DISQUS

itchy · 3 months ago

Old: Richard III
New: R3: Judgment Day

biovert · 3 months ago

Then: The Satyricon
Today: When Blue Pills Don't Work: How I Insulted a Goddess, Overcame Erectile Dysfunction and Learned to Love to Love Again.

joearena · 3 months ago

Then: Animal Farm
Now: Ewe Lie!

tpp227 · 3 months ago

Then: 1984
Now: Richard B. Cheney and the Rise of the Imperial Vice Presidency

sbepstein · 3 months ago

Hamlet : William Shakespeare

Grieving: A 5 part study of Danish family dynamics

megwhiteiniowa · 3 months ago

The only one on the comment page worthy of the originals. Kudos.

Sanagi · 3 months ago

Then: Lord of the Flies

Now: Satan Vs. The School Boys: A Survivor's Tale
(alternately: Satanbabies!)

Jake. · 3 months ago

Then: Frankenstein, or The Modern Prometheus
Now: Frankenstein: Wrath of the Supercorpse

Thorin Messer · 3 months ago

Can we work a bit more of an explicit zombie reference in here? It need's the word "Zombie" to be published now.

jimbo · 3 months ago

Then: Das Kapital
Now: Labor Value: How Today's Companies Get the Most out of Their Workforce

wjcstp · 3 months ago

Then: Harold and the Purple Crayon
Now: Tagged! Drawing on a lifetime of street art

Berek · 3 months ago

Then: The Bible
Now: The Dangerous Book for Adults. Lessons on Life, Love, War and Sin. Includes dream interpretation and The Bible II - revised edition with all 4 gospels.

Axian · 3 months ago

Then: The Art of War
Now: 13 Chapters of Highly Effective Warfare Techniques (Illustrated)

Then: Beyond Good and Evil
Now: Religion: How Christianity Changed the World... and Morality

Then: Confessions by St. Augustine
Now: Overcoming Paganism: 10 Lessons To Develop a Stronger Spiritual Identity (foreword by Timothy LaHaye)

AndrewCrocker · 3 months ago

Then: On the Origin of Species by Means of Natural Selection, or the Preservation of Favoured Races in the Struggle for Life

Now: Evolution

Duncan McMIllan · 3 months ago

fabulous!
how about

then: Philosophiæ Naturalis Principia Mathematica (Newton)
now: Why Do Apples Fall Down and Not Up? Answers From The Cutting Edge of Physics

then: The Double Helix
now: The Stuff of Life: The Hunt For the Code Behind Every Living Thing

then: Samuel Johnson
now: From A to J.
(Kottke sent me here)

jonnyriches · 3 months ago

Love it, love it!

Then: Ars Amatoria (The Art of Love) by Publius Ovidius Naso
Now: A Sexy Thing Happened On The Way To The Forum: Poet and Love Doctor Ovid's Ten-Step Guide to Pulling When In Rome (Now including the Circus Maximus!)

Then: The Aeneid by Publius Vergilius Maro
Now: Tales of a Trojan's Travels: the sensational biography of a promiscuous warmonger

Bart King · 3 months ago

Then: Dante's Inferno.
Now: Dante's Descent into Dummy Loan Felonies —With a Detour for Minimum Security Prison— and Amazing Redemption as an "Ethical Financial Advisor"

Dan · 3 months ago

40 Days and a Mule is priceless.

traeblain · 3 months ago

The Gospel of Matthew is the best one. I don't understand why publishers require such convoluted names these days. The more info the better?

Shawn · 3 months ago

I hear that one of the reasons is that it makes it more likely that your book shows up on keyword searches on online retailers like Amazon.

daretoeatapeach · 3 months ago

I work in publishing; this is true. You sell more books with a straight-forward title that comes up in more searches than a vague but clever title that folks may not figure out at a glance.

wonkeythemonkey · 3 months ago

Then: Common Sense
Now: Common Sense (by Glenn Beck)

Oh wait... crap.

Vlad · 3 months ago

Now: Non-Trivial Democracy or How To Take Control of Your Own Government In Time Of Crisis

(the crisis word is important for Amazon keyword search)

alisabowman · 3 months ago

Thanks for the laugh. I was of the out loud variety.

Then: The Jungle
Now: How Not to Die During Dinner

koolraaga · 3 months ago

Then : The Jungle Book by Rudyard Kipling
Now: The Jungle Book by Bernie Madoff/Ben Bernanke

Hrunga_Zmuda · 3 months ago

Then: Mein Kampf

Now: Dick: The Man Who Is President (Dick Cheney)

Ben · 3 months ago

Then: The Iliad
Now: The Trojan Code

Mudassir Chapra · 3 months ago

THEN: 1984.
NOW: Red Oppression: How Socialism always leads to totalitarianism

Kento · 3 months ago

Then: Travels into Several Remote Nations of the World, in Four Parts. By Lemuel Gulliver, First a Surgeon, and then a Captain of several Ship
Now: Lemuel Gulliver and the Island of Disproportion

Name · 3 months ago

Pah! you forget the full title of the works. Its called an inquiry into the nature and causes of the wealth of nations.

Eric C · 3 months ago

Then: Moby Dick
Now: Biggus Dickus: Monomaniacal Monomythic Campbellian structure as seen through a Lacanian lens.

Then: Crime and Punishment
Now: Bad Boy: Whatcha Gonna Do When They Come for You?

Mark · 3 months ago

Then: Macbeth
Now: Poor Players Take Over

murphh · 3 months ago

Then: Around the world in 80 days
Now: Travelling in Style: one man and his servant on a slow trip round the equator

Rob · 3 months ago

Then: Hamlet
Now: Dither Yourself Slim... Lose 170 pounds In 12 Weeks.

undrhil · 3 months ago

Then: Around the World in 80 Days
Now: That Book with No Martial Arts tie-ins that Became a Movie starring Jackie Chan.

Then: The Neverending Story
Now: The Story That Will End When It Stops Making Money (or Harry Potty)

pduggie · 3 months ago

In a kind of reverse version of this

Then: Some thoughts concerning the present revival in New England and the way it ought to be acknowledged and promoted

Now: Your Purpose, Now!

donniebnyc · 3 months ago

Then: The New Testament

Now: Jesus Christ - My Life (And Then Some)

daen · 3 months ago

Then: The New Testament
Now: The Bourne (Again) Prophecy [apologies to Robert Ludlum ...]

LH · 3 months ago

Then: The Odyssey
Now: My Memorable Sailing Trip: The Weirdos I Met While Cruising the Greek Isles, Plus a Bloodbath or Three, by Homer (No, not Homer Simpson, the other one. Doh!)

Rory Flynn · 3 months ago

Then: Romeo and Juliet
Now: Forbidden Love

michaelroseagain · 3 months ago

Love it

Then: Extraordinary Popular Delusions and the Madness of Crowds
Now: The Wisdom of Crowds: Why the Many Are Smarter Than the Few and How Collective Wisdom Shapes Business, Economies, Societies and Nations

jwd · 3 months ago

Then: To Kill A Mockingbird
Now: Atticus Flinchless

Then: It Can't Happen Here
Now: It Already Happened

Then: Don Quixote
Now: Crazy Knight!: A Frolic

Then: Portrait of an Artist as a Young Man
Now: Catholic Boy Gone: A True Story (An Oprah Bookclub Selection)

Then: Gargantua and Pantagrul
Now: Attack of the Giants: A Frolic

Then: As I Lay Dying
Now: The Traveling Corpse: A Haunted Family's Roadtrip

Name · 3 months ago

Then: Gone With the Wind
Now: Scarlett, She-Wolf of the South

klubbah · 3 months ago

Then: The Catcher in the Rye
Now: PARENTS BEWARE: Your Angsty, Depressed Teenager may be Drinking to Extremes and Surfing Porn on the Internet

D-Rock! · 3 months ago

Then: The Great Gatsby
Now: Narcissism, Narcissism, Narcissism: How Your Narcissism Relates to Those Around You

Jen · 3 months ago

Then: The Persecution and Assassination of Jean-Paul Marat as Performed by the Inmates of the Asylum of Charenton Under the Direction of the Marquis de Sade
Now Sex Insanity

Devin · 3 months ago

Better: "Sex and Sanity"

Jerome · 3 months ago

Then: The Odyssey
Now: Odyssey: How One Man's Journey through Islands of Seduction Eventually Led Him Home to His Wife (with foreword by Gov. Mark Sanford)

Matt · 3 months ago

Then: Forbidden From The Bleeding Heart (or something like that)
Now: Twilight

Why has no one made a joke about Twilight?

separateknob · 3 months ago

Then: The Hobbit
Now: Bilbo Baggins and the Mountain Dragon: Part 1 of 4 of the Middle Earth Cycle

Sherry · 3 months ago

Hilarious!

And at the same time, it makes me really sad, because it seems a rare thing these days to allow for pure creativity and artistry, rather than commercialism, when coming up with stories and/or booktitles. These suggested title changes remind me of that.

gary · 3 months ago

Then: Goodnight Moon
Now: Goodnight Moon: The Criterion Edition

douginak · 3 months ago

Then: Cannery Row
Now: Love and life among the hookers and homeless of Monterrey (with recipes for your own blow-out parties)

WatchfulBabbler · 3 months ago

Then: Meditations on First Philosophy, In which the existence of God and the immortality of the soul are demonstrated. (Rene Descartes)

Now: The God Secret: Thinking Your Way Through the Universe

dwasifar · 3 months ago

Old: The Fountainhead
New: Roark! What You Can Learn from the Architect of Capitalism

tmamone · 3 months ago

Then: The Sun Also Rises

Now: Drink, Bullfight, Mope

jack · 3 months ago

Then: Moll Flanders
Now: Girl Gone Wild

Jana · 3 months ago

Old: The Sound & the Fury
Now: Signifying Everything: Downstream from Birth Order, Gender, Race, Class and Consicousness

tmamone · 3 months ago

Oh, I thought of another one--

Then: The Interpretation of Dreams by Sigmund Freud
Now: The Answer is in Your Dreams!

Name · 3 months ago

Then: The Bible

Now: My Side of the Story (by God) Written by ghost writers

Ha · 2 months ago

Mel Brooks as Moses: Big Bang cosmology. No, G, these are shepherds. You gotta keep this simple! I've got it: "In the beginning, God created the heavens and the earth." See, simple.

Name · 3 months ago

Then: Genesis
Now: When Adam Met Eve: How an Apple a Day Changed the Course of History

Then: Romeo and Juliet
Now: Before It's Too Late: Sex and the Teenager

Jaime from Wasilla · 3 months ago

Then: 1984
Now: Contract With America co-edited by Newt Gingrich

Poppa Kapp · 3 months ago

Then: Oedipus Rex
Now: Patricide: How to Advance in a Family Business and Still Keep Your Blind Trust

Ray Succre · 3 months ago

OLD: Dracula
NEW: Saving Mina

OLD: Of Mice and Men
NEW: Lenny and George

OLD: Watership Down
NEW: Rabbitland

OLD: The Taming of the Shrew
NEW: Hollywood Hearthrob

OLD: Huckleberry Finn
NEW: Runaway: Is Your Child at Risk?

OLD: Delta of Venus
NEW: Gettin' Some

spearofsolomon · 3 months ago

Then: Crime and Punishment
Now: Dark Side of the Soul: One Man's Journey Into Madness and Despair and his Eventual Moral Redemption

Then: Medea
Now: Mad Bitch

Muzz · 3 months ago

Then: A Tale of Two Cities
Now: Love, Death, & Revolution: A Multi-Perspectival Imagining of the French Revolution

Then: Plato's Dialogues
Now: He Taught Me to Question: The Life, Trial, and Death of Socrates, Athen's Greatest Thinker

Then: Tropic of Cancer
Now: Sex & the City (of Paris)

Then: The Souls of Black Folk
Now: Of Race & Place: Essays on the Experience of Being Black in America

Then: The Book of Leviticus
Now: Rules & Regulations Regarding Appropriate Conduct, Legal & Moral, of Israelite Signatories

converse1 · 3 months ago

THEN: To Kill a Mockingbird

NOW: Doin' It Southern Style: Important Lessons on Race Relations, Child Development and Caring for the Disabled from the Heart of Dixie

Harry Houck · 3 months ago

Then: Pride and Prejudice
Now: Pride and Prejudice: Now Without Zombies!

sbepstein · 3 months ago

The Godfather: Mario Puzo
new:
How to run an international olive oil import/export business by Michael Corleone

sbepstein · 3 months ago

Ullyses: James Joyce.

A 24 hour romp through Dublin by Leopold Bloom and Stephen Daedelus

LittleBells · 3 months ago

These are hilarious!

Then: Pride and Prejudice
Now: How to Land a Rich Man...and Fall in Love With His Surly Demeanor, Too!

sbepstein · 3 months ago

Confucius.

new title:
How to govern your life and your work and keep your family in balance.

Bryan Beyer · 3 months ago

Tolstoy's The Kingdom of God is Within You
Renamed: How a 19th Century Icon tells the Church AND the Government to SUCK IT!

Brian · 3 months ago

Then: Valis
Now: Out of Nembutal: How to find God and Rediscover Yourself With the Help of a Vast Active Living Intelligence System

parallevar · 3 months ago

Old: The Adventures of Huckleberry Finn
New: Jim and Huck's Excellent Adventure: Slow Water Rafting On the Mississippi

Alex · 3 months ago

Then: Three Novels: Murphy, Malone Dies, The Unnamable by Samuel Beckett ($17.95)
Now: Three Novels: Part 1, Murphy ($17.95); Three Novels: Part 2, Malone Dies ($17.95); Three Novels: Part 3, The Unnamable ($17.95).

hbobrien · 3 months ago

Having been reading The Passions and the Interests by Hirschman, I suspect a truer-to-Smith title would be: Invisible Hands: How to Govern One's Unseemly Passions While Contributing to the Common Good (Like It or Not).

Midwinter · 3 months ago

Then: The Life and strange Surprizing Adventures of Robinson Crusoe of York, Mariner: Who lived Eight and Twenty Years, all alone in an un-inhabited Island on the coast of America, near the Mouth of the Great River of Oroonoque; Having been cast on Shore by Shipwreck, where-in all the Men perished but himself. With An Account how he was at last as strangely deliver'd by Pyrates. Written by Himself

Now: Robinson Crusoe

GG · 3 months ago

Survivor: Delta Island

Keith · 3 months ago

Then: The Bible
Now: A Million Little Signs and Wonders

Keith · 3 months ago

Then: On the Origin of Species by Means of Natural Selection, or the Preservation of Favoured Races in the Struggle for Life

Now: CHANGE OR DIE!

Name · 3 months ago

Then: Titus Andronicus
Now: Awaking the Culinary Kid(s) Inside of You

Brookdalian · 3 months ago

Then: The Godfather
Now: Eats, Shoots, and Leaves

Shaun · 3 months ago

Then: "Darkness at Noon"
Now: "What's that Sound from the Basement? The Cheney Memoirs."

Shaun · 3 months ago

Then: "Mrs. Frisby and the Rats of NIMH."
Now: "Better Living Through Chemistry: The Monsanto Story."

Shaun · 3 months ago

Then: "The Bacchae"
Now: "The U. S. News and World Report Ranks the Best Fraternities."

Shaun · 3 months ago

Then: "The Confessions of St Augustine"
Now: "My Journey from Freak-Nasty to Child of God"

Shaun · 3 months ago

Then: "Dracula"
Now: "Metrosexual Ethics: A Post-Modern Inquiry into Consumption and It's Relationship to Sexual Tropes"

Shaun · 3 months ago

Then: "Gone With the Wind"
Now: "Harnessing Adversity to Get in Touch with your Inner Bitch."

Shaun · 3 months ago

Then: "Watership Down"
Now: "Cooking Wild Game with Paula Deen"

LKowal · 3 months ago

Then: The Lord of the Rings
Now: We're Going Where? The Camping Trip from Hell

Klaus Æ. Mogensen · 3 months ago

Then: Romeo and Juliet
Now: Love and Death in Verona: A Tragic Tale of How Forbidden Teenage Love Led to Suicide

lewski · 3 months ago

Then: The Lorax
Now: Tree Hugging Commie Liberals Will Kill Your Unborn Babies (by Ann Coulter)

sthunter · 3 months ago

Then: Atlas Shrugged
Now: The Great Republican Wetdream

Then: Les Miserables
Now: The New American Middle Class

sthunter · 3 months ago

Then: The Confessions of Nat Turner
Now: Obama's Revenenge (with a new foreword by Rush Limbaugh)

butterflykiller · 3 months ago

Then: Anna Karenina
Now: Coping With an Adulterous Spouse: How to Retain Custody of Your Child

Then: The Brothers Karamazov
Now: Three Men and a Funeral

Then: "The Histories" by Herodotus
Now: The True Story Behind Frank Miller's "The 300"

Ata Khan · 3 months ago

The Great Gatsby -->

The Billionaire Next Door:
Seven Secrets of Wealth the Long Island Elite Don't Want You to Know

Ata Khan · 3 months ago

The Jungle
-->
Holy Cow: Confessions of a Top Chef Contestant

Ata Khan · 3 months ago

The Holy Quran
--->
The Seventy-Two People You Meet in Heaven

Kevin D · 3 months ago

Then: The Communist Manifesto

Now: The Impoverishment of Nations

Torley · 3 months ago

NO SHORTAGE of COLONS I see.

srh · 3 months ago

Then:
The Invisible Man
Now:
In the city, off the grid: An urban survival guide.

Then:
Pamela, or Virtue Rewarded
Now:
Girl, Uncorrupted

Then:
Metamorphosis
Now:
The Roachman Chronicles
(A graphic novel)

smurray38 · 3 months ago

Then: The Bell Jar
Now: Secrets of the Asylum: Releasing the Writer Within

Then: Who's Afraid of Virginia Woolf
Now: The Perfect Hostess: Secrets for organising dinner parties

Then: All the President's Men
Now: Expletive Deleted: Managing the dysfunctional workplace

smurray38 · 3 months ago

Then: Charlotte's Web
Now: Some Pig: Managing the modern farm

mcgeehey · 3 months ago

Then: Of Mice and Men
Now: Lennie the Pick Up Loser

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General: Book Titles, If They Were Written Today