Dan Wilbur

A small collection consisting of images of book covers where the books have all been given irreverent alternate titles that are humorously descriptive of their contents. "Never Flirt with Puppy Killers" is, of course, Of Mice and Men. Other titles include things like "One of My Best Friends Is Black" (Huckleberry Finn), "Skipping Dinner Is Like Dropping Acid" (Where the Wild Things Are), and "All Right! Fine, Asshole! I Didn't Use the Word 'Quixotic' Right!" (The Merriam-Webster Dictionary).

Really, there's not much to it, but it's good for a brief laugh, at least for anyone well-read enough to get most of the jokes.… (altro)

This is a collection of book covers with alternate titles that are better at describing the book -- and by better, the author means more humorous. So, for instance, The Picture of Dorian Gray becomes "Never Stab a Magic Painting." The original title and author are always listed below, and the books are loosely categorized into sections like classics and children's. Obviously, the more familiar you are with the books featured, the more likely you will find the new titles funny; some are truly laugh out loud. The only reason I don't rate this book higher is that if you are familiar with the website of the same name/creator, you will have already seen some of these.… (altro)

Dan Wilbur is a man who tries very hard to be funny—perhaps too hard. There are many groan-worthy moments in this book, but trying hard often leads to success and most of the jokes work well enough while a few genuinely had me gasping for air.

Even when the jokes aren’t eliciting so much as a chuckle the book remains an easy, enjoyable read due to its strongest feature--variety. A choose your own adventure section blindsided me and wound up being one of the highlights of the book. A chapter almost entirely composed of full-color pictures of classic books with funnier and better titles (culled from Wilbur’s website betterbooktitles.com) also serves to spice things up. The very end is a fantastically funny short story about how a book killed the author’s father, and it pokes fun at mystery/detective tropes in a way that had me grinning from ear to ear the entire time.

I was lucky enough to win this book in goodread’s first reads giveaway, so while I’m not sure I would have been as satisfied if I paid full-price for it (especially considering how short it is) I’m glad I read it, and it’s one of the most unique books I’ve ever come across, both in concept and execution.
… (altro)