Are books with titles that follow the formula of "[famous person's name]'s [noun]" something to always avoid?

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There seem to be a lot of them around and most of them look kind of shakey to me.

― Rockist Scientist (rockistscientist), Tuesday, 23 March 2004 04:53 (twenty-one years ago)

Especially when they are non-fiction and they are slightly whimsical accounts of someone or other.

― Rockist Scientist (rockistscientist), Tuesday, 23 March 2004 04:54 (twenty-one years ago)

The noun in the formula is usually something a little incogruous.

― Rockist Scientist (rockistscientist), Tuesday, 23 March 2004 05:05 (twenty-one years ago)

Like Shakespeare's Doughnut or Hemmingway's iPod? Yeah, books like that tend not to make sense.

― Vermont Girl (Vermont Girl), Tuesday, 23 March 2004 12:58 (twenty-one years ago)

Well, "Flaubert's Parrot" is a good book. I haven't read Foucault's Pendulum. What are the others? (I do remember a TV play called "Kafka's Dick", by Alan Bennett, I think: not much good.)

― Bunged Out (Jake Proudlock), Tuesday, 23 March 2004 14:27 (twenty-one years ago)

There's one called something like 'Audrey Hepburn's Neck', which IIRC is nothing to do with AH (fortunately) but looked crap anyway.

'Taking Off Emily Dickinson's Clothes'? Probably Billy Collins's worst-titled collection and I doubt the poems are much cop either.

― Archel (Archel), Tuesday, 23 March 2004 14:36 (twenty-one years ago)

I heard Freud's Alphabet is good. But in an interview, Julian Barnes blames himself for the trend. After Flaubert's Parrot, the floodgates opened.

― Jessa (Jessa), Tuesday, 23 March 2004 14:54 (twenty-one years ago)

I dunno, I thought 'Hemingway's iPod' was genius. Who knew he was such a Thin Lizzy fan?

― Michael White (Hereward), Tuesday, 23 March 2004 16:06 (twenty-one years ago)

I suppose Schrodinger's Cat and Fermat's Last Theorem don't really count, do they?

― accentmonkey (accentmonkey), Tuesday, 23 March 2004 17:20 (twenty-one years ago)

There was a short story that appeared in ZYZZYVA last year entitled "Courteney Cox's Asshole." Haven't read it, though.

― SJ Lefty, Wednesday, 24 March 2004 02:24 (twenty-one years ago)

Sophie's World!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

― ., Wednesday, 24 March 2004 08:46 (twenty-one years ago)

Wittgenstein's Mistress was also pretty good.

― o. nate (onate), Wednesday, 24 March 2004 15:09 (twenty-one years ago)

As was Wittgenstein's Poker.

― Andrew Farrell (afarrell), Wednesday, 24 March 2004 16:21 (twenty-one years ago)

Betjemen's Bowels was a bummer!

― pandora, Thursday, 25 March 2004 23:42 (twenty-one years ago)

"Beethoven's Hair," about DNA analysis done on a lock of hair cut from the composer on his deathbed, and then passed down/sold to various individuals.

― marisa (marisa), Friday, 26 March 2004 04:26 (twenty-one years ago)

Stravinsky's Lunch was a good one.

― the music mole (colin s barrow), Friday, 26 March 2004 22:07 (twenty-one years ago)

Others to add to the list:

Einstein's Dreams
Galileo's Daughter
Hitler's Niece

― jaymc (jaymc), Saturday, 27 March 2004 08:26 (twenty-one years ago)

You might find

" Ethel the Aaardvark goes Quantity Surveying "

a good book to ask for !

― Laurie Ridyard (Laurie Ridyard), Sunday, 28 March 2004 19:53 (twenty-one years ago)

I liked Foucalt's Pendulum, but take into account that I was a teenager.

― NA (Nick A.), Monday, 29 March 2004 00:50 (twenty-one years ago)

Hey, hey. What about Brunelleschi's Dome: How a Renaissance Genius Reinvented Architecture by Ross King.

― Vermont Girl (Vermont Girl), Monday, 29 March 2004 12:23 (twenty-one years ago)

Hemingway's Chair by Michael Palin is perhaps not merely the worst celebrity novel, but the worst novel ever written.

― ww, Monday, 29 March 2004 15:11 (twenty-one years ago)

Yet another Wittgenstein: Wittgenstein's Nephew (by Thomas Bernhard)
Are there more?

― Ingolfur Gislason (kreator), Monday, 5 April 2004 15:23 (twenty-one years ago)

i think there's a Wittgenstein's Daughter, too..

yes, there is.

― Jont (kidcatachresis), Thursday, 8 April 2004 19:14 (twenty-one years ago)

or "Fermat's last theorem" by Simon Singh.....

― w.g., Sunday, 11 April 2004 22:48 (twenty-one years ago)

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