, is an important element that distinguishes it from the others. These name similarities, overlaps and duplications in today’s literature clearly point to a vicious circle. There are also writers who were inspired by a book, a popular TV series or a poem they saw in the second-hand bookstore. The fact that the title of the book is not copyrighted must be one of the reasons for this ‘inspiration’. After all, the title of the book is the choice of the author and the publisher, but of course the reader has the right to question it, right?
