What Kind of Titles Turn You Off?

In my opinion, the title is very important because it gives us our first impression of the story. There are many titles that make uninterested in the book before I read them. Without any prior knowledge of the book, what type of titles would give you a bad impression of the book?
I dislike titles of these formats:

• <anything> High school
• <anything> High
• Teen <anything>
• <title of love song>
• <title written in 7337 speak>

You get the picture.

edited 23rd Dec '10 10:29:35 PM by wallwalk

Anything including the word Doom. Other words too, which I can't think of right now.

Except for 4/1/2011. That day lingers in my memory like...metaphor here...I should go.

-The {Generic Noun}

-{Adjective/Verb Not Directly Describing A Situation}

-I love fantasy and science fiction, but {Obvious Sci-Fi/Fantasy Title} usually turns me off to a book. "A Game of Thrones"? Good. "Dune"? Good. "The Wheel of Time"? No. Especially if it's something like "The Legend of..." or something to that effect.

There are probably some more, really.

edited 24th Dec '10 12:56:43 AM by Five_X

I write pretty good fanfiction, sometimes.

Shit with exclamation marks on them. To clarify - something serious, like "Volare!" or "Eureka!" is fine, but "LOLZ!!!!!!", no.

Half-Life: Dual Nature, a crossover story of reasonably sized proportions.

I hate "The Verber" and "The Noun" titles with the passion of a thousand dying suns, which is funny since I don't mind them when "The" isn't used. "The Runner" is bad. "Runner" is... good? Shit I don't even...

I will also run from sexual titles. I don't care if "Wanton Passion" will cure my cancer, I ain't gonna read it.

i. hear. a. sound.

I have extreme trouble with anything that goes along the lines of "The [Proper Noun describing Other Noun]"; the only author who can pull that off and keep me interested is Robert Ludlum. Of course, he's probably the codifier for it.

Ridiculously long titles turn me off. Even if I like the book it becomes hard to talk about it in conversation.

I can't quantify why I hated it so much, but I was put off reading The Dresden Files for the longest time because I thought the title was stupid. It took months of hearing about them on TV Tropes to convince me that they were worth trying.

I never cared for titles that included the words 'super,' 'mega' or 'ultra.'

I've returned from the depths to continue politely irritating the good people of TV Tropes.(◕‿◕✿)

I steer far, far away from non-sequels with subtitles. Those reek of direct-to-video or made-for-TV levels of badness.

edited 24th Dec '10 12:19:18 PM by RTaco

"____ Girl" and "There's an X in Y" (as in "there's a gremlin under my bed") sound terminally stupid. Also, anything trying too hard to be epic instead of properly descriptive and memorable (ex: "The Pencil of Creation", "The Flame of Apo'strophe", The Sword of Truth).

Oh, and alliteration, especially if it's obviously deliberate and/or carried throughout the entire series. Haaaaaaate.

edited 24th Dec '10 12:31:22 PM by Penguin4Senate

Now I want to write a book called that.

Otherwise, what R Taco said, as well as anything involving Word Salad Titles.

edited 24th Dec '10 12:40:33 PM by Yej

Da Rules excuse all the inaccuracy in the world. Listen to them, not me.

^ Word Salad Titles are good only if they are sufficiently clever/mindboggling.

I actually like it when books use sometime pulpy. That said I hate when sitcom or romcom try to be trendy being name after contemporary catchphrases. Stuff like Talk to hand or Don't Go There Girlfriend make me want to punch a baby.

hashtagsarestupid

Things generic to their genres, such as sci-fi with buzzwords in its title.

This is this.

could you give a example?

hashtagsarestupid

Lessee. I never read the Starfist series because the name alone turned me off from it.

This is this.

Star Fist? sounds like a painful sex act >_<

hashtagsarestupid

Any of the following words: star, sword, truth, love, teen, time, super, fire, death, fate, space.

no one will notice that I changed this

Just a question: do the three episodes of Stuck have stupid names?

They're Stuck at the Galleria, Stuck at School, and Stuck at the Wheel, if you were wondering.

oh, that's why I need this binary mind // ⌘

Is Latin a bad thing?

...

Yeah, I'd say it's fine as long as you don't change it to something like "Stuck! At the Galleria".

Heh. Starsword of Truth and Love: A Teen's Time of Super Fire Death and Fate - IN SPACE!!!

edited 24th Dec '10 6:16:32 PM by Five_X

I write pretty good fanfiction, sometimes.

With a title like that, it'd better be So Bad, It's Good.

no one will notice that I changed this

Depends on who you ask. Half of the people in my Latin classes didn't like Latin, but of course... habeo discordem opinionem.

From what I can tell from all of the crap scattered around my room, I do not care that much for the letter "Q". Of all the letters it is only represented by my brother's CDs of Queen's best hits.

edited 24th Dec '10 9:40:12 PM by EldritchBlueRose

Has ADD, plays World of Tanks, thinks up crazy ideas like children making spaceships for Hitler. Occasionally writes them down.

I... I might actually write "Starsword of Truth and Love". Holy hell it would be terrible, but my friends have pressured me into trying to finish it by next Christmas.

I write pretty good fanfiction, sometimes.