Better Book Titles: Giving Controversial Books A Makeover

In honor of Banned Books Week, Dan Wilbur of Better Book Titles came up with alternatives for some of the most frequently challenged books out there.

"Lolita," for instance, is now "Likable Rapists." It makes you think that perhaps these new titles are what censors out there really see.

Still, something tells us that some of these new titles wouldn't make these books any less controversial ...

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"A Separate Peace" by John Knowles

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Comments

[rifraf1001]

03:29 PM on 10/03/2010

A even better alt for "Grapes of Wrath" would be "F*** Capitalism."

[aqueryan]

03:13 PM on 10/03/2010

Considering kids' attitudes towards reading, you should be simply be happy that they ARE reading.

And the idea that any of the books mentioned could be considered objectionable BY ANY REASONABLE STANDARD, is an obscene joke that I find completely offensive.

[goijra]

09:25 AM on 10/02/2010

Just who was the targeted group that need to be 'protected' from these works? For the life of me I can not see any child, kid, young adult reading Ulysses, it is an immensely difficult work. I can imagine control freaks skimming these books looking for 'dirty words' and getting on their high horse pontificating about something or other. Failures as parents, if you can't control what your kid is reading go look in a mirror and reassign the priorities in your life.

[llisa]

03:07 AM on 10/03/2010

'Cause you know high school kids have never heard any curse words.

[stagnation13]

10:35 PM on 10/01/2010

All these are pretty good...the new title for James Joyce brought tears to my eyes I laughed so hard.

The Giver...that's a good one too. That was a good book!

[ummm]

09:12 PM on 10/01/2010

"Lord of the Flies" is a great title - can't be improved

[rifraf1001]

03:27 PM on 10/03/2010

Yeah. Interesting trivia. "Lord of the Flies" is the literal translation from Hebrew of Beelzebub.

[eric14]

06:42 PM on 10/01/2010

1984, A novel the social network.
====
That is really really good. Me likey.

[kaylayuh]

05:30 PM on 10/01/2010

Lolita is one of the most disturbing books I've ever read. In no way did I find any character in that book even remotely likable. It's a good piece of literature, though.

[inkongirl]

08:13 PM on 10/01/2010

It's disturbing yes, but the audio version read by Jeremy Irons is quite a treat!

[MsCanuck]

08:25 PM on 10/01/2010

I just love his voice.

[Lev Raphael]

02:40 PM on 10/01/2010

Banning books is one sure way to make people want to read them. Even if kids don't get to read a book in high school, hearing about it as "forbidden" might make them more likely to read it than otherwise.

[multidoc]

08:51 AM on 10/01/2010

Most of these are pretty awful. Except, ya gotta love the one for Ulysses.