Quote of the day:
“No man ever became extremely wicked all at once.”
--Juvenal
Another pet peeve today. Get ready.
This one I’ve mentioned before, but it’s bugging me again. Why is it that EVERY single nonfiction book being published has a colon in its title? Check it out. See if you can find a new nonfiction book without a colonified title.
Colons Shouldn’t be Necessary: One Would Think.
Abridged Creativity: Writers and Publishers Have Limits.
Forget What Your Mom Said: If Everyone Does It, Do It!
Endless Possibilities: Obnoxious Punctuation in Book Titles.
Never Semi: The Colorful History of the Full Colon
Colon Epidemic: Why You Shouldn’t Read This Book.
Rhyming With Colon: The Life of Colin Powell.
Cleaner Than Yours: The Story of My Colon.
The Oscopy Dilemma: Colon or Sigmoid?
Monday, October 1, 2007
Colons Everywhere
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4 comments:
Methinks someone has a burr up their colon. I'm reminded of a parishioner many years back at FUMC who regularly complained on the "I Am Here" cards that there were too many exclamation points used in the Sunday bulletin. I remember his name very well. Still living, but no longer a member. Anyway, I trust that should you ever publish a book there will be no colon in the title. P.S. I especially liked #8.
Where's the fun without the burrs?
The grammar and punctuation police tend to spoil things. More than once, someone has handed me a bulletin after church marked up with red pen. I remember thinking that they had brought a red pen to church especially for this task.
Mistakes are one thing. As is sometimes using question marks or exclamations or even colons to make a point. But deliberately, unnecessarily and endlessly elaborating or punctuating to prove your intelligence is annoying.
You tempted me with a challenge!
I found some possibilities, but ruled out "The Complete Joy of Homebrewing" as being on the cookbook end of things, and not the sort of nonfiction you were angling for.
So, I offer "The Uses of Haiti" by Paul Farmer. With Forward by Jonathan Kozol and Introduction by Noam Chomsky to round out the "good guys" involved in the book and give it better name recognition.
I knew I could count on someone as invested in making the world a better place as Paul Farmer to save us from systems of domination like the colon!
Now, the work first came out in the 90's, so perhaps it doesn't win on grounds that it's "old." But, it was reprinted in 2005, when someone certainly could have figured out how to add a colon and extend the title.
All that said, I should also say I'm enjoying your blog.
Thanks, Molly. I'm glad the book got a plug. I'll look for it. I love Jonathan Kozol--he does an extraordinary job with the painstaking work of reporting on real-world poverty, ignorance and inequality.
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