I’ve discovered that I like barebones titles; the kind that describe the basic ingredients something is made from—a bit like the way some restaurants label their dishes.
Sticky peanut, coconut, chilli, and lime leaf.
I have a rough idea about what this might be, but there’s no way to be sure. I know I like all of the ingredients listed, but there’s still plenty of room to be surprised as well.
Spanner crab, coriander, lemon, and applewood smoke.
I pulled those words out of the air, but I can picture what it might be about.
Story titles can get away with this too; The Overcoat (Nikolai Gogol); A Clean, Well-Lighted Place (Ernest Hemingway); American Gods (Neil Gaiman).
This doesn’t work so well for research papers, but still seems to hold for books. Why is that?