It’s not a particularly difficult quiz, but can you spot what connects the books in this picture?
Yes, I suspect you noticed it immediately – the titles are all questions!
At my working-from-home desk, I can see Who Was Sophie? in my eyeline, and it’s a really interesting book that I wrote about a couple of years ago. It’s got me thinking about other titles that are questions, and a quick look around my house brought these titles up (in case you can’t see the bottom left one, it’s What Next? by Denis Mackail, and the top-right cover is deliberately printed upside down).
I had a handful of others that either didn’t have the title on the cover or are in compendiums, but I was quite surprised that my c.3000 books didn’t have more question mark titles. There are some famous ones I don’t have – N or M? by Agatha Christie, Can You Forgive Her? by Anthony Trollope – but can you think of others? Do you have others on your shelves?
I think it’s a fun way to write a title, and often extremely intriguing. Why Didn’t They Ask Evans? is one of Christie’s most beguiling titles, even if it isn’t one of my favourites of her books. Publishing industry, authors – why not more of these?
Well, I have Whose Body? by Sayers on my shelves, and there’s Do Androids Dream of Electric Sheep? which I don’t own. Who’s Afraid of Virginia Woolf? Madam, Will You Talk? Who Killed Zebedee? (which I’m fairly sure I own). Is That A Fish in Your Ear? (which I’d like to own). Is Paris Burning? I reckon you could set up a sideline blog just reading books with questions in the title! :D
“Does Anything Eat Wasps?” is the only one I could quickly locate on my shelves.
Fun! The only ones I see on my shelves at the moment are How Should a Person Be? (by Sheila Heti) and Who Wrote What When? (a literary reference book).
Whose Body? by Dorothy L Sayers.
Edward IV & Mary – Mid-Tudor Crisis? by Nigel Heard
N or M? by Agatha Christie
I can add another Beverley Nichols title – How does your Garden Grow?
I was surprised to see a question mark at the end of Winifred Peck’s novel Arrest the Bishop? I suppose she really couldn’t contemplate a murderous prelate.
I thought Richard Llewellyn’s How Green was my Valley would be a contender here but no.
Annoyingly, Christie’s title was changed by US publishers to The Boomerang Clue. They tended to change many of her titles to include the word “Murder” or “Death,” but this one’s a mystery to me. Maybe by this point they were just determined to change all her titles because they could.
I first read it under the US title, knowing no other, and was puzzled at how prominently the question “why didn’t they ask Evans?” was featured in the story. I thought that should have been the title, and years later discovered that it was.
I didn’t know that one! I have come across a lot of changes for her books in the US, usually needlessly and making them worse…
I love the sound of Do Androids Dream of Electric Sheep? It’s got to be one of the best book titles ever. Another Trollope novel: Is He Popenjoy? I don’t have a clue what it is about, but I thought it sounded like an intriguing title.
I’ve actually read Popenjoy! Basically, it’s a novel about whether someone is the legitimate heir to a title. In the novel, Lord Popenjoy is the title of the heir presumptive to the Marquise of Brotherton. The Marquise returns to England having married abroad (to an Italian, gasp!) and their is a question of whether the child was born before or after the marriage, raising questions of him as the actual heir to the title, and eventually, the estate. I think it’s based on a real-life court case of 1800s.
You might know that novel by the more boring title of the film it became – Blade Runner!
Titles that are questions:
1. Who Has Seen the Wind? by W.O. Mitchell (a Canadian classic)
2. Where’d You Go, Bernadette? by Maria Semple
3. Who Do You Think You Are? by Alice Munro
4. Notes on a Scandal: What Was She Thinking? by Zoe Heller
What Did It Mean? by Angela Thirkell
That was the one I had without the title on the cover!
Why be Happy when you could be Normal?: Jeanette Winterson
When Will There Be Good News? by Kate Atkinson
One of the most famous is: Are You There, God? It’s Me, Margaret.
(although perhaps that is an entirely new category – books that have titles as questions and answers!)
This book is a rite of passage for pre-teen girls, at least in the US, for the last 50 years. I am not a fan, exactly, but I certainly read it and remember it well, more than 40 years later.
And I see there is a $30 million movie coming!
https://www.townandcountrymag.com/leisure/arts-and-culture/a23896422/are-you-there-god-its-me-margaret-judy-blume-movie-news/
Trollope has some real winners, including my favorite, “Is He Popenjoy?”, and Angela Thirkell carried on the tradition with “What Did It Mean?” .
On my bookshelves I also own “Maman, What Are We Called Now?” a Persephone. I think that’s about all for books with question titles.
Oh, this is fun. I’ve got a few already listed (Munro, Heti, Christie, Philip Dick, Trollope, Thurber) but can add:
Chernyshevsky’s What Is To Be Done?
Sparkle Hayter’s What’s A Girl Got To Do? (mystery)
Norman Mailer’s Why Are We In Vietnam?
Proudhon’s What is Property?
Raymond Smullyan’s The Lady Or The Tiger? (Logic puzzles)
Mike Royko’s Sez Who? Sez Me! (Question and answer!)
Einstein & Freud’s Warum Krieg? (Which I aspire to read someday…)
I have only a few: What Good is God? by Philip Yancey, Whose Body?, by DL Sayers, Great Northern? by Arthur Ransome (though I’m not sure if that counts as a whole question!), and What are we doing here?, by Marilynne Robinson, which I am currently reading.
I quite like it as a titling strategy and would definitely be likely to pick up a book and look at it – though I would be very annoyed to get to the end of a book and have the question remain unanswered.
Who moved my cheese? by Spencer Johnson.
Does he know a mother’s heart? by Arun Shourie
What is to be done? by Nikolay Chernyshevsky
I’m sure I have some but the only one I can think of is the story “What was I Scared of?” by Dr. Seuss!
I’ve read Who Moved my Blackberry? which I didn’t like, and have Great Northern? Paul Magrs likes a question mark and I Have his Does it Show? and Could it be Magic? and Bali Rai has done What’s Up? Allison Pearson’s How Hard Can it Be? was an ok read, Lisa Jackson’s running book Your Pace or Mine? one of the best I’ve read. I’ve read Is That A Fish in your Ear? and apparently read Zoe Street Howe’s How’s Your Dad? about being the offspring of a rock star. I’ve read a book called Are we Nearly There Yet by Ben Hatch that had too many medical details and then there’s Are You Dave Gorman? I have also read Can Any MOther Help Me? David Lodge’s HOw Far Can You Go? and Po Bronson’s What Should I do With My LIfe? and I need to stop combing through my old reviews now!
Two books I love in that list. Can Any Mother Help Me? is an underrated classic in my opinion. Who Will Run the Frog Hospital? is an old favourite.
I remember some time ago reading a listicle about blog titles and headlines, and one of the suggestions was “ask the audience a question” – looking at this, I suppose it makes sense that the same would be true of books. The first one that came to mind was Where’d You Go, Bernadette? but I’m sure there are many more on my shelves. It’s a great way of piquing the reader’s interest!
I forgot Magic or Not? by Edward Eager.
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