On 3/26/2012 11:39 AM, jk wrote:
wrote:



First I'll take you example of the Bible. The word bible comes from the
Greek word biblios or something close to that. It means a collection of
books. So the title bible tells exactly what the bible is.


What?????
How does that tell us that it is a collection of stories about people
throwing stones at glass houses????

That is what you seem to believe (at times)

Now you're telling a joke, right? And if you knew as many "old sayings"
as I do you would know why every now and then I get the origin of them
mixed up. I do pay more attention now to them since now I know someone
is going to check everything I say for accuracy.


Authors generally name their books with names that increase sales. So
to an author the purpose of a title may be to catch attention as well
as provide a way to identify the book.

That's true. A good, catchy title helps to sell a book.
Yes and it can be ironic, satirical, or even funny. Or it can have
meaning ONLY after you read the book, or even only after you read and
understand the book.

There is not just one reason alone why an author chooses the title of
his book. But the primary reason for a book having a title is to tell
the reader what it is about, and the books least likely to give you an
idea what they are about are novels. All textbooks, all non fiction,
just about all books besides novels have a title telling you what it is
about. It's like saying Japanese are small. Not every one of them is,
but most are.




It's true that novels are the most likely to have a title that may not
tell you anything about what the book is about but in the majority of
books the reason for the title is to tell what the book is about. You
can argue about percentages but most book titles tell what they are
about or at least give you a clue to what it's about.

They MAY give you a clue, they may not. But you can not spring from
the "CLUE" to assuming it is a fact (as you do) without reading the
book.

Can you tell me how else would you know what a book is about when it's
title tells you nothing about it? I mean isn't it obvious that in those
cases you have to read the book to find it out? Just think what it would
be like trying to find a book to read if all titles gave you no idea
what the book is about. How would you choose a book. A book on carpentry
is titled "Blue Sky". A book about John Lennon would be "Green Grass".
Without the title telling you imagine how difficult it would be finding
a book on a subject you wanted to know about. That's why titles say what
they're about most of the time.



Regardless, if you were SUCH a Dole expert, I am sure you would have
snatched it up and read it cover to cover, for it's "valuable"
insights that such a person who worked so "closely" with Dole must
have. So closely in fact that even 15 years later he (Hilton) is
still considered by you to be a subject matter expert on Dole.

Do you know anything about Sarah Palin? How? Did you set out to learn
about her? No. But you know a lot about her don't you? I know a lot
about her too. I know about her life, her political career, her
reputation in Alaska, about her family. I know a lot about her.

I'm telling you that Bob Dole was in the senate my entire adult life so
I saw and heard about him as much over the years as I have heard about
Palin. So I know a lot about him. I don't consider myself an "exert" on
him but I do know quite a bit about him. To repeat myself once again, I
know that he was one of those congressmen who set out to make himself
rich while in the senate and he did.

I also say again that I know very little about the book Senator for Sale
or about the author of it. So I don't claim to. But let me ask you
again. If you work for a guy for two years and you write a book about
that person don't you think that guy would know more about the subject
than anyone else? A book and two years working for someone wouldn't make
you an expert on someone. I'd be inclined to think it does. So if Hilton
doesn't qualify as an expert on Dole, who would you suggest is?



And yet you didn't do more than glance at it, why is that. Perhaps
it is because you recognized that it is a piece of fluff, not an
authoritative work.


Actually, I was at the library looking for books for my mother. I
glanced up and saw one that said Senator for Sale so I took it down to
see it was about and there was old Bob Dole on the cover. I looked the
book over and decided my mom wouldn't like it. I already knew what Bob
Dole was so I didn't need to read a book confirming what I already knew.
I knew plenty about him just the way I know about Palin. It's out there
to find if you are interested in politics, and I was enough to get a
degree in it.

Hawke