Sunday December 18, 2005

Title Tales

Language Log tries out the Lulu Titlescorer—which estimates a book’s commercial potential based on its title—and finds out that The Da Vinci Code had less of a chance of becoming a bestseller than Russell and Whitehead’s Principia Mathematica. Whatever …

I used it to adjudicate Ben Marcus’ recent criticisms of Jonathan Franzen and found that, sure enough, Notable American Women had a better chance at success, title-wise, than The Corrections—41.9 percent to 35.9 percent—which might explain why Marcus is so disappointed. (Of course, The Bible only scores 35.9 percent as a title, too. The rest is all Oprah.)