Top Ten Tuesday: Books With One-Word Titles


Hosted by That Artsy Reader Girl

An Asian woman smiling slightly as she holds a hardback book over the lower half of her face and peeks out above it at the viewer. The book has a white cover with no title or author printed on it, and the woman is standing in a similarly white and barren room. Thereโ€™s nothing like a compelling title to grab my attention and make me yearn to see if the blurb is just as good.

While I tend to prefer longer titles to shorter ones, you definitely can come up with a catchy title that only has one word in it.

Here are ten books that caught my eye that have one-word titles.

1. Othello by William Shakespeare

2. Becoming by Michelle Obama

3. Infidel by Ayaan Hirsi Ali

4. Internment by Samira Ahmed

5. Beloved by Toni Morrison

6. Redshirts by John Scalzi

7.ย Affinity by Sarah Waters

8. Sula by Toni Morrison

9. Pride by Ibi Zoboi

10. Kindred by Octavia E. Butler

 

92 Comments

Filed under Blog Hops

92 Responses to Top Ten Tuesday: Books With One-Word Titles

  1. I really enjoyed both Redshirts and Kindred.

  2. I have not read any of these, but I am interested in a couple of them, good list. Have a great day, Lydia โ˜•๐ŸŒž๐Ÿ“š๐Ÿ’œ

  3. I’ve read several of these including Kindred and Becoming. So many good books in this list!

  4. Of course Becoming I didn’t even think of that one and I loved it!

  5. Nice list! Kindred was amazing, and I read a good bit of Toni Morrison in college.

    Here’s my Top Ten Tuesday!

  6. I’m amazed at the variety of one word titles I’ve seen today, there really are quite a few!

  7. I was going with early blog reads for mine, and Infidel allllmost made it. Loved Redshirts. Kindred was a Neanderthal book, correct? I think I read that one last summer but it was in hospital so it’s hard to remember.

  8. I really liked Infidel. And Redshirts is such a fun idea (and title) for a book! ๐Ÿ˜€

  9. Iโ€™ve only read a couple of these books but Iโ€™ll have to check out the rest. I didnโ€™t even think about Toni Morrison. Great list!

  10. Beloved is so good!

    Here is our Top Ten Tuesday. Thank you!

  11. I haven’t read any of these but I hope you love them all if you get the chance to read them!๐Ÿ“š๐Ÿ’œ

  12. Nice list, Lydia. I have had Beloved on my TBR for so long. I need to finally pick it up, thanks for the reminder.

  13. I tend to like titles with more words too, but sometimes that one word is all the book needs… and I know I can be far too wordy sometimes, so in my quest to help that, I kind of appreciate a simple title. ๐Ÿ˜‰ Thanks so much for visiting my website today.

  14. I enjoyed Pride. As someone who loves Shakespeare. Macbeth is great as well.

  15. I didn’t think of Beloved. It’s an awesome book. Great list!

  16. I loved Morrison’s books and you’ve reminded me I want to read Becoming!

  17. I didn’t think about how a lot of Morrison’s books had one word titles until now. Nice choices.

  18. Great list! I’ve read nearly half of the books on your list and enjoyed themโ€”but you’re right, sometimes a one-word title can be very catchy. I imagine it’s really hard to find the right single word, though.

    My TTT: https://bookwyrmknits.com/2023/07/18/top-ten-tuesday-books-with-one-word-titles/

  19. Great picks. I bet Redshirts is fun ๐Ÿ™‚

  20. I still have not read Becoming but it’s one I’m excited to read.

  21. I’ve not read any of these, but I’m making my way through Shakespeare’s works, and I’m excited for Othello! Great list.

  22. I was surprised at how easy this was this week. I had way more than 10 just on my physical shelves.

  23. Nice list, I forgot about Sula.

  24. Great list! I really enjoyed reading Becoming.

  25. Nice work! I need to make time for Infidel–it’s been on my TBR too long.

  26. Such a great list and definitely books with captivating titles even with only one word.

  27. I think one word titles pack a punch!

  28. So many great books: Othello, Becoming, Beloved, Sula, Kindred all with perfect one-word titles.

  29. Kindered is on my list to read. I prefer longer titles too!

  30. I really enjoyed Pride — one of the best P&P retellings I have read!

  31. Great list — I’ve read 7 of your 10!! Kindred is amazing, and I loved Redshirts as well.

  32. Ooh, blog theme change (it’s been a minute since I’ve been online, lol)! It looks great ๐Ÿ˜ I was kind of surprised by how many one-word titles I have on my shelves. I don’t know if I prefer long titles but I do like how a good one-word title can really grab my interest. I have many of these on my TBR, lol. Great list!

  33. It’s so interesting to see other lists. I have even read five of your books (and one on my wishlist) but none of them is on my list. Still, you are the first one who has even listed a book that I read. Great.

    Thanks for visiting my TTT this week.

  34. Agreed. I’m a fan of long titles over short, although you also can’t go wrong with a nice punchy title. They’re impactful and easy to remember at any rate.

    Happy TTT (on a Wednesday)!

    Susan
    http://www.blogginboutbooks.com

  35. Pride is such a good one. I really wish Ibi Zoboi writes more Austen retellings in the future.

  36. Kindred is so good. I read it years ago and I still think about it.

  37. Jo

    I loved Michelle Obama’s book, that book was on my list the last time we did this topic!

  38. Lydia – this is such a great list! I was looking forward to checking out your post because I knew it would be an interesting one. I love how you mixed classics with more modern books. Infidel was an especially great memoir – I couldn’t put that one down!

  39. Still haven’t gotten around to Beloved (or Othello, for that matter). Infidel has also been on my TBR for a while. I love being reminded of books on my list that had become “buried” by newer books….

  40. Great list! Becoming is on my TBR, can’t believe I forgot it for my post haha ๐Ÿ™‚

  41. I heard good things about Pride when it first came out.

  42. Becoming is one of my favorite one-word titles. Something about it just makes me think of possibilities, which I like. It’s a great read too. ๐Ÿ™‚

  43. I haven’t read any of these yet, but several are on my tbr too. Hopefully we enjoy them when/if we get to them!

  44. Cool list! I have only read #1 and #5

  45. Iain Banks, โ€˜Complicityโ€™.

Leave a Reply

Your email address will not be published. Required fields are marked *