Book Titles That Are Complete Sentences

Okay, today will share book titles that form complete sentences. I love this prompt which allows me to show off my extensive (and useless) knowledge of English grammar.

I carefully examined the titles of the 6,045 books I've read and reviewed at Goodreads. It quickly became apparent that it's rare to find a title that forms a complete sentence. 

On the other hand, there are lots of book titles that begin with present participles, like Dancing With the Witchdoctor or Writing Down the Bones or Shooting the Boh or Regarding the Fountain.

A good many titles are prepositional phrases like Across the Nightingale Floor and Beneath a Scarlet Sky and On the Plain of Snakes and Around the World in 80 Days.

None of these, though, are complete sentences. Let's take a close look at those that do form complete sentences, shall we?

A lot of titles are commands, with an understood subject. Is there something about a command that somehow orders you to read the book, too?

Call the Midwife

Comfort Me With Apples

See You on Down the Road

Leave Only Footprints

Let the Great World Spin

Look Both Ways

Undress Me in the Temple of Heaven

I saw lots of children's book titles that are exclamatory sentences. There's a certain amount of joy in a title with an exclamation mark in it.

Today I Will Fly!

Follow That Frog!

There is a Bird on Your Head!

Don’t Let the Pigeon Drive the Bus!

Mind Your Manners, Alice Roosevelt!

This Beach is Loud!

Zombies Don’t Eat Veggies!

Give Me Back My Bones!

There are a number of interrogatory sentences, too.

Are We There Yet?

Where Is the Green Sheep?

Do Androids Dream of Electric Sheep?

Are You a Cat?

What Would Cleopatra Do?

Where’d You Go, Bernadette

One title has two sentences, an interrogatory and a declarative. Pretty clever.

Are You There, God? It’s Me, Margaret

Some titles are short sentences.

Go, Dog, Go

Rabbit, Run

I Am David

Bless Me, Ultima

Everyone’s Awake 

That Sounds Fun

God Save Texas

Some are wordy.

You Can Never Find a Rickshaw When It Monsoons

I Will Judge You By Your Bookshelf

All I Really Need to Know I Learned in Kindergarten 

C Jumped Over Three Pots and a Pan and Landed Smack in the Garbage Pan

Don't be deceived. This is not a complete sentence. It's a run-on. Shame on you.

Sorry I’m Late, I Didn’t Want to Come

Some are bold philosophical statements.

There Are No Shortcuts

Love is a Wild Assault

It’s All Relative

The World is Not Enough

Things Fall Apart

You Can’t Go Home Again

The Sun Also Rises

The Heart is a Lonely Hunter

A Good Man is Hard to Find

The Rules Do Not Apply

You Can’t Get There from Here

Let me share the rest of my (quite lengthy) list of titles that form complete sentences. 

King Bidgood’s in the Bathtub

Only You Can Save Mankind

Let’s Pretend This Never Happened

The Lord God Made Them All

Let’s Take the Long Way Home

Don’t Let’s Go to the Dogs Tonight 

It’s Not About the Bike

Maybe You Should Talk to Someone

Cancer Made Me a Shallower Person

It All Changed in an Instant

With Any Luck, I’ll Drive a Truck

This is Not a Book

There’s an Alien in Your Book

We Are All Fine Here

There’s a Bear on My Chair

There’s No One I Love Like You

There’s Only One You

There Goes Ted Williams

Mrs. ‘Arris Goes to Paris

Eleanor Oliphant is Completely Fine

Miss Pettigrew Lives for a Day

My Name is Asher Lev

Death Comes for the Archbishop

My Papi Has a Motorcycle

God Got a Dog

Llama Unleashes the Apocalypse

These is My Words

Tender is the Night

Their Eyes Were Watching God

Whew! Did you find any of the same titles I did? Some of these make me want to open the book and read it to find out what the title is all about. Which is your favorite? Did you find some that you love more than these? Please share them.

Thank you for sharing this fun idea for a list, Jessica @ A Cocoon of Books.

Top Ten Tuesday was created by The Broke and the Bookish in June of 2010 and was moved to That Artsy Reader Girl in January of 2018. It was born of a love of lists, a love of books, and a desire to bring bookish friends together. Each Tuesday That Artsy Reader Girl assigns a topic and then post her top ten list that fits that topic. You’re more than welcome to join her and create your own top ten (or 2, 5, 20, etc.) list as well. Feel free to put a unique spin on the topic to make it work for you! Please link back to That Artsy Reader Girl in your own post so that others know where to find more information.